A bicycle built for one?
I want a bike. I haven’t owned a bicycle since I lived at home with my parents, and probably haven’t actually ridden one (aside from the stationary model at the gym) in the intervening 18 years since moving out. But now I’ve been bitten by a summertime bicycle bug and I’ve become a wheel-obsessed pedestrian. I admit that I don’t know the first thing about bikes, which is where all of you intrepid Answerers come in.
Most of my former bikes were those BMX-style, gearless dirt bikes that you brake by pedaling in reverse. They might have been perfect for a scrappy 12-year-old with nothing but grass trails behind his house, but probably aren’t the best for tooling around NYC. Obviously, something larger with multiple gears is probably going to better suit my current needs, but that’s where I get stuck. What are the differences between mountain bikes, road bikes, and touring bikes? I’ll be doing most of my riding either around Central Park or on city streets, so what would be the best type for my needs? And what kind of protective gear will I need? Is a helmet enough, or do I need to the full regalia of knee and elbow pads?
Along with choosing the right bicycle for my specific riding needs, I need to choose one that I can store easily. I live in a pretty typical New York apartment, which translates to virtually no space to store a vacuum cleaner, let alone a bike. I don’t have a garage or backyard in which to keep it, nor do I have any available space in the entryway of my building. My only option is to rent a storage unit or to find a place inside the apartment, and that is going to be a bit of a challenge. What are my options regarding hanging a bike from the ceiling or on a wall? Are there any new and novel ways that you inventive cyclists have found to store your wheels in a tight space?
Someone recommended that I check out one of those portable, folding models-but to be honest, they look like more of a pain than they are worth. Granted, I’ve never ridden one, but they don’t seem much easier to ride than my old-school BMX bike. Their portability and size make them the ideal solution for a small space like mine, but would I be compromising performance and durability?
Can anyone help inform my quest for the perfect bicycle? And what safety and maintenance tips can you recommend for a new bike rider/owner?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!


Hey Guys,