REI Dividend & 20% Discount for a Bike?

[hoffsquared]

Hi,

So I have a nice REI dividend, the 20% off coupon, and about $230 in bike commuter checks (from where I work). Wondering what thoughts might be on purchasing a bike from REI. I can only use the coupon on Novara and Diamondback. Looking for a hybrid or comfort bike for additional riding options.

Thanks for any thoughts on this!

Melanie

Topic

[Rod Smith]

I’ve bought at least four hybrids from REI including a couple of their store brand, Novara. The bikes are good value and mine held up OK. The service dept gave me a hard time when I brought a cracked frame back inquiring about warranty replacement or possibly a discounted replacement frame offer from the manufacturer, but I pressed the point and thankfully Marin was slightly more sympathetic to my plight than REI employees were.

[mstone]

The rei bikes tend to be a pretty good deal, especially with the coupon. You may be able to do better online, but being able to test ride is worth a couple of bucks. If you look closely at the components you can generally see where they hit a price point, but the do a decent job of knowing where to spend money. Any one in particular that you’re looking at?

[hoffsquared]

@mstone 137378 wrote:

The rei bikes tend to be a pretty good deal, especially with the coupon. You may be able to do better online, but being able to test ride is worth a couple of bucks. If you look closely at the components you can generally see where they hit a price point, but the do a decent job of knowing where to spend money. Any one in particular that you’re looking at?

I am looking at the Novara Forza Donna (https://www.rei.com/product/888344/novara-forza-donna-womens-bike-2016). This probably has more gears that I need but I like the suspension. Or the Corsa Donna. I have not taken a test ride.

Another factor for this purchase is that I am leaving the area in the near future and need to use my bike subsidy before I go. This bike will primarily be used to rides to the grocery store, pool, and around neighborhood streets at a leisurely pace. So it just need to be a decent bike. I would ride it commuting here in NoVA until we move. I also like it that REI does a tune up after you used it for 20 or more hours.

Thanks!

[GovernorSilver]

Whoa, they sell folding bikes now!

It’s also the first time I’ve seen any US store sell a bike with a butterfly/trekking handlebar stock (under the touring bikes category).

[mstone]

I bought one of their goodies with a coupon and a dividend last year. Keep it in the car for serendipity or a zombie apocalypse. They’ve had a couple of touring/light touring bikes for a long time. Hard core tourers can point out the problems, but I don’t know of many other places you can try a couple for less money. The bigger stores usually also have a surly for comparison (but no coupon on that).

[Raymo853]

I was hoping to use my coupon and dividend to get a BOB Ibex trailer. Unfortunately it seems they do not sell the version for use with 29ers, the Ibex 28

https://www.rei.com/product/885815/bob-ibex-plus-full-suspension-bike-trailer

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