>>1475739>I can't even decide what kind of bike I wantmain question: where are you going to ride?
Most newbies only know 2 kinds of bikes: city bikes, and mountain bikes, and think mountain bikes are inherently better, because they are more sporty, and can go offroad, unlike the "tame" city bikes for the "casual rider".
If you don't know what your primary use will be, i'd start with a gravel bike, as the most universal type.
See - a mountain bike is nice offroad, but sucks donkey balls on hard, flat surfaces (aka roads), due to having wide tyres with high rolling resistance, offroad gearing, and/or suspension, which absorbs a lot of energy, resulting in a bike that is much more tiring to ride.
basic choices:
road bike - best on the road. Narrow (23-28c) tyres, includes racing bikes, as well as endurance (long distance) bikes.
touring bike - like an endurance road bike, but with racks for carrying loads of stuff on bikepacking adventures.
cyclocross bike - something between a road bike, and a mountain bike. Built for agility, rather than speed. Much better offroad than a road bike, but not as fast on tarmac.
gravel bike - something between an endurance road bike, and cyclocross bike.
mountain bike - either rigid, or full suspension bike for riding offroad trails, sucks for anything else.
single speed city bike - if you can ride all day without changing gears on your roadie, you might as well not have any, and enjoy the simplicity (and less weight) of a single speed.
