Time to buy a bike again

[PrinceVlad]

Hi guys

I hope everyone is doing well. 

Before I begin, just a short recap. After my miserably failed attempt at getting myself in shape by taking on a massive challenge which I posted on here about, things actually started looking up and from 2018 to 2019, I lost a fair amount of weight. In fact, I went from about 128kgs at the beginning of 2019 to just over 100kgs by the end of the year. And then COVID happened. So, long story short, I'm back to where I started.....heavy and without a bike.

I have now started looking at getting a bike again and my budget is R8k max. From lurking and reading on the internet for the past two days, it seems I have a few options:

1. Buy a cheaper bike like an Apex, cheaper Titan, or the like. These are available for, it seems, anything from R5k to about R8k. The problem is the components and, from what I read, the wheels might not carry my weight. 

2. Buy second-hand. Here, the problem is that I don't know enough to tell good from bad, so I might end up buying a dud. 

3. Buy an old 26er, and spend some money on fitting quality components and wheels.

Now, my proposed use will be mostly to get fit and thinner. Ultimately, I want to do a triathlon again, but road bikes seem to be out of the equation now due to my weight. But, I'll need to buy a road bike in the future which means that, in all probability, I'll only use the bike in the interim. 

 

Any advice?

 

 

[DIPSLICK]

nothing wrong with a good second hand Titan, I bought 2 and for my girls and those have been paid forward to mates kids and their mates kid many times over,

buy nice cheap secondhand one (titan)and sell and upgrade, as a reward as you head towards your goals good luck