Decent bike for ~$300?

bsdfish — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 03:23:37 -0800

Decent bike for ~$300? Cheapest local bike store bike, or the most expensive Target one? My employer is offering to reimburse me up to $300 for getting a bike, and I would like to take advantage of that. I live really close to work (~2.5 miles), and I'd plan to bike to work, as well as go for rides for exercise and fun. Spending significantly more than $300 isn't really an option, since I live in an area where bikes (or parts of bikes) get stolen regularly, and I'd rather not invest too much into something I may not use due to laziness anyways.

For $300, it looks I can get some very entry level bikes at a local bike store, or a nice-looking bike at Target. I've heard (and some previous ask-mefi questions have suggested) that any LBS bike is better than a department store bike, but it sounds like all those claims are "a $500 LBS bike is better than a $100 Wal-Mart bike." For my price range, what are my best options? And what is it that makes department store bikes so bad? The "assembled by low-skill workers" isn't a big concern for me as I'm fairly handy with my hands and can fix things up; I am more concerned about the quality of parts.

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Decent bike for ~$300?