Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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Two months ago I decided to take up bicycling. Thanks for the advice everyone. After determining that as my learned friend @MollieTheMare indicated, the Pacific mountain bike I'd come into was kind of a piece of shit, I went hunting around for other bicycles I could borrow from people, and found myself with a menagerie of old bikes that had been sitting in garages for years or decades now sitting in my garage and being fixed up and ridden around my neighborhood. I've got a 90s Trek hybrid for girls, a 2012ish Trek hybrid for men, a remake Schwinn cruiser, and a Jamis road bike from the 2000s that I quite like but have to keep fiddling with to make work for me because it's actually the wrong size. Eventually I'm going to return all but maybe one of them to their original owners. I'm still kind of figuring out what exactly I like/want/need in a bike, and how to go about finding it.
So cycling mottizens, consider this the "What are you riding?" thread, or the "What bike would you advise someone to buy?" thread. I'm curious what the fine people of this place think is a good bike.
All I will say is that if you're biking exclusively on roads, then you should look exclusively at road bikes. They are, I will concede, slightly less comfortable than road-ish or hybrid bikes, but much more fun to ride, and you can both go faster and do so at greater efficiency.
One thing you can also do is to stop by a bike shop, don't buy anything necessarily, but ask them to walk you through how to evaluate bike size and where to adjust the seat. A lot of people end up for example putting the seat at the wrong height and it does make a difference.
If it's not road biking, I have no idea.
As for comfort and road bike - while they’re a bit sharp edged off the shelf, road bikes are very sensitive to setup, fit and sizing and can be quite comfortable once dialed in. You also want to not have all your weight on your ass - when pedaling efficiently some of your weight is distributed to your hands and feet.
Saddle choice makes a big difference too. Squishy saddles are less comfortable over long distances for example. I and many others favor tensioned leather saddles like Brooks - heavier than what you can get if you’re weight obsessed but worth it for the long distance comfort
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