About ten years ago I use to ride a Walmart special on a ten mile route five or six times a week. On weekends I could do thirty miles or so at a time. The bike was a 47 pound sort of Mountain bike with only ten speeds that was so slow, children on tricycles use to pass me. The last time I rode it was before the young ones took over.

I am a bit older now and planning on getting back into the fray. I originally wanted a road bike. But, I have a pinched nerve in my neck and though it does not hurt at the moment I am sort of afraid of aggravating it with the hunched over position of a road bike. Is there is a Road bike that have a front stem that adjust high enough to not be hunched over so much?

So I am also looking at Hybrids. I am partial to Cannondales as I rode one for few hours and I fell in love. Other brands did not compare at that time. But I am open to others. My only problem with a Hybrid is whether it is enough to satisfy my ‘Inner Roadie” desires.

The local Cannondale dealer did not have any to look at when I stopped by the other day. He acted like Cannondale was almost out of business. Is that true? Maybe I need to find another dealer. But, I would not like to buy a bike from a company that is not there after I buy it.

Price is not that important. I have been around bikes enough to know that anything less then $500 or so is more for a casual rider. But I am not going to convince the better half to go with anything much beyond $1000. $500 to about $800 would be ideal. I plan on religiously riding three or more times a week on a loop of roads around my house of at least ten miles. (This will be after a training period of course because it has been a few years.). My goal is to someday do a century and I want a bike that is up to that kind of riding.


I live North of Atlanta, Georgia.

Any advice for a new guy.

on
http://www.cannondale.com/bikes/

Under 'Recreational', check out the Road Warrior and the Sport Road models.
The Road Warriors all have flat bars, so you can experiment with getting a riser bar and/or new, higher angled stem to put you in a pretty upright riding position. Or, the Sport Road bikes have standard drop bars, but with adjustable stems. See if you can find either at your LBSs, or use Cannondale's dealer finder for potentially larger shops a little further away. Both would allow you to maintain a pretty decent pace (as opposed to a hybrid, which would be- relatively- sloooww...), and I would hazard a guess that either'd be comfortable for a century, as long as it fits you well. But personally, I can't imagine doing a century with flat bars... just a weird concept, they don't have enough different hand positions for me.

I would hazard a guess that the base models in each category (lowest #s) are each in the $800-$1000 range, so at the very top end of your spectrum... -edit- Actually, just called my LBS and the RW 600 is ~$750, the SR 500 is ~$980.

You may also want to check out some mid-range steel frame bikes, as they'll have slightly better characteristics on the road due to steel being somewhat absorbent (aluminum, which is all Cannondale works with, isn't.) There should be a ton of options for a decent steel frame at $600-$800. Try Lemond, Fuji, ... there are others, but most manuf. these days do aluminum so I can't think of any others in that range.

Re: the impression your LBS gave you, I've no idea why they'd hint that Cannondale aren't doing well- they did go through Chapter 11 a year or more ago, but they remedied that by ditching the motorcycle business and, from what I hear, their cycling business has always been profitable. Plus, my excellent LBS would have told me something if there was anything to worry about...