Two for the Road

Buying a road bike these days is like shopping for a car, and the sticker shock makes it even more so.

Five thousand bucks for two skinny wheels?

At that point I'll stick with four wide ones and plan to get my exercise elsewhere.

Which is a shame, because biking is a great way to disentangle from the cardio machines and actually do something -- particularly in the Washington area, where a strong network of biking groups can guide you to rides from the mountains of the Shenandoahs to the marshes of the Eastern Shore.

If you haven't bought a bike for a while, it can be intimidating. There are more than 100 brands on the market now, with a variety of frame materials and a whole vocabulary for the brake and gear components.

"A lot of people are freaked out by the technology and freaked out by the retail experience," said Steve Madden, editor in chief of Bicycling magazine.

Given a bit of patience, a budget and a sense of what type of riding you want to do, however, you can overcome these hurdles.

To be clear, road bikes are the thin-tired, curved-handlebar models used for faster riding on paved surfaces. If you're interested in riding gravelly trails like the C&O canal, going off-road or hanging panniers on the side for commuting, you'll need a wider-tired hybrid or a mountain bike.

If you think a road bike is appropriate, here is the first question Madden suggests: "Do you want to be racer boy, or cruise the bike paths?"

This area is rich in paths that will wind you beside Rock Creek, let you circumnavigate from Georgetown to Bethesda, or lead you to Mount Vernon. If you want to keep it casual and don't mind accommodating the fellow bikers, pedestrians and others on the trail, you can find solid entry-level road bikes for about $700.

Weight won't be much of an issue, so a heavier steel frame is fine. The need to shift speeds may not be as fast or frequent, so the less-costly components from Shimano -- in the company's terminology, either the Sora or Tiagra level -- should suit.

Best bet? Start riding. Specialty bike stores (despite the temptation to go big box, I recommend sticking with people who know what they are talking about) are generally happy to let you take a test drive. City Bikes on Connecticut Avenue, for example, is right off the Capital Crescent Trail, and Revolution Cycles in Georgetown is just a hop over the Key Bridge to a path where you can test the ride, the shifting and the speed.