What's a good road bike for under$250?

Your best hope is to go to a bike shop and ask if they have taken a road bike in trade. If you find one, you will be getting a bike that's been checked out by a qualified technician. You're not likely to find much in your price range, however. If a bike can only be sold for $250, a shop is not likely to take it in trade. It's usually not worth their while. But, it's really a case of being in the right place at the right time. You'll have to be persistent.

HTH

none

Stolen? Just kidding...You can't touch anything decent under $650...And that's a low entry level bike like the Giant OCR. Scott does have one for around $610, but it's not for a serious ride.

New? There isn't one.

Get a nice 1980's Raleigh racer or something.

dude - i bought 2 road bikes, one for $15, and one for $25. these are old heavy and steel, but i did two triathlons on them each. i bought them to see if i would be interested in the sport then i upgraded to a $1100 cannondale. i only had about 20-30 bucks into them after new brakes, some tires and cables. just make sure it fits you and that it shifts nicely. but these older bikes get the job done! dont listen to these guys who are all snobby about bikes. i see people all the time on craigslist who sell their $2000 bikes because they didnt get a cheapo first to see if they even like it. try craigslist.com for used bikes. i sold two on there for 50 and 40, and the people i sold them to love them! good luck, hope it helps.

No new bike with be 'nice' for that kind of money. The bottom of the barrel road bike will cost $500 and change. The used bike market may have a bike for your price range, but its likely to be quite old. An old bike will require $$ to fix the things that are worn out or broken. You can easily find yourself spending another $200 to 'fix' this and that.

If you are firm on your $250 price, then you are probably regulated to shopping at a hardware store or Target/WalMart, etc. But dont expect them to be able to tune it or fix it when something needs work.

I wouldn't ride that road bike if you find one.

If that's all you are planning on spending. I would get a Mountain bike and change the offroad tires by road tires, you can get them in Walmar for around 10 a piece and you will end up with not the cheapeast MTB in the market, something little bit higher, that at least will perform well in pavement and much better than a regular Mountain bike.

Because for that Money and if you aim for a road tire, you will get a bad one, that will need repairs, and you don't know the conditions the front fork is or if it has had some impacts, if the front fork breaks while you are riding, you will fall really bad, and you need to trust what you are riding.

The best bike is new.

You can't get a new road bike for that money, but you can "emulate" one with a MTB bike and those tires (get one without any thread), make sure you can put as much pressure as you can, and with that, you can have a good time riding on pavement.