Cycling: Perfect Match

Thinking of buying a new or used bike? Want to check whether your present bike is exactly right for you? Because there are several distinct types of bike, let’s narrow it down by answering these basic questions.

What type of cycling do you want to do? Do you want to join in the group rides of the local bike club? Does racing appeal to you? Or maybe tooling around town on two wheels seems more practical and fun than gridlock and parking decks. Do you picture yourself pedaling a mountain bike along secluded forest trails or seeing the country from the seat of a touring bike? Perhaps you want a fresh-air alternative to long lines at the health club.

Whatever your main riding interest, talk with some like-minded cyclists about the types of bikes and equipment that work for them. You can meet these riders through local bike shops or clubs or just by introducing yourself when you meet someone during a ride. Show interest in their bikes, and maybe they’ll even let you give theirs a try.

Meanwhile, to meet your needs, think through these questions: Where will you ride? Are you blessed with miles of scenic, lightly traveled paved roads? Is there a network of trails waiting to be explored? How about safe bike lanes for traveling on city streets? You’ll ride more and heighten your cycling enjoyment if you own a bike that lets you take advantage of your area’s best opportunities.

All Kinds of Bikes

An efficient racing or sport touring bike is best for the road. To ride unpaved trails, you need a mountain bike. For combining pavement with packed dirt or gravel, choose a bike that mixes features of a road and mountain bike. These are called hybrids or cross bikes. For urban commuting, mountain bikes and hybrids are popular, but a road bike will work well if it has beefy tires and wheels to reduce the risks from broken pavement and glass. For casual recreational riding, perhaps on bike paths or in parks where there are no big hills, consider a comfort bike or cruiser. These recent additions to the lineup give you an upright riding position and other easy-pedaling features. They simplify shifting by having either just one speed or the convenience and reliability of several gears inside the rear hub. These aren’t performance bikes, but they’re fine for casual riding.

Will you ride with a group? If not, the slower speed of a mountain bike or hybrid on pavement may be tolerable. But trying to keep pace with others on road bikes when you’re pumping the pedals of a slower-accelerating, fat-tire bike could discourage you from group riding altogether.

Do you need carrying capacity? High-performance road and mountain bikes usually don’t have fittings on the frames for attaching racks. They also may not have the stable handling required to tote heavy loads. If you haul more gear than will fit in a large seatbag, make sure your bike’s frame has rack fittings (called dropout eyelets). Then you can attach a rack and fasten a rack trunk on top, or even use front and rear panniers (large bags that fit beside the wheels). Panniers give you enough capacity for groceries or all of the gear you’ll need for a tour.

How fit are you? If you’re already in shape for cycling, you can probably handle the higher, more closely spaced gears of a road racing bike. If you’re not that fit but your goal is to get strong on the road, a racing or sport touring bike is still appropriate if it has a moderate gear range. To handle big hills and still have a sporty road bike, look into one with a three-chainring crankset (called a triple). The third chainring produces very low gears similar to those found on mountain bikes and hybrids.

By the way, don’t be misled by the term “racing bike.” Most racing bike riders, like most sports car owners, don’t compete. With few exceptions, a racing bike requires no more skill to ride than a recreational model and is scarcely less comfortable. Its advantage is lighter weight and greater efficiency, helping a reasonably fit cyclist cover more ground more quickly.

If riding hard and fast is less important to you than versatility, a hybrid is a good choice. It will even work for loaded touring, though you may want to add bar-ends to its flat handlebar so you’ll have more hand positions when riding long distances. If you buy a mountain bike, you’ll ride slower because of its greater weight and the extra rolling resistance of its knobby tires. On the other hand, you’ll have plenty of easy-pedaling low gears. These are necessary for the steep hills typical of off-road riding. You need these gears even if you’re racer-fit.

Are you fascinated by technology? Some riders crave the cachet and aerodynamic advantages of high-performance bicycles. If your riding style is equally competitive, own the most advanced bike you can afford. In the long run, it’s more expensive to buy a lesser bike and upgrade its parts later.

How devoted a cyclist will you be? A big-bucks road or mountain bike designed for competition is overkill if you’re just pedaling casually on your local bike path on weekends. But if you expect cycling to become an increasingly important part of your life, go ahead and get a better bike than your current fitness or skill requires. Thus, as you continue to improve as a rider, you’ll still own a suitable machine. Often, riders thwart their development because they underestimate their riding potential and buy an inadequate bike. They fail to see their purchase as an investment in a lifelong sport.

Are you looking for something outside the norm? If by now you’re saying, “None of the above,” you may be a candidate for a recumbent (it’s easy on the back and the backside) or even a tandem (if you plan to ride frequently with another person). Or if you think they just don’t make bikes like they used to, check out a one-speed cruiser for casual, uh, cruising.

Do your cycling interests cross all boundaries? Considering how specialized bicycles can be, you may wish–like many enthusiasts–to have two bikes (perhaps one for road riding and one for unpaved trails) instead of compromising on one. It’s a matter of having the right tool for the job. A hybrid can work for either surface, but it will not be as efficient on pavement as a pure road bike or nearly as competent on dirt as a pure mountain bike. Many bike shops are seeing customers who bought a mountain bike for all-purpose use coming back to buy a road bike or a hybrid.

Dollars and Sense

The first step in making a good bike buy is to avoid department store disappointments. In the cycling industry, profit margins are narrow, so you get what you pay for. At bike shops, you’ll find high-quality products and skilled personnel to help you with your selection. Expect to spend at least $300 for a reliable, no-frills, entry-level bicycle. Every additional $100 you can afford will buy an increasingly better frame or components, up to around $1,000, at which point extra money means more and more subtle refinements.

Speaking of budgets, if you’re just getting into cycling, remember to allow for the cost of necessary accessories. These include a helmet ($30 to $130), frame pump ($20 to $50), spare tube and patch kit ($15), seatbag ($10 to $20), and water bottle and cage ($7 to $20). You can usually save if you buy these as a package deal when purchasing a bike from a shop. Also important are cycling shorts with a soft, absorbent, lightly padded liner ($25 to $75).

Certainly, the most popular bikes during the 1990s have been mountain bikes. This brings up the question of suspension and whether it’s worth paying extra for. The difference between riding a conventional unsuspended bike, a front-suspension bike, and a bike with front and rear suspension is similar to the difference between jumping off your porch with your knees locked versus jumping onto one leg with your knee bent versus jumping with both knees bent. With bent knees, the muscles in your legs act like springs that absorb the energy of the impact. Now, imagining your legs as springs, transfer that image to the suspension on a bike.

Actually, it’s becoming difficult to find a new mountain bike that lacks front suspension. Rigid forks have all but disappeared as the cost of shock-absorbing forks has dropped. So the question now facing most mountain bike shoppers is whether to get a model that has a rear shock absorber, too. A bike built with both front and rear suspension is said to have dual suspension.

The good news is that the starting price of dual-suspension bikes has dropped to below $1,000. Still, this may not be a bargain if the type of terrain you ride doesn’t justify the extra weight and complexity of rear suspension. Because dual-suspension bikes are heavier, you have to work harder to ride them up hills, and some designs waste a bit of pedaling effort by flexing as your legs push down. A lighter and less expensive alternative that takes the bite out of big bumps is a shock-absorbing seatpost. Installing one can turn any bike with a suspension fork into an effective dual-suspension machine. Don’t forget, though, that simply by getting your buttocks off the seat and keeping your elbows and knees flexed, your body can provide its own dual suspension.

Size Wise

Whether you’re evaluating the fit of a possible purchase or evaluating the suitability of your present bike, you need to determine your proper frame size. Vertically, this is done by measuring “standover”–the clearance between your crotch and the top tube when you straddle the bike while wearing your riding shoes. Depending on the type of bike and how you’ll be using it, you should have at least 2 inches of clearance.

It’s usually easy to find a bike that fits your legs. The tricky part is making sure it also fits your torso. Horizontally, bikes tend to stretch women too much. This is because most bikes are designed to fit men, who have proportionately longer torsos and arms compared to their overall height than women do. This effect seems especially exaggerated for women who are 5 foot 4 or shorter. Be sure the combined length of the top tube and stem (called reach) is not too rangy for your comfort.

If you’ve decided that a hybrid is right for you, good fit will be easier to achieve because of the more upright sitting position that this bike allows. Meanwhile, finding a road or mountain bike with correct reach has been made easier by the increasing availability of bikes proportioned for women.

Critical Components

Proportioned bicycles should come with in-scale components. Even if a standard frame fits your legs and torso, you may be more comfortable after adjusting things such as brake levers or handlebar width. If you are updating an older bike, look into switching to women-specific components. They could end years of compromised comfort. Here’s an overview of components to consider. You’ll find more detail in the remaining chapters of this section.

Saddle. Women’s pelvises are slightly wider than men’s. To support the sit bones (and keep weight from resting solely on the genitalia), women generally need saddles that are a little wider in the rear than those that guys require. You’ll find several so-called anatomical seats for women at bike shops. Some women have no trouble with the standard seats that came on their bikes. But if you feel that your seat just isn’t right, try some anatomical models. Try to take test-rides in order to find the one that fits you best. It’s hard to tell just by sitting on seats in the shop, and you can’t go by recommendations of friends or salespeople, because everyone is different.

Stem. You can compensate for a longish top tube by installing a shorter stem, which brings the handlebar closer. But first try the simplest fix: Raise the stem you have, which positions the bar higher and a bit closer. (Be sure not to raise the stem past its maximum-extension line, or so high that you create an awkward riding position.)

Handlebar. Women also differ from men in shoulder width. Women are generally narrower, so a bar may spread the arms and cause shoulder, upper-back, and neck pain. This also compromises bike handling. In general, the length of a handlebar should match your shoulder width (measured to the bony ends of your shoulders). For a road bike, consider a drop handlebar such as the Terry T-Bar, which comes as narrow as 36 cm and also has indentations that bring the brake levers closer to your hands.

On mountain bikes, you can have the handlebar shortened with a pipe cutter at any bike shop.

Brake levers. On a mountain bike, you should be able to easily reach and pull the brake levers with just your first two fingers on each hand. If your hands feel too stretched, your levers are too far away. Many mountain bike brake systems have adjustment screws that position the levers closer to the bar.

On a road bike, try braking from atop the brake hoods. If you can’t exert enough force to come quickly to a full stop, the levers aren’t sized for you and won’t let you ride safely using this comfortable hand position. Bike shops can install short-reach road levers for you.