We found seven of the sweetest-looking city bikes under $1000. Are they any good? We sat down with a local bike guru (who wished to be identified only as the Phantom Mechanic) to get his expert views.
The Phantom Mechanic's guide to buying a bike:
Buy your bike from a real bike shop, not online. Not only will you support the local economy, but the bike you're buying will be put together the right way. Though buying online might save you a few dollars in the short term, it'll cost you in repairs later on.
Buy a pretty bike. Design is important, and if you don't like the way your bike looks, you won't get out and ride it.
Take your time when choosing a bike. Test-drive as many as you can to find the one that's the most comfortable for your body
Think about what posture you want when you're riding. Want to be upright? Get a Dutch-style cruiser. Want to aggressively lean over the handlebars? Get a Surly.
Related:
Photos: World Naked Bike Ride at Boston Common, Boston's handcrafted bicycle movement goes to Austin, Boston's new hubway system could transform how you get around town, More 
- Photos: World Naked Bike Ride at Boston Common
Boston-based bicyclists take part in the World Naked Bike Ride at Boston Common on July 9, 2011.
- Boston's handcrafted bicycle movement goes to Austin
The seventh annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show hit Texas the last weekend of February, crowding the Austin Convention Center with beautiful handcrafted bicycles, many of them made in Massachusetts.
- Boston's new hubway system could transform how you get around town
On April 21, amid a throng of cyclists gathered at City Hall Plaza, Boston Mayor Tom Menino announced that the city had just inked a deal to institute a bike-sharing system that would be operational by mid-summer this year.
- The bike messenger is still alive and well in Boston
We're told that technological advances are killing the bike-courier business, yet messengers still zip around downtown Boston every day, carrying packages to law firms and courthouses. There's even a Boston Bike Messenger Association, a registered 501(c)6 nonprofit, to proove their presence.
- A trek through the Minuteman Trail
Years ago, when I was a completely out-of-shape cycling novice, I had a vague dream of someday riding my bike the entire length of the Minuteman Bike Path — a 10-mile trail that starts in Cambridge, winds through Arlington and Lexington, and ends in Bedford.
- Protecting your dome in DIY fashion
Kelly Wallace was only 23 years old when a car struck her bike and killed her at the corner of Harvard Avenue and Cambridge Street in Allston. Her death came only one month after her friend Gordon Riker was also tragically killed by a car while biking.
- An interview with the co-founder of Tufts Bikes
While Boston's Hubway program was announced at the end of April to great fanfare, Tufts senior Daniel Heller beat them to the punch with a campus-centric bike-sharing program, Tufts Bikes (tuftsbikes.wordpress.com), which launched on April 1.
- Photos: 7th annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Austin
Boston's handcrafted bicycle movement goes to Austin
- Review: South of the Border
Oliver Stone may have been easy on W. in his bio-pic, but he chops the dummy's head off in this revealing documentary about the social-welfare-minded neo-liberal leaders running South America, and the liars in the Bush administration who compared them to Hitler and bin Laden.
- Review: Hatchet II
Green exploited the teenage-splatter-film æsthetic in his first outing; Hatchet II merely exploits our gag reflexes.
- Musician + Author = Crap
On Tuesday, musician Ben Folds (formerly of the Five) and rock-obsessed novelist Nick Hornby ( High Fidelity ) released a collaborative record called Lonely Avenue . The result of this musical-literary team-up isn't excruciating.
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