Originally Posted by aberkok

Make sure you buy your bike in a bike shop. You may already know this, but brands bought at Sears and Wal-Mart and places like that aren't likely to be very good. Also, the staff aren't likely to know anything.

Hope I'm not patronizing you if you already know this.

Bike shop employees are your best bet for questions. In my experience they rarely try to sell you something you don't need (of course that's a massive generalization). Good luck!