Owen asked a couple of questions in a previous post, my answer turned out to be a bit too long for a comment, so I’ve decided to post my response:
Do you drink anything on your marathon bike rides, besides water? Like Gatorade?
For longer rides I tend to bring two bottles, one with water and one with a sports drink mix. Currently, I have a canister of orange GU2O, but it’s a bit too sweet for my taste. The point of these drinks is to replenish the necessary nutrients you use up during exercise. They all do pretty much the same thing so find one you like stick with it. Note the powder mixes are much cheaper in the long run.
And if you had to recommend an inexpensive bike for riding the Stevens Creek Trail, what would you get?
It’s hard to recommend a particular bike. It all depends on what type of riding you want to do after you get bored with that trail. Do you think you are going to stick to paved trails or start going off road on to dirt trails? Or maybe riding longer distance road rides?
If you think you will be kicking the riding up a bit, then you may want to spend a bit more now so you don’t have to upgrade in a few months because you have out grown the inexpensive bike.
Here’s what I would do. When you have a couple of hours to spare, head down to a bike shop which has a ton of options, like Mike’s Bikes in Palo Alto. Talk with a sales rep and tell them what type of riding you want to do. Then the fun begins, test ride everything they have. The key is to notice how you feel on each bike and what differences there are between the super cheap bike upwards to the more expensive ones. You may want to try a couple of different sizes, but there reps tend to be good at putting you on the right size bike from the get go.
Once you find something you enjoy take down all of the information about it (size, make, model) and head to another shop. Again tell them what type of riding you are looking to do and that you have found one you like, and ask them what they have which is in the same category as the one you liked at the first shop. Ride them and see if they feel better than the others.
Now you can do what I do and mull over the decision for a couple of more weeks, try to see if you can find the exact bike on Craigslist. Or drop down the credit card and get out riding that afternoon. It’s all up to how much time you want to spend making the decision before you head out on the trail.
If it were me, I would be looking for a mountain bike that is light weight. Now I don’t mean super light, but there are a ton of cheap bikes that weigh close to 40lbs. The more the bike weighs the more effort you will have to put in to move that darn thing, and when it comes to some of the hills in this area lighter is always better.
Also take the mountain bike tires off and put on street tires. You can keep them around for later on if you decide to head off road, but they do nothing but slow you down on pavement.
I’m not sure how much help this is. Just find a bike you feel comfortable on, which gives you room to grow, and get out riding!