Choosing a bike, looking for underdogs

Introduction

So, I started experiencing some difficulties while commuting on my singlespeed, and I decided to buy another bike. There are a few questions regarding that:

My requirements are rather specific, so let's start with them. Nevertheless, I believe the logic I review here could be useful for another set of requirements, and, more than that, you could end up with the same choice that I made.

What are the requirements?

I'm a bit tired of destroying my bike with the city terrain and destroying myself riding against the wind. Aside from that, I'd like some reserve for backpacking trips and the bike should be budget-friendly for sure. So, the requirements are:

Based on the last requirement the whole class of touring bikes was excluded, although they can be tough and fit all the other requirements, being specifically designed for commuting.

Where to buy?

Buying a new bike is the last option to consider regarding my small budget, but there are a few important points to mention here:

For used bikes, I considered the following options:

Searching on Kleinanzeigen can be tricky: when I was looking for a mountain bike, I found a few offers searching just for a 'bicycle', but they didn't show up when I searched for 'mtb'. But the greatest thing about this site is its ability to set location and radius. People are concerned about their ratings and respond politely and fast. In Germany, owners usually tell you all the drawbacks first, and it's not a problem to send you a few more photos. So, this service is powered by great users!

What are the bike types to choose from?

At first, I tried to widen my search, so I looked in the following categories:

Regretfully, a racing bike is not an option, because, with a separate bike lane and people driving sometimes crazy fast, you would never want to ride a road. I could tell what riding a bike lane with a racing bike feels like because I have 28 mm tires with 7 atm (rear). Even with the steel frames it hurts, and I was looking for an aluminum frame, which would hurt even more. More than that, with these tires bearings suffer too, as the bike lane isn't smooth at all.

Recently endurance bikes adopted frames fitting 32 mm tires (and even having these tires by default) or tires up to 38 or even 40 mm wide. That's great, but it happened recently, I was looking for a used bike, and there are almost no such offers available on the aftermarket. It's a good question whether a 32 mm tire makes a difference compared to a 28 mm tire.

The same story goes with the gravel bikes: there are too few offers on the aftermarket as these bikes are relatively new and they cost 1.5x more, than an endurance bike. These made a lot of people pissed off and they call gravel bikes 'a scam', as you could just fit wider tires in a modern endurance bike. Well, I'd choose a gravel bike, if I had the budget to buy a new bike because it's fast and tough at the same time. Faster than a mountain bike and tougher, than a racing bike, with a mix of parts from both types. It's a compromise, but I agree that that could be a single multi-purpose bike.

Mountain bikes are incredibly cheap and are overlooked. In my humble opinion, they are an engineering masterpiece and I spent many years riding MTB on the road. And it was an enjoyable experience. All the options, including mounting points, hydraulic brakes (almost standard), industrial bearings, and great amortization forks... I chose this type because I enjoy MTB riding style: manuals, bunny- and side-hops, and drops. No, you can't do that well on a gravel bike. And this riding style will destroy a racing bike, as well as the rough city terrain I have to deal with, including paving stones. And it's so comfortable to ride in a city with an MTB.

Cross and fitness bikes are MTB with road tires and some accessories, so we'll skip that. A few amusing moments about famous MTB vs. gravel bikes:

What a strategy to choose 'underdogs' can give you?

This strategy is aimed at saving the money. You can do that in the following ways:

You could also look at the niches with low demand and high supply. Covid-racing or covid-gravel bikes are the ones to consider here. People bought lots of bikes during the lockdown, they are still produced, but the demand lowered to just normal.

A few particular options, which are now (May 2023) incredibly cheap relative to their great value:

What did I choose finally?

So, I got an MTB with 27,5" tires, which is two years old, the condition is 'almost new', and the frame fits me well, for half of the new bike price. It rides great, I just replaced a few things:

It's more like a dirt-jumping bike, than a cross-country one, but it rides so nicely. I immediately started to ride a lot more, to more distant locations and overall I'm happy with my choice. Compared to a gravel bike it's naturally cheaper for a significant amount of money. By the way, it's lighter than my steel singlespeed. I was afraid that a front chainring is too small, but I used the highest gear only twice, with the wind at my back. And now it's so nice shifting to lower gears with the wind at my front. Just get a Deore shifter or above.

I don't need hydraulic brakes, they are just in place. I'll not be able to service them myself, that's the only drawback. I'd like to replace or cut a handlebar, as I need to disperse with other cyclists, but that's not critical. The riding position is great and it feels like riding not a bike, but something tough as a motorcycle, lightweight at the same time. It feels like... I'm ready for new adventures! And I don't need to fix something on my bike daily, it saves a huge amount of time.

When I took out the seat post of my steel singlespeed, it was all covered with rust, by the way. And you have nothing to do with that, that's what happens inside the steel frame under the rain. Aluminium doesn't rust and doesn't crack like carbon. Just be warned.