Updated September 2019. Did you know that you can now buy great bikes online, and from Amazon? Usually, I would recommend that you buy a bike at your local bike shop. However, that is not possible or easy for everyone, and there is a good alternative: buy a bike on Amazon, taking advantage of the many benefits this online retailer offers: Amazon is cheap and fast, and has great return policies. This post includes recommendations for some excellent bikes that are great deals on Amazon. The post starts with reviews of recommended bikes from Amazon, and then has information about shipping and assembly options when you buy bikes from Amazon.
Related content: 7 Great Bikes You Can Buy on Amazon, 2019 – including Cruisers, Mountain, and Hybrid Bikes
You Can Buy Great Brand Name Bikes on Amazon
Amazon offers several decent brand name bikes for sale online at great prices. For example, recently I was happy to see that Raleigh has started selling on Amazon. In fact, Amazon now carries several name brand bikes at under a thousand dollars, and many of them are just as good as you would find in your local bike shop.
Here are some bikes from Amazon that might work for you. All of these get good reviews, and have great prices.
Bike #1: Raleigh Detour 2 Comfort Hybrid Bike
The Raleigh Detour 2 Comfort Hybrid Bike is designed for comfortable, casual bike commuting. It’s more comfortable than a road bike, but remains an efficient commuting machine with 21 Shimano gears.
21 Shimano gears make for an efficient bike ride on the Raleigh Detour 2 Comfort Hybrid BikeThe upright riding position will help you to be safe in traffic – and the bike is light enough to be easy to maneuver your way through the traffic. The robust aluminum frame is ready for you to add on racks and fenders, to make this bike ideal for commuting.
You won’t have to change up the saddle and grips – the saddle is spring-loaded for comfort, while the comfort grips protect you from elbow pain and numb hands. Usually when I buy a new bike, the first thing I do is upgrade to puncture-resistant tires, but you won’t have to do that with this bike, because it is pre-fitted with puncture-resistant tires! Meaning that you will seldom if ever have your commute interrupted by a flat tire. Perhaps best of all for some beginner cyclists, this sturdy bike is rated to carry riders up to 350 pounds!
As Raleigh says: “Raleigh Bicycles are designed around one simple idea: fun. It’s an idea that inspired the very first bikes way back in 1887 and continues to inspire how things are done today. Hop on a Raleigh and enjoy the ride!”
Bike #2: Cruiser: sixthreezero EVRYjourney
This EVRYjourney bike offers amazingly good value in a great looking classic cruiser. It boasts an internal 7 speed Shimano hub (for minimal maintenance), and comes with integrated, matching fenders, chain guard, and rack. This bike is extremely highly rated by buyers. And as many Europeans figured out a long time ago – step through bikes are ideal for casual cycling, regardless of your gender. Not to mention that they are easy to get onto, even if you’re not so young anymore!
Bike #3: Mountain Bike: BEIOU Carbon Fiber Hardtail Mountain Bike
This is a beautiful hardtail mountain bike for a fraction of the price of similarly specced mountain bikes from major brand names. The components on this bike are top-notch quality. Apart from a somewhat generic fork, but the fork does offer lockout (that is, you can turn off the shocks when you don’t need them). Other than that, you are looking at a bike-shop quality bike for an excellent price. And of course, if you love the bike, you could always upgrade the shocks at some future date, for a moderate expense.
The frame is made from high-tensile carbon, so that this rugged bike weighs in at just a hair under 24 pounds. Expect to be able to get moving really fast on this bike. Luckily, disk brakes ensure powerful stopping power. If you want to start mountain biking (or commuting over pot-holed urban streets), look no further than this great-looking, high-quality, lightweight mountain bike.
This bike comes in a range of color combinations, and in sizes 15″/17″/19″. (If you are not sure about your size, check out our complete guide to bike frame sizes.)
Bike #4: Cruiser: Firmstrong Urban Lady
This bike is Amazon’s no. 1 best seller in comfort cruisers, and gets great reviews as a comfortable and easy-to-ride cruiser. The Urban Lady comes as a single-speed, a three-speed, and a seven-speed. The single- and three-speed models have coaster brakes, while the seven-speed offers front and rear handbrakes.
Bike #5: Affordable, Stylish Margaritaville 26″ Women’s Cruiser Bike
The Margaritaville 26″ Cruiser Women’s Cruiser Bike is a stylish, seven-speed bike that offers a smooth ride. This is an affordable bike for integrating some stylish city or boardwalk cycling into your healthy lifestyle. It gets excellent reviews, so for the price, it’s a great way to start enjoying the benefits of low-impact, aerobic exercise – in style!
Bike #6: Kid’s Starter Bike: Strider Sport Balance Bike
Amazon offers a lot of great options for kid’s bikes, including Raleigh, Schwinn and Strider kids’ bikes. I have bought bikes for my grandkids from them. As I explain in great detail on my post about how to teach a child to ride a bike, a balance bike is the best bike to start your child off on. This will teach them the balance skills they need to be able to easily learn to ride a bike later. You can start your child on a balance bike from as young as 18 months.
Bike #7: Comfort Bike: Raleigh Bikes Venture 2 Step Thru Comfort Bike
The Raleigh Bikes Venture 2 Step Thru Comfort Bike comes with 21 speeds, a comfort saddle and easy step through mounting. It is one of the best cheap name brand comfort bikes available. Minimal assembly is required once you take delivery.
Bonus Bike: Road Bike: Raleigh Clubman
This is a great road bike with vintage good looks. Tough enough to take on gravel too, with a classic Reynolds 4130 steel frame and fork for strength and good looks, and mechanical disc brakes for precise stopping power. This bike has won awards, and would make a great commuting bike. Shimano Tiagra 10-speed gears set you up for commuting, or just for enjoyable leisure cycling. The bike comes with stylishly integrated fenders to protect you from puddles.
This is what Cycling Weekly had to say about the Raleigh Clubman:
“The Raleigh Clubman evokes long winter rides, 100-plus-mile reliability trials and the days when one quality bicycle could cater for all of your transport and sporting needs.”
The only fault that Cycling Weekly found with this bike was in the brakes, which they found to be too weak. That was a previous model. Raleigh has heard the criticism and replaced those weak caliper brakes with powerful disc brakes, making this bike the perfect all-rounder for social cycling plus commuting.
Maggie wrote a great post about how to teach your child to ride a bike!
If your child is still too young to ride a bike, consider taking him or her along on your own bike! This post is all about the best baby and child bike seats that you can use to take your child on bike rides with you.
Get Your Bike Shipped for Free with Amazon Prime
Amazon is my go-to for most shopping, with free shipping and easy exchanges making it a no-brainer for me, because I do not like to waste time actually going shopping. Like you, my time is valuable, so time saved is money saved – meaning that online shopping actively saves me money. I am a member of Amazon Prime, and get two-day shipping free for a huge number of items. To me the most useful aspect of Amazon Prime is I don’t feel subtly pressured to buy more stuff just to qualify for free shipping. So if for example I just need an $8 tube, that is all I buy – and I still get free shipping by choosing a tube that is eligible for Amazon Prime. That’s a pretty unbeatable deal, once you start thinking about the value of the time you save by not having to go to the store.
My best Amazon story was when I was renovating a condo in Canada. I discovered I had bought the wrong size sink, and the plumber was booked for the very next day. The local retailer told me it would take them a week to get me the sink I wanted from the States (a huge Farmhouse double bowl thing with a shipping weight of 63 pounds). Amazon got it to me in ONE day!
Free, Fast Shipping from Amazon – and Assembly Too on Some Models
Because bikes are eligible for Amazon prime shipping, you will get your bike quickly. Amazon also offers some good options for assembly on select models. For example, some bikes that cost over $500 can be shipped for free to a local Performance Bike or Velofix location, which will assemble the bike for you for free. You can also choose to pay $77 to have a bike shipped to your home, where a mechanic from Amazon’s network of shops and vendors will assemble it for you.
You can of course assemble your new bike yourself, if you have the skills. And finally, if the specific retailer offers no assembly options, you can always pay your local bike store a small fee to assemble it for you. Check with your local bike shop about this before you order, to make sure that are willing to assemble the specific bike that you are planning to order. If they are, this is also a good indication that it is a decent quality bike. Many bike stores refuse to work on “department store” bikes.
Bottom Line on Buying Bikes on Amazon
Yes, you can now safely buy a bike on Amazon. Shipping is likely to be free, and returns are fair and easy. Most important, some of the bikes are extremely good value for money. So, if you cannot get down to a local bike shop, Amazon offers an excellent alternative.
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