kaitlyn_ni
My bike was recently stolen and I'm in need of a new bike. My previous bike was a cheap beach cruiser from Walmart, but this time I'd like to get a nicer bike, preferably a road bike. I've been browsing for road bikes on the internet and I think I've found one that I like, however I'm not sure about what size I need to get. I am a 21 yr old woman and I am around 5 ft 10 or 11 inches. The link for the bike I'm interested is listed below, please help!
Thank you :)
http://www.amazon.com/GMC-Denali-Road-Bike/dp/B000FDDWB6/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header
Also, I'm at student at UCSB who needs a bike just to ride to and from campus and the surrounding Goleta/Santa Barbara area, I'm not looking to spend a fortune on a bike, but I'm not doing a beach cruiser again.
Answer
That is not a road bike. It's a "bicycle shaped object". http://www.google.com/search?q=bicycle+shaped+object&oq=bicycle+shaped+object&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 You simply won't find a road bike with good quality in that low of a price range - PERIOD!
Several weeks ago I was COASTING downhill on a 2012 Giant Escape City hybrid http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bikes/model/escape.city/8910/48611/ and passed a kid PEDALING one of those GMC bikes. His response? "What the F---?!"
REAL road bikes are measured in 2 cm increments from REAL bicycle shops. Ones on Internet sites you have to assemble & tune-up yourself. Can you do this? Brakes need to be lined up & adjusted. Derailleurs have to be adjusted. Or worse - wheels need to be trued up. There's not a bicycle in this world that comes ready-to-ride out of the box.
Those GMC Denali bikes may last a year. You want to waste money or spend money on a bike that will last for YEARS? If it's the latter of the two - see links below...and your authorized, independent, knowledgeable, friendly, local bicycle shop.
http://www.raleighusa.com/bikes/road/endurance/capri-1-0-13/
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bikes/model/avail.5/11526/55908/
http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/road/sport/1_series/1_1_h2_compact/#
http://www.schwinnbikes.com/bikes/road/fastback-2-womens
These are but 4 examples of "good" road bikes. You could take anywhere from a 53.5 cm frame size up to a 56 cm frame size. It's NOT universal from one company to the next. TRY B4 you BUY! Take 'em out for a test ride before you buy one. If you can't extensively test ride it - DON'T buy it!
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/technology/compact.road.design/57/
That is not a road bike. It's a "bicycle shaped object". http://www.google.com/search?q=bicycle+shaped+object&oq=bicycle+shaped+object&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 You simply won't find a road bike with good quality in that low of a price range - PERIOD!
Several weeks ago I was COASTING downhill on a 2012 Giant Escape City hybrid http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bikes/model/escape.city/8910/48611/ and passed a kid PEDALING one of those GMC bikes. His response? "What the F---?!"
REAL road bikes are measured in 2 cm increments from REAL bicycle shops. Ones on Internet sites you have to assemble & tune-up yourself. Can you do this? Brakes need to be lined up & adjusted. Derailleurs have to be adjusted. Or worse - wheels need to be trued up. There's not a bicycle in this world that comes ready-to-ride out of the box.
Those GMC Denali bikes may last a year. You want to waste money or spend money on a bike that will last for YEARS? If it's the latter of the two - see links below...and your authorized, independent, knowledgeable, friendly, local bicycle shop.
http://www.raleighusa.com/bikes/road/endurance/capri-1-0-13/
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/bikes/model/avail.5/11526/55908/
http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/road/sport/1_series/1_1_h2_compact/#
http://www.schwinnbikes.com/bikes/road/fastback-2-womens
These are but 4 examples of "good" road bikes. You could take anywhere from a 53.5 cm frame size up to a 56 cm frame size. It's NOT universal from one company to the next. TRY B4 you BUY! Take 'em out for a test ride before you buy one. If you can't extensively test ride it - DON'T buy it!
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/technology/compact.road.design/57/
Should shops/stores that put a bike together incorrectly be held accountable?
dread head
I got to thinking after answering a question on this thing. I thought if a shop shows negligence in the building of a bicycle, should the shop be held accountable if an accident happens; upon failure of the build? Let's take it a step father. Should they bike manufacturer be held accountable if their product fails causing serious injury to a person?
the bike is being used 100% properly. Department stores are notorious for doing this. I want to know more from the bike shop crowd.
Answer
Given the fact that bikes purchased from dept stores are junk anyway and should not be purchased by anyone, and if they are they should be checked out completely by a competent authority.
The larger question is WHO is defined as competent? Me, You ....the next guy in the shop down the street?
Lets assume that every independent bike shop that sells a bike checks it before that customer leaves the store with it to ensure that it is mechanically safe for the new owner. Lets also assume that it was checked by someone qualified to do so and the new owner takes it home and uses it and DOES NOT start playing with it beyond their capacity and ends up screwing something up, rides it anyway and it fails them. Now whos fault is it?
I have seen this happen with mountain bikes purchased (that I have sold to teenagers) and they take them home and figure the fork isnt enough for them and they start removing the caps that arent supposed to be turned on a lower end fork and oil goes all over mom and dads new white carpet and the spring shoots out and goes thru a wall. Mom and dad come in and start bitching at US because WE failed to tell that kid not to mess with his new bike without consulting us and now they want to sue us....All kinds of scenarios out there and for those shops who dot their I's and cross their T's there is still only so much that you can do with quality control in the store and once that product has left the store you have no idea of what is going on with that product and what that customer will come up with....
I have seen a customer return a bike demanding their money back because the day after they purchased a bike they had a flat tire.....!
There are checks and balances in every shop of some kind and the paperwork trail is essential to pinning down the build of a bike and who preformed this task to who finaled the bike when it was purchased to the inspection of the bike out of the box and the paperwork that must be done during the sale to prevent that ever looming lawsuit that may get incurred after that bike leaves the store.
It can never be assumed that the end user will use that product 100% properly but it would be nice to think that is the case. Since I have been in retail, my expectations and perceptions of the public as a whole has taken a nosedive in the last 3 years.
There is a reason that we have lawyers and courts and unfortunately we cant always do enough to prevent the idiots from buying a bike or always catch the inept bike builder before its too late. In my store we make sure that at least 3 people (one manager+builder and one experienced sales person) inspect each and every bike before it goes to the floor and that all paperwork up to that point is 100% complete.
we are routinely updated with product recalls (if any) and faulty products affecting safety of the rider and only one comes to mind recently on a Dahon folding bike of which two out of 5 we had on the floor were affected and we had those 2 off the floor before the store opened that morning. Problem averted!
Sales associates all have their own routine but the final bit of paperwork before the sale goes out the door is the same for everyone and there is always the human factor in play. We are all vunerable to make mistakes in any given day...all of us. We do the best that we are capable of and everyone has a bad day too, you just hope it wasnt mine on the day you came in to buy your bike. The customer should be a smart shopper and informed but most are not and impulse buying is routine as I observe maybe 1/10 customers actually take the time to be informed and have common sense to ask the right questions and actually have a clue as to what they want and know what they are looking at and that is not the customer I worry about. And i have scratched my head with quite a few!
Personally I think all dept store bikes be banned for sale in this country anyway, but I know that will never happen unfortunately.
Given the fact that bikes purchased from dept stores are junk anyway and should not be purchased by anyone, and if they are they should be checked out completely by a competent authority.
The larger question is WHO is defined as competent? Me, You ....the next guy in the shop down the street?
Lets assume that every independent bike shop that sells a bike checks it before that customer leaves the store with it to ensure that it is mechanically safe for the new owner. Lets also assume that it was checked by someone qualified to do so and the new owner takes it home and uses it and DOES NOT start playing with it beyond their capacity and ends up screwing something up, rides it anyway and it fails them. Now whos fault is it?
I have seen this happen with mountain bikes purchased (that I have sold to teenagers) and they take them home and figure the fork isnt enough for them and they start removing the caps that arent supposed to be turned on a lower end fork and oil goes all over mom and dads new white carpet and the spring shoots out and goes thru a wall. Mom and dad come in and start bitching at US because WE failed to tell that kid not to mess with his new bike without consulting us and now they want to sue us....All kinds of scenarios out there and for those shops who dot their I's and cross their T's there is still only so much that you can do with quality control in the store and once that product has left the store you have no idea of what is going on with that product and what that customer will come up with....
I have seen a customer return a bike demanding their money back because the day after they purchased a bike they had a flat tire.....!
There are checks and balances in every shop of some kind and the paperwork trail is essential to pinning down the build of a bike and who preformed this task to who finaled the bike when it was purchased to the inspection of the bike out of the box and the paperwork that must be done during the sale to prevent that ever looming lawsuit that may get incurred after that bike leaves the store.
It can never be assumed that the end user will use that product 100% properly but it would be nice to think that is the case. Since I have been in retail, my expectations and perceptions of the public as a whole has taken a nosedive in the last 3 years.
There is a reason that we have lawyers and courts and unfortunately we cant always do enough to prevent the idiots from buying a bike or always catch the inept bike builder before its too late. In my store we make sure that at least 3 people (one manager+builder and one experienced sales person) inspect each and every bike before it goes to the floor and that all paperwork up to that point is 100% complete.
we are routinely updated with product recalls (if any) and faulty products affecting safety of the rider and only one comes to mind recently on a Dahon folding bike of which two out of 5 we had on the floor were affected and we had those 2 off the floor before the store opened that morning. Problem averted!
Sales associates all have their own routine but the final bit of paperwork before the sale goes out the door is the same for everyone and there is always the human factor in play. We are all vunerable to make mistakes in any given day...all of us. We do the best that we are capable of and everyone has a bad day too, you just hope it wasnt mine on the day you came in to buy your bike. The customer should be a smart shopper and informed but most are not and impulse buying is routine as I observe maybe 1/10 customers actually take the time to be informed and have common sense to ask the right questions and actually have a clue as to what they want and know what they are looking at and that is not the customer I worry about. And i have scratched my head with quite a few!
Personally I think all dept store bikes be banned for sale in this country anyway, but I know that will never happen unfortunately.
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Title Post: I need a new bike but I don't understand the sizing?
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