need help buying a light weight bike

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Hi i have an old bike (bought in dept store many years ago) that's too
heavy, hard to carry several floors up, i like to buy a new bike that's
light and better quality, mostly for biking in the park, touring and
exercise a couple of hours each time... i am new to this, could you
suggest some good manufacturor/web site (need to have weight of the
whole bike, i visited a few website but why they don't have weight info
of the bike)? i plan to spend around $200-$300...

thanks a lot!

[Joe Canuck]

wrote:

> Hi i have an old bike (bought in dept store many years ago) that's too
> heavy, hard to carry several floors up, i like to buy a new bike that's
> light and better quality, mostly for biking in the park, touring and
> exercise a couple of hours each time... i am new to this, could you
> suggest some good manufacturor/web site (need to have weight of the
> whole bike, i visited a few website but why they don't have weight info
> of the bike)? i plan to spend around $200-$300...
>
> thanks a lot!
>

You may need to increase your budget to decrease weight, unless you are
interested in a unicycle.

[Matt O'Toole]

wrote:

> Hi i have an old bike (bought in dept store many years ago) that's too
> heavy, hard to carry several floors up, i like to buy a new bike
> that's light and better quality, mostly for biking in the park,
> touring and exercise a couple of hours each time... i am new to this,
> could you suggest some good manufacturor/web site (need to have
> weight of the whole bike, i visited a few website but why they don't
> have weight info of the bike)? i plan to spend around $200-$300...

Without knowing what kind of riding you do, I'd suggest a lightweight road
racing bike from the 80s or early 90s. These can be had for a couple hundred
bucks or less, and usually weigh 20-23 LB. If you can't handle the downtube
shifters, you can replace them with barends pretty cheaply. If it's mostly flat
where you live, you won't need to shift much anyway.

Here's a real beaut I almost grabbed for my brother:

http://tinyurl.com/92l2m

Matt O.

[maxo]

On Sun, 05 Jun 2005 20:56:18 -0400, Matt O'Toole wrote:

> I'd suggest a lightweight road
> racing bike from the 80s or early 90s.

I'd go more for a "sport" bike from the same era--looks like a racer, but
you get braze ons for racks, fenders and clearance for wider tires. You
should be able to pick one up for a hundred at the most. I've got an early
80s Univega that fits that description, great bike.

Bikes from that era are very plastic in the way you can set them up--for
urban riding, you could get a stem with short reach and a set of "north
road" style touring bars and new brake levers (a neighborhood shop might
sell you these things out of their used parts bucket)--and you've got all
the style and comfort of an old "English Racer" minus fifteen pounds. :D
Or keep the drops, but jack them up with a Nitto technomic high rise stem...

For three bills you can get one of those new "comfort bikes" but they're
not that light--especially when you add in the doing forks. Marin makes
some affordable rigid city/flatbar road bikes, but they start at five
hundred I believe.

[Rich]

wrote:
> Hi i have an old bike (bought in dept store many years ago) that's too
> heavy, hard to carry several floors up, i like to buy a new bike that's
> light and better quality, mostly for biking in the park, touring and
> exercise a couple of hours each time... i am new to this, could you
> suggest some good manufacturor/web site (need to have weight of the
> whole bike, i visited a few website but why they don't have weight info
> of the bike)? i plan to spend around $200-$300...

Go to a local bike shop (or two) and pick up (literally) the bikes in
your price range.

Rich

[Will]

I agree with Matt. (Great find for the brother by the way!) Look around
for a mid-80's vintage road bike. Treks from that era are wonderfuly
made. Don't mess with the newer compact geometry (top tube slants
downward towards crank). They are harder to carry up and down stairs.
I've got three roadies now from that era, they blow my high tech custom
aluminum bike away.