Advice on bike for commuting?

d21dga

Soon I'll be ordering my voucher for my cycle2work scheme. I'm gonna get a £500 voucher and I can choose either Evans or any of the LBS in the Cyclescheme network.
It's ages since I last cycled so I'll need to buy accessories like helmet, lights, lock, reflectives etc.
Therefore if I get a £500 voucher I reckon I've got about £350-400 to spend on the bike itself.
My commute will only be a 6 mile round trip, half on roads and half on poor-condition roads or bridleways. Therefore I was planning to get a hybrid which is closer to a MTB than a road bike.
I'm going into my LBS this weekend and I've been on Evans website already. In the £300-£400 price range it seems there are hundreds of bikes to choose from, all of which seem to me to be pretty similar.
Are there any bits of the bike spec I should concentrate most on and are there any manufacturers I should look at/avoid?
Thanks!

Eau Rouge

d21dga wrote:

Soon I'll be ordering my voucher for my cycle2work scheme. I'm gonna get a £500 voucher and I can choose either Evans or any of the LBS in the Cyclescheme network.
It's ages since I last cycled so I'll need to buy accessories like helmet, lights, lock, reflectives etc.
Therefore if I get a £500 voucher I reckon I've got about £350-400 to spend on the bike itself.
My commute will only be a 6 mile round trip, half on roads and half on poor-condition roads or bridleways. Therefore I was planning to get a hybrid which is closer to a MTB than a road bike.
I'm going into my LBS this weekend and I've been on Evans website already. In the £300-£400 price range it seems there are hundreds of bikes to choose from, all of which seem to me to be pretty similar.
Are there any bits of the bike spec I should concentrate most on and are there any manufacturers I should look at/avoid?
Thanks!

I would suggest you go and visit some local LBS's in the scheme and the Evans website and decide before you order the voucher which exact bike you want, and what exact accesories you will need to get, and get a quote from either the LBS or Evans for the lot and then order the voucher for that amount.

That way you don't have some voucher left over you don't need, or you don't need to top up the voucher from your already-taxed money.

Poor condition roads aren't an issue for any bike, but the bridleway will limit you to needing wider tyres to cope. The 3 miles either way is the interesting bit.
Think about what other riding you will/might want to do and let that dictate your choice of bike, not the short commute. 3 miles is short enough that you could do it on anything without seeing much difference.
If you fancy doing more off-roading, get a MTB, if you want to go touring, get a tourer, if you want to do long fitness rides, get a roadie, if you want to time trial, get a TT, if you want to do a bit of raod stuff some days, a bit of lightish off-roading another, get a Cyclocross bike etc etc.
If you really only want to do the 6 mile round trip, get the coolest looking bike you see, but we're cycling advocates around here, we want to see more peope enjoying riding their bikes, and a huge part fo that is enjoying it, and a huge part of that is getting a bike that lets them enjoy it.

Have a little think about it, visit some shops, and you'll find the right bike for you
(10-1 it's not a hybrid )

d21dga

Thanks for the advice. Looks like it might not come to anything though as I've just been put on redundancy consultancy
I was quite looking forward to getting back into cycling as well.

CiB

Why does everyone who comes on here asking about C2W automatically assume that they'll need helmet, lights, lock, reflective clothing etc adding up to the best part of £150?

Helmet - optional, not compulsory, mandatory or even necessary in my world. Yes I know it's an old argument. Search out the helmets thread if you want to carry on that pointless argument.

Lights. Really? They don't cost much, it's May so wait until the end of September to see if you'll still be planning to ride to work in the winter months, then see what's available. It's not always necessary to have a lighthouse on each end of the bike.

Reflectives etc. Again - just a bit overboard, and even so how much does a hi-viz vest cost? They were £1 (one whole shiny English pound) in Tesco last time I looked.

Locks. Depends where you keep the bike I suppose. Mine is in my office, which I accept might be unique, but it hasn't been locked up for over 2 years now.

</grumble mode> If I were in the C2W scheme I'd be looking to get as much bike as poss for the available dosh, and worry about the odds & sods afterwards, most of which are pocket money prices anyway if you do decide you need all of the usual 'accessories'.

artaxerxes

Why does everyone who comes on here asking about C2W automatically assume that they'll need helmet, lights, lock, reflective clothing etc adding up to the best part of £150?

Well there are certain things you'll need like:
- pump
- multi tool
- spare inner tubes
- tyre levers
- lights

Although you can easily get all of the above for under £50 if you go to Halfords or Decathlon.

Eau Rouge

ChrisInBicester wrote:

Why does everyone who comes on here asking about C2W automatically assume that they'll need helmet, lights, lock, reflective clothing etc adding up to the best part of £150?

Your office solution is rare. A Gold Standard lock, a usualy requirement for insurance purposes if nothing else, will be of the order of £75.

Yes, helmets are optional and not necessary, but I don't think anyone is arguing that cyclists shouldn't be allowed to wear helmets. That allows people to wear one, and if your going to buy one, it's going to be about £50+

Thats over £100. Add a multitool, pump, saddle bag, and it quickly add up. Sure, individually, they aren't expensive, but under the scheme you get them at 30% off no matter how little they cost. If you are going to buy them anyway, and you are, you may as well buy them on the scheme and save a little money, no?

Nifkin

The more money you can spend on locks is always a good thing, and the best aint cheap, so your C2W discount will definitely come in handy for that. If you do park your bike outdoors for extended lengths of time then a decent D-shackle AND a padlock & chain combo will go a fair way to keeping your frameset/wheelset where you left them (even if your saddle does disappear!)

Oh, and if your commute is 10 miles+ each way like mine, a decent pair of gloves/mitts keep your hands nice and blister free, and not to mention less bloody when you have an off! :shock:

Nif :twisted: