Biking

Road bikes, hybrids and the bikes in between:

a road bike has drop handlebars, narrow tyres and a light frame in aluminium or carbon, and it only makes sense on pavement. A hybrid or urban bike keeps the flat bar and upright position of a mountain bike with smoother, faster tyres, and it is what most people ride across the city to work. Anything built for trails, from hardtails to full suspension, sits under mountain biking. BMX is a sport of its own, with a national racing season, and kids’ bikes are sized by the wheel rather than the frame, so an outgrown one goes straight to the next child down the line. Smart trainers and stationary bikes for riding at home are listed with exercise equipment.

Frame size and gearing for the climbs out of the capital:

size comes first. The same frame size fits differently from one brand to the next, so sit on the bike before you pay rather than trusting the sticker. Gearing comes a close second, because Guatemala City sits on a plateau and nearly every road out of it climbs or drops hard: west towards San Lucas Sacatepéquez and Antigua, south on the Carretera a El Salvador. A compact chainset at the front and a wide-range cassette at the back let an ordinary rider spin up those hills instead of grinding, and an older bike set up with racing gears is a harder sell than its spec sheet suggests.

Shimano 105, disc brakes and what a used road bike is worth:

a carbon road bike built around Shimano 105 runs roughly Q20,000 to Q25,000 new from brands such as Specialized, Trek or Scott. Second-hand, the price falls faster than the wear would justify, and the reason is standards rather than kilometres: road bikes have moved from rim brakes to discs and to twelve-speed drivetrains, so a rim-brake bike in perfect order loses ground every season a newer one hangs in the shop. For a rider who stays on pavement and does not chase the latest spec, that is where the bargain is.

Carbon frames, rims and serial numbers on a used bike:

carbon does not dent the way aluminium does. When a crash or an over-tightened bolt hurts it, the damage hides under the paint. Look closely at the seatpost clamp, the handlebar and stem, and the bottom of the frame where the cranks sit, and tap those spots lightly with a coin: a dull, flat note where the rest of the frame rings clear is a reason to walk away. On a rim-brake bike the braking surface wears thin, and many rims carry a small groove or dot that disappears when the rim is finished. Spin the wheels to check they run true, and read the pads and tyres for the mileage. Then turn the bike over. The serial number is stamped under the frame where the cranks meet it, and a seller with the original invoice and a matching number is selling his own bike. A ground-off serial ends the conversation. A helmet that has taken a hit has done its job once and is not worth buying, however clean it looks.

Listing a road bike, from frame size to pedals:

put the frame size and the brand in the title, then the groupset, the brake type and the wheels, because those are the facts a road rider filters by. Photograph the drive side square on, the cassette and chainrings close up, and the serial number. Say honestly whether the frame has been down, even in a slow fall, because a buyer who finds a repair later will assume the worst. Last, say whether the pedals go with it. Most road bikes above entry level leave the shop without them, and a buyer coming in from Chimaltenango in ordinary shoes cannot test-ride a bike fitted with clip-in pedals.