Blue View - Finding the Right Bike

If you read last week’s Blue View, you may remember that we are contemplating a grand bike ride of the Great  American Rail to Trail (GART) from Washington, D.C. to Washington state. There are a few details to work out, like can we ride the distances required each day, day after day for 2-3 months, or, for that matter, still ride a bike at all... it has been a couple of decades since we were even on bikes. Our plan is to buy a couple of inexpensive bicycles and see how we do; if that works out, we’ll invest in better bikes more suited to long distance touring/trekking and start training. 

Yup, we remembered how to ride a bike.

Searching for bikes 

The  objective is to find a couple of reasonably priced bikes that we can use to ascertain whether we’re still capable of riding bikes at all, and if so, whether it’s something we might enjoy doing. In  a month or three, we’ll be selling them, either because the experiment was a failure and we’re ready to get rid of them or because it was a success and we’re ready to upgrade to better bikes. I’d rather not invest a lot of money now, in the hopes that we’ll be able to recoup most of it when we sell them. So, let the search begin.

Craigslist 

In the past, I’ve had pretty good luck finding used cars, camping gear, and electronics on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, so that’s where I started looking for used bikes. There’s a nice app, www.bicyclebluebook.com, sort of like Kelly’s Blue Book (KBB) for cars, that gives you an idea of what a used bike is worth. Is the Trek bike being advertised worth $400 or $4000? Since I have no idea, it’s nice to have some guidance. I’d find an interesting bike on Craigslist or FB and check to see whether it was reasonably priced. What I found was that used bikes right now are going for 2 to 3 times what the going rate should be based on the blue book valuation. I suspect the reasons are that with the pandemic, bikes are more in  demand now that people have the time to exercise (and little else to do while self-isolating), coupled with a broken supply chain from China where many bikes are made. Whatever the reason, it’s now a seller’s market. For example, I saw someone asking $300 for a used Walmart Roadmaster that when new retails for $99. Ouch! I didn’t find any bargains in the Las  Vegas Craigslist or FB.

Online

Next, I looked at the online retailers. Most were either sold out or on a long back order for the low end bikes. Plus, if we ordered one and didn’t like it, we could only return it if it had never been ridden... and then we’d have to pay the return shipping. A little risky in my opinion. One exception is REI, which has a one year return policy. Their bikes start at more than $500 for the low end models, however, - a bit  more than we were hoping to pay.

Walmart 

Walmart’s inventory was little slim

Walmart has a variety of low end bikes, ranging from that $99 Roadmaster mentioned above to  bikes that cost  more than $1000. They’re nothing special, but they might serve our purposes. The Roadmaster is marketed as an 18 speed mountain bike, but it’s not really built for any serious trail/mountain riding. For those using it as a city commuter and occasional light trail bike, which is how we’d probably be using them, it got reasonable reviews. Surely, we could get our money back on them, so I thought I’d see whether I could find a couple. The Walmart online inventory showed none in stock and no anticipated shipping date. I checked every Walmart store within 100 miles and found none in stock. Not looking good. Then, as we were walking through a nearby Walmart, we spotted two 26” Roadmaster bikes, new in their cartons, sitting in a corner. This particular Walmart, like all the others, showed zero inventory, and there were no other bikes at all in the store. A truly lucky find, but our luck didn’t end there. With a little prodding from Marcie, the manager agreed to take another 10% off because the tech who usually assembles the bikes was out sick, and we’d have to assemble them ourselves. Not a serious problem, by any means.

Setting them up 

Assembling the bikes was pretty easy. I needed a 14mm and 15mm box wrench and a 6mm Allen wrench. The first bike took about a half hour and I did the second bike in about 20 minutes. All that’s required is to mount the seat, pedals, handlebars and front tires. The brakes also needed adjusting. In case you are unsure about any of the steps, there are YouTube videos available.

Accessories 

The two most significant accessories are helmets and seats (aka saddles in biker jargon). The seats that come with the bikes are quite uncomfortable, and our expert advisers, as well as several online sources recommended replacing them. Now comes the dilemma. A good saddle costs almost as much as the bike did, and I doubt there’s much of a resale market in used saddles. Likewise, the helmet. A good one (and as clumsy as I am, I want a good one), also costs as much or more as the bike. In the end, we settled on good saddles and helmets. Not the best $400 versions, but quite adequate $60-$90 models. Hopefully, our bums and noggins  will be sufficiently protected. We also bought a couple of bicycle locks. We have a long list of other accessories we may purchase in the future, but these can wait until we see how we like this new experiment.

Finding a home for the bikes

The bikes need to come with us as we travel in Blue. There are three options: stowing them on the roof, stowing them on the tailgate, or stowing them inside. 

Stowing them on the roof is not practical. We’d need to add a ladder to Blue, figure out a place to mount them amidst the solar panels and fan, then deal with the added height. Currently, we can use most drive-thru’s, which are usually 9 feet, but adding 26” to our height would not only preclude these, but create problems with low bridges.

There are a number of tailgate bike mounts, most of which attach to the trailer hitch. We’d need one that swings out, so we can access our rear doors without removing the bikes. The problems with this option are that we’ll be carrying the bikes on our road trips for months at a time, exposing them to all that dust, dirt, and rain. While most thieves won’t spend a lot of effort stealing $100 Roadmaster, they might work harder if and when we upgrade to better bikes. Finally, the tailgate option adds 2’ or so to the length of Blue. Right now at 19’, Blue just fits on our driveway, but the added 2’ would put him in non-compliance with our HOA covenants, and our HOA gestapo - uh, I mean our HOA compliance officer, would soon be citing us.

The third option, stowing the bikes inside Blue, is, in my opinion, the preferable option. The pandemic and self-isolation have given me lots of time to continue upfitting Blue, and adding a bike storage area was a fun diversion. We can stow both bikes in about 15 minutes, and have at least as much storage as we did previously. 

A place for everything and …

So far - so good

Meanwhile, we’ve been riding our new bikes for a couple of weeks now. We haven’t done more than a few miles at a time, but so far, so good. I think this is much like long distance trekking. When we first started walking each morning, three miles was painful. Before long, however, five miles was easy, and by the time we were in our groove, 15 miles wasn’t all that difficult.

One of my fears was that I’d really be needing my helmet. To date, however, I’ve only fallen off my bike once. I was turning a corner, starting up a hill and downshifting when the derailleur missed the gear on my $99 Roadmaster, and before I could get my foot down, I toppled over. Fortunately, it was on grass, and the only injury was to my pride. Unfortunately, there were several helpful Samaritans who were sure this old geezer had probably broken a hip. But it all turned out well, and no blood, broken bones or even grass stains. 

I’ll talk about the upfit to our storage area, as well as all the other improvements to our van in next week’s Blue View. He’s really starting to look somewhat finished.