New Cheap Bike

[doghouse]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to buy a new inexpensive bike. I don't need a mountain bike because I won't be taking it off road. I just plan to ride my bike to and from school and possibly in the summer I may do a trip around Taiwan on the bike. The cheaper the better, especially because I will be leaving the bike on campus overnight sometimes (with a lock or two) and don't want to worry about it too much. I'm looking for some recommendations. I read the other posts and it seems all of you like high-end performance bikes. I'm just looking for a bike which will get me from A to B. I'm 6'1 so the bike can't be too small.

Thanks!
Doghouse

[trubadour]

try a bike shop!
seriously...go to a local bike shop, pref unbranded and rejoice in Taiwanese made, practical bikes that won't get stolen.

[doghouse]

try a bike shop!
seriously...go to a local bike shop, pref unbranded and rejoice in Taiwanese made, practical bikes that won't get stolen.

Calm down little boy. This is a message forum. 99% of posts here looking for recommendations can be replied to by just directly sending someone to the store. "Can someone recommend a good book to learn Chinese?" "Try a book store! Seriously, go to a bookstore..."

Looking to see if anyone has any recommendations about what to look for and what to avoid when buying a new inexpensive bike in this country.

[trubadour]

avoid bikes with less than two and more than three wheels
FFS.
what kind of advise can you give?
What kind of advise do you give someone who doesn't want anything other than a cheap bike other than to go to a BIKE SHOP and BUY A CHEAP BIKE

[PaddyB]

He does kind of have a point though. It's kind of like asking for a cheap coffee. Just go to 7-11!

You could at least give a budget.

There are a lot of cheap Giant, Merida and KHS bikes in the 3000-5000 range. They are city bikes with (as far as I can tell) ultra cheap mountain bike components. You can look on their website.

There are lots of other cheap-only local brands like Irland, Jelum, TongMing etc. You can see them everywhere.

If you want something you could ride around the island then maybe a cheap hybrid would be a better option. You should be able to pick up something like the Giant Roam 2 for around 12,000. I rent one of those sometimes when I go to Danshui and they seem perfectly tolerable.

Not sure how easy it is to find a larger sized cheap bike. The standard for cheap student/foreign worker bikes here seems to be dual-suspension kids bikes . Anyway, just go to any bike shop and ask the laoban.

[trubadour]

the trouble is - if it's worth more than ~5k it's nickable. Less, it's not gonna be anything like cycle-round-the-island-able..
locks don't work.