I've been a cyclist - of sorts - almost my whole life. I never decided as an adult to take up cycling. Instead, I just never quit riding from when I was a kid. It has always just been something fun to do. The fact that it helps keep me in shape is just an added bonus.
So, while I say I'm a cyclist, I am not your ordinary cyclist. This is especially true when it comes to what gear I use and what bikes I ride. For the last 15 years or so, I have ridden a steel Schwinn 15 speed road bike that was built in the early 80s. I have loved that old thing, even though I knew there were better bikes out there. I paid almost nothing for it, and it has served me quite well.
Alas, its time has finally come. While putting it on the bike rack on top of my car, I noticed some
dirt on the underside of the frame. When I brought it down to clean it, I realized this wasn't dirt. This was rust. This was rust that went straight through the frame. Its days were numbered.
So, the search began for a new bike.
The first thing I learned was that the cycling industry has grown quite a bit. There are frames made of steel, aluminum, "cromoly" or carbon fiber. Then, low and behold, there are different grades of steel, different grades of aluminum, and even different utilization of carbon fiber! So, I started researching, reading, and visiting bike shops.
My local bike shop (LBS) sells a certain brand of bike with the cheapest road bikes costing just shy of a grand. That's a LOT of money for a bicycle if you ask me. Honestly, it's absurd. So, I started researching that brand to find out what was so special about it. As it turned out, not much! The frames were built by an enormous bicycle frame company called Kinesis. The components - brakes, derailleurs, shifters etc - were built by Shimano. In fact, not a single part of the bike was built by this vaunted bike brand that thinks their bikes are worth a grand. All they do, it would seem, is pay for custom graphics to be printed on the bikes. Is that worth a grand?
In my researching those Kinesis frames, I stumbled across many other brands that use those frames. Most of them charged close to a grand for their bikes. However, I found a handful of brands, only available via an online retailer, that used those same frames. They also used those same Shimano components. The difference? $750.
Enter "Bikes Direct Dot Com"
Bikes Direct's website isn't my favorite website I've ever visited. It's a little cluttered with tons of products and tons of links. But, it is well organized. It didn't take me long to find a Bikes Direct bike that had the exact same specs as one of those $1000 bikes. The big difference was that the bike from Bikes Direct only cost $350 tax and shipping included. Bikes Direct received my order on Wednesday. I had my bike the following Monday.
If you look at the website, they warn you that you'd better have a little mechanical knowledge before you attempt to assemble one of their bikes. I, however, was surprised at how little I needed to know in order to put the bike together. When I opened the bike, though, I was a little intimidated. It looked like I'd made a huge mistake. Here's a few shots of the box & the bike before I assembled it.
The box looked great! No damage at all!
When I opened the box, I didn't see anything that looked like a bike to me!
A mild taste of terror set in when I pulled the contents out of that box. This looked like it might be a bit more than I'd bargained for!!!
Fortunately, after I removed the packaging and laid out the parts, it looked much simpler.
Slide in the seat post, bolt on the pedals, put the quick release in the wheel, inflate the tires, make some minor adjustments, and it was ready to roll!
I am incredibly pleased with this bike. It is exactly what I wanted, and dealing with Bikes Direct was as easy and simple as you could ever want. I put 50 miles on it the first week, but near constant rain has kept me off of it over the last few days. Hopefully, I'll be able to do some more pedaling in the coming week to make up for it.
I have shared my experience with Bikes Direct with some friends, and one of them ordered a bike from them as well. In fact, he's asked me to assemble his for him, which is what I'll be doing, tonight. I will probably spend more time cutting the packaging off of the bike than I will assembling it!
This is my wholehearted endorsement of Bikes Direct. Ignore what the LBS is selling, unless they have sub-$400 bikes there. For $350, I got a bike that weighs about 22 lbs, has Shimano Sora/2300STI shiftgear, a Kinesis frame with a Cromoly fork, and looks fantastic. I opted for a "lower end" bike, but rest assured, they have everything from full carbon Di2 monsters to big ugly single speed granny bikes. You will find what you're looking for, but you won't find stupidly high prices.
Who shouldn't shop at Bikes Direct? If you're the type of person who is more impressed with brand names than substance, don't go there. All you'll find is some lesser known brands with great components for an insane bargain.
So... here's the link:
Bikes Direct
Next post... my friend's new bike from Bikes Direct!
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If you're going to ride on a regular basis, you know you're going to be needing to refill those tires on a regular basis. Most compressors for car tires simply can't handle the 90 to 120 psi demanded of bike tires. You'll be wanting something that can fill your tires up quickly and to the proper pressure. I purchased one similar to this one.
