# New rider



## ghalter (Aug 4, 2006)

Hey I am looking into getting my first bike and the shop near my house does custom builds. The guy wants to set me up with an Orbea mitis I believe. Is this a good first bike or what should I be looking for?


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## fabsroman (Jul 14, 2006)

I have the catalog right in front of me, and while I am not currently thinking about a Mitis, after reviewing the catalog I think it would be the equal or better of my first racing bike 23 year ago. However, before my first racing bike, I had a Raleigh and a AMX, both of which were nothing special.

Now, the better question is what exactly do you want to do with the bike? Is this just for tooling around town, or are you looking for some serious performance out of it. If the latter, I think it will be just fine as your first bike. If you decide you really like riding, and you get interested in racing, this bike will also do just fine at first. If you really get into racing, then you might have to upgrade it, but that will be a while down the road, no pun intended.

Oh yeah, when I think about custom bikes, I think of frames that are built to specifically fit the person. Your LBS will probably custom fit the bike for you. Meaning that they will take your vital measurements and adjust the crank length, seatpost height and fore/aft position, put the correct length stem on the bike, set the handlebars at the correct height, and put the correct width handlebars on the bike. As far as I am concerned, having the bike set up so that you are comfortable on it is the most important thing of all. If the bike is uncomfortable, you will not like riding it.


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