Spending up to 200 dollars now on a bike for slow rides on gravel roads I'm a dad with a kid just getting old enough that we can bike around together. I've been using a 10 dollar bike I got from a garage sale but it's just rusty junk at this point. Our other kid is still going to need to be in a back mounted seat for another year or two so I don't want to bother investing in a nice bike for me that is going to get busted up just from the mounting of the child seat.

So if I only have 200 dollars at most to put into a bike, what type of bike is least bad when it's cheap? I've picked up that the "full suspension" bikes are just horrible on the cheap bikes (and that's all that my Walmart seems to have), but what about the full body solid road type bikes? I'll be spending 95% of the time just piddling around on gravel roads and maybe light gravel trails. Nothing on mountains but also no need for real speed.
I'd recommend another used bike.  It might take some time to find a suitable one that fits your budget, but garage sales, thrift stores, and maybe even Craig's list are good places to find good used bikes that would fit in your budget.

A couple of recommendations:


Don't buy a bike without seeing it.
Bring a set of decent tools to do a good inspection (Don't use cheap tools on someone else's bike...)
Loosen and remove the seat post, look inside for bad rust/corrosion
Do ALL the parts that are supposed to rotate/move smoothly? (A rusty chain is no big deal - it can be replaced, but count that in your budget)
See if you can loosen the pedals from the crankset
Remove and replace the wheels - you're going to have to replace tires and tubes eventually...
Check cables and brake pads (no big deal, they might well need to be replaced, but count that in your budget)
Loosen the handlebars and headset


Obviously, you'll have to be able to return the bike to its original condition.

If you can't do any of that without damaging the bike, it's not a good bike to buy.  For example, if you can't get the seat post, pedals, or headset loose, there's probably way too much corrosion or rust.

If the seller doesn't want you to check out the bike like that, don't buy it.