Riding in Rhode Island with the AMC varies from 'Easy Rider'  bike rides to fast 'Intermediate" rides.  The terrain in the state varies from relatively flat to quite hilly, so the fact that hills will be encountered must be taken into consideration on choosing a type of bike.   To join either of these loosely rated types of rides, there are several type of bicycles that can be used.  For the slower rides a hybrid, comfort, mountain bike, or road bike will allow you to ride at a pace that generally does not exceed on the average of 10 mph.  For the faster rides, it is suggested that you use a standard style road bike or some variation on this style.

If you are a beginner or want to only join in the more relaxed pace of the 'Easy Rider' rides, bicycle selection is fairly easy since any type of bike can go slow.  On the practical side because of the hills, avoid any of the older 3 speed bikes of the 60's and 70's that might be in the garage.  The hills will defeat you.  If you are buying a new bike or a recent used bike, a hybrid is probably the most commonly used bike. You will sit more upright than a road bike, the seat will be more comfortable, the handlebars will be straight, shifting will be with a twist knob or a thumb lever, and the tires will have a light tread design and medium width.  Comfort  bicycles are a recent inovation based on a softer riding hybrid bike and may look like the older balloon tire bikes of the 50's.  Mountain bikes in the current configurations are better suited for the woods because most are equipted with front shock absorbers and sometimes with rear suspension.  The tires will be 2 inch size, agressively knobby and not suited for easy road riding.  You will not be able to go fast unless you are a strong rider.  Since most of the 'Easy Rider' biking will be on the roads, with a  hard dirt path occasionally, a medium tire with a smooth tread is better.  There is a noticable difference in the riding ease between knobby tires and smooth tires of the same diameter. 

If you want to go fast and if you have bicycle experience, you probably know all about road bikes.  The 'Intermediate' rides will usually average a 12-14 mph pace but will somtimes go faster depending on the group of riders. On a 30 mile ride, maintaing a 14 mph pace is not difficult if you are in good shape and ride often.  For those that want to join in this type of ride, a road (aka racing) or touring bike is required.  If your hybrid has thinner smooth tread tires you might be able to join this type of ride.  The advantage of the road bike is the drop handlebars.  If you are not famililar with the term, they are the kind that curve down.  They have been around along time, since the 20's, and have the advantage of allowing you to lean down and decrease the wind resistance at higher speeds.  For longer rides they also have the advantage of different hand positions, preventing your hands from becoming cramped or sore in one position.  Since there is an up and down part of the bars, you can stretch your back in two different positions, greatly increasing the comfort on long rides. When you lean over in the lower handlebar position your body position is shifted more over the pedals which allows a more efficient pedaling position.  Hill climbing and going faster actually become easier with these kind of handlebars.  Since the tires are usually thin with very little tread, the rolling resistance is reduced allowing greater speed and endurance. 

For the beginner or the person who has not ridden a bike since youth, picking a bike will also depend on your athletic style.  By this I mean that as an older adult your athletic abilities are pretty much fixed.  Yes, long hours at the gym or health club help get us back in to a more youthful configuration,  but most  (older adults) don't have the time or even the inclination to work that hard.  So it boils down to how can you get the most enjoyment out of biking without killing yourself.  Here are a few observations that I have picked up over the years.  Go to different bicycle stores and listen to the sales person.  Become familiar with what is on the market.  They will  always ask you "What  do you want?" which is a problem because as a beginner, you don't know what you want.  If you know what you want, you probably should have skipped this section. But assuming that you are a beginner or near beginner, you should try to explain your situation.  Also you should know that the salesperson will try to figure you out and try to sell you the bike that will make you the HAPPIEST.  A happy customer is a repeat customer.  This will usually not be the most expensive bike, nor the one that you will be riding in three years, nor the one that he/she thinks is the BEST for you.  Here are the pitfalls.  If you have any athletic ability, what is comfortable today will seem tame and slow after a few hundred miles.  It takes time to become familiar and comfortable riding on highways if your last experience was as a  child riding on the sidewalks.  It takes time to become familiar with shifting the bike, expecially the new integral shifter/brake systems.  The right shifter does not work the same way as the left shifter, and all those problems.  It is all so confusing, and at the same time the bike is so tippy and twitchy.  Sometimes test  riding the bike at the dealer is difficult.  Then there is that problem that most of the faster bikes have those confusing clip-on pedals.  "How can I test a bike if I've never used those kind of pedals."  Tip: have the dealer temporarly replace them with flat pedals for a safer test ride.   I have known several people who after buying their first (adult) bike, usually a hybrid,  ride for a couple of years wondering why everyone is so much faster or less tired.  Then they buy a road bike and find a whole new plateau of riding.  These people were of an athletic disposition when they purchased the hybrid bike but were not comfortable test riding the road bike.  While I can not recommend just going ahead and buying a road bike the first time, the purchaser should not be too reluctant in considering the faster lighter bike if they think biking will be a sport that is really going to appeal to them.  It is helpful to ask a friend to lend you their bike to try in a more relaxed situation than a sales room. Usually your friend will know you better than the sales person, and perceive your abilities better than the sales person.  On the other hand if you know that you will always be a slower occasional rider, do not buy a performance bike that will test you everytime you ride it. That will be no fun.

Almost all bikes sold in New England have enough gearing to allow you to comfortably ride hills.  This will mean three chain rings (the gears up where the pedals are) to allow a very low gearing.  Some of the fast road bikes will have only two chain rings and will not have a low enough gearing to get up the steep hills unless you are a strong rider.  Some of the 'comfort' bikes may not have the gearing for hills either.  Hybrid and mountain bikes will have proper gearing for New England hills.

Buying a new bike these days can be an experience in sticker shock.  After all, you just want a bike to ride and have fun, you don't really need it like for transportation.  You see bikes all the time put out on the side of the road with the trash.  The bikes in Walmart and other 'big box' stores are selling for $50 to $150.  Why am you looking at a starting bike at $500 in a bike store?  Basically a bike is pretty simple.  It is the quality of the bike and the components  that make the bikes cost different by a factor of 10.  A cheap bike made in China will be heavy for its size, ride slowly, shift sloppily, and break down quickly.  They are throw away bikes for kids.  A decent hybrid or mountain bike with cheap ( but not badly manufactured) components will cost around $500.  A  decent road bike will usually start around $700.   Really nice, fast and light road bike can cost $1200 to $2000 or more.  If you are a beginner to bicycling, buy the least expensive bike that satisfies your needs.  If you do only use it for a limited period of time, remember that a good used bike depreciates pretty much on par with cars.  But only in personal sales.  Don't expect your bike dealer to buy a used bike.  They are too much trouble.  Most will take a bike in trade for a new one if your older bike is decent and in good condition.

There are many bicycle shops in Rhode Island and near by.  Ask your friends where they bought their bicycles, or look at the links for the local bike shops collected by the NBW Club. Look at the very top menu banner under 'Links'.