Picking A Bicycle For Exercise

Recently, another of my coworkers has decided to get fit.  A few months ago, he started coming to the gym with me.  He started his workouts with the Body Weight 100, and has made tremendous progress.  In the last few weeks, he decided to expand his routine and change it up.  After thinking about it for a while, he decided to try cycling.  He agonized over picking a bicycle.  After much debate, he dusted off his twenty year old bike, aired up the tires, put some grease on the chain, and took off.

The great thing about riding a bicycle for exercise is that it doesn’t really matter what kind of bike it is.  Anything from a steel-framed $100 Wal-Mart special all the way up to a $3000 tricked out racing bike will give you exercise.  Sheldon Brown’s website is a great resource for a budding or experienced cyclist.

What you hope to accomplish beyond simply  burning calories dictates the kind of bike you should buy.  If you want to go fast, or need to travel long distances, then a road bike is what you want.  The narrow, high pressure tires and lightweight materials will reduce rolling resistance, making faster speeds easier to achieve.  From what I’ve seen, prices will start around $600.  If you’ve never been on a true road bike, go to a local bike shop and try one out.  These are not the bikes of your childhood, and the narrow tires take some getting used to.

If, on the other hand, you expect to spend a lot of time on gravel or other rough surfaces, a mountain bike may better suit your needs.  The tires are wider, smaller diameter, and lower pressure than a road bike, which offers greater stability.  Many people find the upright posture and wider seat (or saddle as cyclists call them) more comfortable.  Finally, the heavy duty frames can take the abuse associated with riding across rougher surfaces.  You can get into a mountain bike for less than $100 at the big box retailers.  If you want a higher quality bike, look at a cycling shop, where prices will start around $300-$400.

Most of us are not dedicated mountain bikers or road cyclists, but will spend some time on both surfaces.  For us, in the last few years, manufacturers have introduced “hybrids” that are suitable for riding on a combination of surfaces.  If you don’t have a bike, and you can live with the compromise, this may be the way to go.  These bikes provide the flexibility of being able to ride on multiple surfaces, and are generally built for comfort.  This is the route I chose.  I bought a bike that has large diameter wheels with narrow tires, but the upright riding posture of a mountain bike.  It’s relatively fast on paved roads, and I can take it across packed dirt if need be.

Matching a bike to your needs can become daunting, as there is a huge range of choices available.  I’ve known people who get confused by the selection and simply give up.  Just remember that if your primary purpose is to get exercise, any bicycle will accomplish that task.  It just becomes a question of how far you will travel to get the workout.