<p>As an incoming UCSB freshman, I am in the search for a bike and I have narrowed it to either a beach cruiser or a mountain bike. Which one would be better for UCSB area?</p>
<p>For the campus, beach cruiser. If you are a serious rider, mountain bike. The cruisers are cheaper and more common in campus, and there are really no large hills in campus. But, if you go to explore more of Santa Barbara beyond the beach and campus and you want to ride hills, get a mountain bike.</p>
<p>(Lived on campus for a time)</p>
<p>A mountain bike is way overkill for riding around campus getting to and from class. It is flat and everything is paved so those thick treaded tires and heavy frame will really slow you down. Plus you won’t need all that gearing because there are no hills to climb and you don’t need shocks because there are no bumps. But a bike with gears is nice if you enjoy longer distance riding for fun and fitness, so a hybrid road/mountain bike might be a good alternative. Will get you around campus faster without weighing you down, but also give you some flexibility to do some light trail riding or roads and paved bike paths if you want to.</p>
<p>I’d choose option C. A cheap bike. You don’t want to have $1000 sitting outside tempting people to take it. As has been said, UCSB is flat as a pancake and anything that rolls will work. Consider, too, it will be parked outside in the rain, so you don’t want something expensive to get rusted. Fenders, because of said rain, are nice to have. If you look at <a href=“http://bikes.as.ucsb.edu/[/url]”>http://bikes.as.ucsb.edu/</a> you can see a few pics of typical bikes on campus.</p>
<p>Two other things. First, always lock your bike, even if you’re doing something even for just a minute. That’s all it takes for someone to hop on and ride away. Most students never have a problem their entire time at UCSB, so I don’t want to make anyone worry, but the simple precaution of locking your bike causes thieves to move on to the next unlocked bike. </p>
<p>Second, get a light for your bike, either now or at the UCSB bike shop when you get to campus. Something cheap is fine, the purpose isn’t lighting your path – its avoiding tickets. The friendly UC Police sit on the bike paths every fall since they know that new students will be riding around without a light after dark; easy ticket.</p>