Foldable Bikes Party: Three rookie bike-buying mistakes I made so you don't have to

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Choosing which bike to spend your hard-earned cash on can be a tricky process: reading through the options, reviews and opinions online, working out how much to spend – there's lots to think about, and it's not something you want to get wrong.

Unfortunately, sometimes it happens, as I can attest to. Luckily I've learned from my mistakes, and you can too.

I’m going to be honest – I have on occasion royally messed up my bike purchases. I’ve spent a lot of money on a bike that, frankly, wasn’t at all right for me, and I’ve suffered as a result.

While we on BikeRadar are in the business of testing bikes (and many other bike-related products) and gauging how good they are, there’s an essential piece of the equation that we can’t help with, and that’s you, dear reader. While we can say that this bike is great at cornering, or is stable at speed, or brilliantly stable on descents, or perhaps is a great climber but not quite so stable at descents, and we can make recommendations as to what it's best suited to, the final decision on which bike is right for you and how you’re going to use it rests on... you.

And it’s all too easy to get carried away with what you think you need and want, and get something that doesn’t really work.

I’ve done this myself. My first brand new full suspension bike, after going through several second hand bikes, was a Lapierre Spicy. It is, by all accounts, a great bike. Ex-BikeRadar staffer James Huang loved his.