Road bike advice

bluefoam
bluefoam Posts: 102
edited March 2008 in Road beginners
Hi I'm a newbi to road cycling & I'm looking for a bike for commuting and a bit of training & thought a hybrid might suit best. What kind of bike should I be looking for? I need to buy in Evans because of the bike to work scheme. I've been looking at the Bianchi ones, mostly because I like the look of them & they seem to have a good name for racers...

What do you think of this:

http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=70462
or
http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=86038

http://www.evanscycles.com

Any help appreciated

Comments

  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    A question to ask yourself......why not a proper road bike?
    I like bikes...

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  • Alibran
    Alibran Posts: 370
    I'd ask the same question. I commute on a hybrid at the moment, and I'm about to change it for a road bike.
  • Shadowduck
    Shadowduck Posts: 845
    I'd second reddraggon - I made the mistake of buying a hybrid when starting out.

    Then I bought an old road bike for £100 off e-bay as a backup and ended up preferring it to the expensive hybrid, so I bought a better road bike and now have three! The hybrid hasn't turned a wheel since... Essentially, there's really not much you can do with a hybrid you can't do with a road bike, whereas a road bike is much less hard work and more fun.

    If you want to ride on road, buy a road bike. If you want to ride off road, buy a mountain bike. If you want to ride on and off road, buy two bikes!
    Even if the voices aren't real, they have some very good ideas.
  • morxy
    morxy Posts: 114
    I think there's a place for a hybrid in every city dweller's collection. I bought a Scott Sub 20 2007 last year, upgraded the wheels, installed thinner tyres... 3200 miles later I'm still delighted with it and would highly recommend it to anyone.

    It's fast, comfortable for long rides and urban commutes, trips to Tesco... flat bars means you can hook bags onto them when your backpack's full. Today I even hooked a Mavic Aksium wheel on the bars and transported it to an LBS. Couldn't do that on my road bike 8) I also think the position of the gear shifters and brakes on flat bars is comfortable for newbies.

    Ultimately I'd advise having a hybrid and a road bike :wink: but if you only want a hybrid I'd recommend these from personal experience:

    Genesis Day 01 2008
    Genesis Day 02 2007
    Scott Sub 20 2008
    Scott Speedster S60 FB 2008

    All the Genesis Day 0x bikes are pretty good. You can get the Genesis Day 00 2007 at Evans for £299 now. All these bikes except the Sub 20 are basically road bikes with flat bars. The Sub 20 is slightly closer to MTBs in terms of its gearing (e.g. 11-30T cassette), overall weight and V-brakes.
  • morxy
    morxy Posts: 114
    Er... but since this is a road bike forum I should probably persuade you to get a proper road bike!

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