Have you bought or would you buy a LandRider bicycle?

Question

You can't buy it at a store, only from TV. It has an auto gearshifter.

Answer 1

That particular bike is junk, but the idea is a good one.

Look for a "Breezer Uptown 8" or "Electra Townie 8" or "REI Novara Fusion" or "Gazelle" or "Dutch Bike" with "Shimano Nexus 8". . .

Because these have a simple and oh-so-reliable Shimano Nexus 8 internally geared transmission that is operated by just one dial.

Unlike the landrider, there's no gobs of gears and an exposed derailleur. There's no derailleur whatsoever. There's no derailleur maintenance, no adjustments, no cleaning,--internal gears are trouble free.

While shifting of the Nexus 8 is manual, the one dial can be turned to your ease at any time, even while stopped.

Unlike the landrider, Nexus 8 bikes can shift while stopped or at any time, no matter what.

The Landrider get jammed at a high gear every time you stop suddenly, just like any derailleur system.

A better performing and much less expensive alternative to the Landrider is the Diamondback Edgewood/Winwood series. While it has standard derailleurs, operation is simple, the quality is good and maintenance minimal--at half the price.
*Do bear in mind when shopping that bikes with a slanted top tube are supposed to show a lot of seat post sticking up, and please don't use standover height to judge sizes on modern bikes. If the bike seems to have unnaturally high ("ape hanger" is the industry term) handlebars, then it is too large.

The issue with derailleurs isn't shifting--the issue is maintenance and adjustments. Landrider needs even more shop time than a standard derailleur system.

For true reliability, get a modern performance gearhub like Shimano Nexus 8, SRAM Spectro 7, Rohloff 14, and the newly introduced SRAM I-Motion 9.

On those, the transmission is automatic--the shifting isn't. But it's foolproof and easy.

For an automatic transmission with a computer shifter, see Smover
http://www.smover.com/publish/content/smover/en/smovers.html

Answer 2

So it's a heavy bike that has a gimmicky shifting system, only one frame size, and not even Wal-Mart will carry it? You won't get any support on it when it breaks, and you'll eventually have to learn to shift a real bicycle anyway.

Don't bother; go to a real bicycle shop and get set up with something good

Answer 3

wouldn't buy it, I've worked on one in a bike shop. Total junk, not worth the effort to fix.

Answer 4

Never. I prefer to shift my own gears, thank you.