What do you think of this bike?

[NotMe]

Hello,
basically I am a university student, and I am looking to get an affordable bike that will cover my needs around campus/town. Back at home I have a mountain bike which I have had for years and pretty much covered my needs. Now I am considering buying a "city" bike because I want a light bike, and I also don't care much about gears and I want it to want as little attention as possible.
My budget is quite low, around 150 pounds.
I have found the following bike on ebay that seems to be quite a good match to what I am looking for (though I know nothing about bikes other than you get on it and you cycle ).

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VIKING-CI...99712?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&var=&hash=item1e6cb4afe0

what do you think of it?

PS: I have also found this as an alternative:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RALEIGH-A...K_Bikes_GL&hash=item1e6bf3d1b4#ht_2091wt_1377
what are your thoughts and comments?

Thank you.

 

[al-fresco]

Well my first thought is that the bikes shown are rather different in size - the smallest Viking is 56cm and the Raleigh is 43cm - that's a huge difference even allowing for the fact that different manufacturers my have different ways of measuring frames. When it comes to size there is a bit of leeway but not much - and if you get the wrong size it'll be a complete waste of money.

Have a look at this image: http://tenerife-training.net/Teneri...uploads/2008/04/bicycle-frame-measurement.gif

Now try a few bikes for size - friends bikes, shop bikes, any bikes. Have steel tape measure handy. If a bike feels like a good fit take a note of the measurements of the tubes corresponding to those marked ST and TT (seat tube and top tube) in the diagram. Whatever bike you get needs to be within a gnat's tadger of those measurements.

As regards buying bikes on a budget, well the rule tends to be that there's cheap, strong and light but you can only ever have 2 out of the 3. Of the bikes shown I'd go for the Viking on the principle that you're actually getting less cheap stuff for your money. But I'd also look out for similar second-hand bikes.