To all you bikers

Hey guys, I was looking to get a road bike for Xmas for myself but wanted some sugestions for a beginner on what to buy, I have a budget of about $1200. Any help would be great. I plan on training for a few sprint tri athelons.

I would go very cheap and used the first year.  See if you like the sport.  I went from one sport to another trying to find my nich.  You may hate biking but love weighlifting or racquetball.  You don't know till you try alot of this stuff.  Once you have a year under your belt (and talked with other bikers on the road with you) you'll know what your looking for and what will fit your needs.  It's like spending $600-800. on new golf clubs and then deciding you don't like the sport.  I'm not a racer, but I rode my daughter's bike, (see picture on profile) for 6 months before I bought my new expensive bike (by the way...best investment I ever made...for my heart, health, and pocketbook).  Also you may want to post on the exercise board...a lot of good info there.  Just throwing it out...My 2 cents.  Brian 

I have a 2002 Harley Davidson electra glide classic big touring bike.I have rode it from florida to new york when I was 297lbs and was comfortable.for a first time rider a 750  or up would be fine my recommendation is take a safety riding course they are invaluable to a rider well worth the time and money it may also help you out in what size bike you may get.

Jarhead:  Don't feel bad, I thought the exact same thing.

hey jarhead thanks but wrong kind of bike. No Im getting what you are saying. Not really getting it for the fun of it though I might end up liking it but more doing so for the exercise. The reason I came up with the triathalons is becuase Im verry comp. I wont win but can be compete with my self in trying to do better. I do agree however.

I have a specialized Sequoia elite road bike, cost is around 1200.  It is a great first bike.
http://www.specialized.com/zz/en/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?sid=09Seq uoia

you should definitely check out the exercise and fitness message board, this type of question is right up their alley (i mainly post there now).

i bought a specialized allez, which is basically their lowest end starter bike for about 800 bucks, with all the accessories etc (helmet, pump, gloves, etc) it ended up costing around a grand.  great investment, and i also did it to start triathlons.  i've done 3 tri's to date and a century ride on the bike, now i love the bike portion more than the run or swim.  jus****ch out, tri's are addicting :)

I havent ridden it yet. But when I start riding again, I hope to be around 250 pounds. So I bought an old Schwinn road bike (1980) from Craigslist for fifty bucks. I'll see how that goes before investing any more.

Listen to Hercules as he is right on with his advice. Lots of nice dependable bikes hanging in the garage to be had for pennies on the dollar.

Boner

Check out your local bike shops.  All of the local ones near me have either a rental or a trial program.  You can take one of their in stock bikes out to ride for a couple hours or a day.  When you are spending some serious money on a bike you want to make sure it is comfortable for you.  Some of them are free, some have a nominal charge that they will refund towards the purchase of a bike.  Even if you don't buy from them I recommend you ride some bikes before you purchase one.  Riding it for 5 minutes or around the block isn't enough to make a good decision about a bike that you might be sitting on for a couple hours.

Also if you can save a little more money, you might want to consider what the bike is made of.  A lot of the bikes can be had in Aluminum, or Carbon Fiber, there are benefits to both, carbon being lighter, aluminum being stronger.  It really is a cost vs. wants issue.

You might also see if there is a local bike fitter in your area.  We have one gentleman in my city that will take all your dimension, do a profile on the kind of riding you want to do, and place you in several different riding riding positions on different bikes.  From that he can help make a recommendation on which manufacturer and bike model will meet your needs.

There really is a difference in the geometry from one bike manufacturer to the next.

Then decide if you want to save up some more money or not and get an upgraded version of the bike.  In addition to the bike there are a lot of extras that most people don't think about.
Musts haves:
Helmet, don't ride without it.
flat repair kit, spare tire, pump it sucks to have to walk pushing your bike
Glasses or sunglasses, nothing quite so nice as getting hit in the eye with road debris or the occasional bug.


Nice to have:
Gloves
Riding clothes, yes the spandex with the padding makes it so much more comfortable on the old tail bone especially after the kind of weight loss we have.
cycling shoes and clipless pedals.  They take some getting used to and you will fall.  It's usually a slow motion fall, OMG I'm falling and I forgot to unhook my foot.  But when riding they give you a couple extra mph because you are able to push and pull with them so you get extra power.  Plus the soles are rigid so they transfer more power to the pedals.
Water bottles and cage or camelback if you plan to do any big distance riding.
Good high quality bike light, I would put this under necessary, but only if you are riding in bad weather, night, or early morning.
Little mirror that attaches to your helmet or sunglasses.  It really helps when riding in groups to see whats going on.  Also you are able to see traffic coming from behind you without having to turn around and take your eyes off the road in front of you.

Trinkets to have:
Bike computer, give you speed, distance, timers, gps, altitude, cadence it all depends on what you want to spend and how fancy or geeky you want to be.