Bike recommendations

[thomas_delaney]

Hi everyone-

My wife and I are moving to Auckland, NZ next year and I'm hoping to
commute to work by bike. For those of you who aren't familiar with it,
Auckland is pretty hilly. Also, the surrounding areas are supposed to
have some excellent offroad trails.

I'm interested in hearing anyone's recommendations as to what type of
bike you think I should get, and if you have any specific model
recommendations all the better. Realistically, I will do most of my
riding in the city, but I would like to be able to go off-road (nothing
too serious-I'm not a hard-core mountain bike person) without fear of
the bike getting trashed.

Oh, and of course I don't want to spend any more than I have to. I'm
hoping to spend US$400 or less:confused:

Any help anyone can provide will be greatly appreciated!

Tom



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[Mike Kruger]

"thomas_delaney" > wrote in message
...
>
> My wife and I are moving to Auckland, NZ next year and I'm hoping to
> commute to work by bike. For those of you who aren't familiar with it,
> Auckland is pretty hilly. Also, the surrounding areas are supposed to
> have some excellent offroad trails.
>
> I'm interested in hearing anyone's recommendations as to what type of
> bike you think I should get, and if you have any specific model
> recommendations all the better. Realistically, I will do most of my
> riding in the city, but I would like to be able to go off-road (nothing
> too serious-I'm not a hard-core mountain bike person) without fear of
> the bike getting trashed.
>
> Oh, and of course I don't want to spend any more than I have to. I'm
> hoping to spend US$400 or less:confused:
>
If you aren't going to be biking until you get to NZ, you might want to wait
until you get there.

Based on what you say above, it would be hard to go wrong with a mountain
bike. These are within the price range you quote. They generally have some
nice, low gears which are good for hills.

You will be mostly on the roads, so there's no point to getting full
suspension; it's hard to buy something without front suspension and seatpost
suspension this year, so you will probably end up with it whether you need
it or not.

For road riding, you may want to get slick tires (higher pressure, no tread,
i.e. "bald"). These will be considerably faster for commuting. You can swap
tires -- or eventually get a second wheel set -- to use knobby tires on dirt
trails.

As for specific brands, nearly every manufacturer will have bikes like this,
and you may want to choose basis the bike shop -- even though you will be
leaving in a few months, it's important for things to be set up right. You
might also want to get an idea what brands are common in NZ.