Commuter Bike Advice

Gneiss

My company have just decided to re-locate my office from an idyllic countryside setting to the centre of Bristol. I currently ride 2 or 3 times a week the 15 mile round trip on a Trek Fuel Ex8 (my route includes off road, cycle paths and the road). My new commute will be a 30 mile round trip and be on road and cycle path (former Bristol to Bath railway line).

I will have around £800 to spend via the cycle to work scheme and have been considering (on paper):

Trek 7.6 FX
Specialized Sirrus Expert
Marin Mill Valley

Is there anything else that I should be considering? Does anyone have any experience (good or bad) of the above? I am also intrigued as to what the performance difference would be in rim brakes over hydraulic discs (given the differences in tyres).

Thanks

gtvlusso

Personally - I would go for a www.boardmanbikes.com Hybrid....If I had to. As it is, I use a drop handle Boardman Team race bike on the road and a home made fixie!!

As for brakes, rim brakes are fine for everything on road, not so great in the wet, but hey, I can live with that for the weight saving - only needed disks off road in mud. Disk brakes and hydraulics add allot of weight to the bike....

As the cycle path is flat, I would do it fixed anyway as it is harder and maintain a high fitness level.

Christophe3967

Lots of recent threads on here on this subject, so it would be worth having a look at those, as there are lots of pros & cons. Much depends on your own views, but as far as I know the Bristol Bath route is tarmac, so that puts you into road bike territory as well.

You may ultimately feel that a hybrid is the way to go, and the 3 you've mentioned are all good bikes. Whatever you do, try as many as you can beforehand - its amazing how different they are. Enjoy

Gneiss

Thanks for the advice - I take the point about try before etc

The Boardmans look interesting - I'm afraid it's flat bars for me though (a dodgy neck means that narrow drop bars are a real pain.

Cheers

the_hundredth_idiot

Gneiss wrote:

Thanks for the advice - I take the point about try before etc

The Boardmans look interesting - I'm afraid it's flat bars for me though (a dodgy neck means that narrow drop bars are a real pain.

Cheers

They're not all drop bars - they do flat bars as well: http://www.boardmanbikes.com/hybrid/index.html

HOGE

I looked at the Marin, the Trek 7.7, a Lapierre, couldn't decide between them. Then on a random visit to a bike shop, I discovered Cube.
Went for a SL Cross Race. Probably more than what you would want, but check out the specs and weight on the range of models.
More than happy with my bike, though I'm now trying ergonomic grips as it is a hard ride, albeit very efficient!