Buying a bike in DC

A year ago my husband and I got new bikes. We had older bikes from growing up that we were using, but found that we were at quite the disadvantage when we went biking with friends who had much newer, lighter bikes.

Usually I like to scope out the most affordable product but in this case we wanted to get something that was very good quality.

We decided on Treks as they have a great reputation to be great bikes. We did, however, buy the cheapest bikes that Treks carry, which ended up costing about $365 each.

We were able to sell our old bikes (I had a Mongoose from 1996) for $100 each. I felt bad about spending that much money on a bike but a year later I can say it was a great investment and I am so glad that we did.

We go biking every weekend over the summer months, often 25 miles at a time. We bike to the zoo, to Bethesda, to Old Town, Shirlington, and even to Target and Shoppers. We love biking to the national mall and the Eastern Market. There are so many amazing bike trails in the area (Mt Vernon and Cap Crescent being our favorites).

We did not pay more for suspension, which I'm still fine with. We did get hybrids which is great since some trails like C and O are not paved. Our bikes are the Trek 7000. I got the female version, and my husband the male version. We did pay extra for kick stands and we also bought U locks for them.

To us the point of biking is to get off the bike at fun destinations so you have something to look forward to!