Beginner needing help to buy a multi-purpose commuter.

pedal-pusher

Hi all, hope this is the right section. I'm looking to start cycling and have been looking through a lot of info but need some advice.
I'm looking for a cheap bike (£300-350ish) that I'll be able to use to both commute to work (~8 miles road/cycle paths) and venture into the world of off road cycling too.
I've been looking at the Revolution Cuillin Pro '09 from Edinburgh Bike Co-op, with the pro's being a lockable suspension fork, hydraulic disc brakes and cheapness. I'm thinking that using that and locking the suspension and maybe putting on slicker tyres it would be useable to commute on but I could also do reasonable off-roading at the weekend, then further down the line I could look for a dedicated commuter.
So my question is, as a novice, is this reasonable or am I being naive? And is this a good bike choice or do you have any recommendations for this purpose?

skyd0g

Does your employer offer the Cycle to Work scheme? Some info here http://www.bikeforall.net/content/cycle_to_work_scheme.php This could improve your budget & potential bike.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

A cyclo-cross bike might be the forward, as they are designed to be at home on the tarmac and non-extreme off-road scenarios.

The Revolution Cross '09 for £350 might fit the bill nicely...
http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLq ... 333c018335

Canny Jock

That's a good choice for the money. You could also look second hand, check the for sale forum on here.

soy_sauce

Revolution Cuillin Pro '09 is a good choice.

roger_merriman

any bike should be fine for the commute.

rather depends what your asperations are. The MTB will take you far off road. but don't discount the cross if you aren't going to be going that off road, and want a bit of speed.

tomb353

not a bad choice, if you have friends who go mountain biking then the cullin will enable you to keep up.

I'm assuming you mean 8 miles per day commutng, so 40 per week. It'll be worth investing in decent quality puncture proof commuter tyres.
http://www.bike24.com/1.php?content=8;n ... ;orderby=2

By the time you get a good lock and spare tyres plus other bits and pieces you'll probably have spent around £100. Doing 40 miles a week you'll probably need to budget around £20 per month on maintenance.

Jamey

Switching from road to off-road riding is less about the bike itself and more about the tyres.

Both MTBs and CX bikes will be fine for your needs but whichever one you choose you're probably going to have to switch the tyres over at weekends.

Either that or you'll need to choose between having to slog a bit on the commute or having less-than-ideal amounts of grip on the weekend rides.

prawny

tomb353 wrote:

Doing 40 miles a week you'll probably need to budget around £20 per month on maintenance.

I only get that and I do 40 miles a day :oops: Can you have a word with my wife

pedal-pusher

just dashing off a quick response via my phone to say thanks for the useful info so far, much appreciated! i'll post a fuller response later though.

rolf_f

Don't really need the lockable fork for road riding - I commute on an MTB with unlockable coil springs and the only inconvenience is suspension bob when riding out of the saddle (which I don't do that much).

For tyres, on the commute, I use Scwalbe City Jets (fat ones) which are fine and cheap and have only punctured once on me (big shard of glass).

The knobblies it came with were Continental Speed Kings - they weren't much slower than the City Jets but the tread wore down a little quickly on the road so the slicks are worth having for that reason alone.

The Cuillin Pro looks OK but if you went to the MTB forum I suspect they'd be much more keen on the Triad 3.0 - an extra £100 gets you more standard MTB equipment. Alot of the Cuillin Pro kit looks to me like hybrid kit. As already said, Bike to Work scheme might help - could get nearly twice the bike for the money!

pedal-pusher

Does your employer offer the Cycle to Work scheme?

I'm afraid not and won't be in the near future!

I'm assuming you mean 8 miles per day commutng, so 40 per week. It'll be worth investing in decent quality puncture proof commuter tyres.......you'll probably need to budget around £20 per month on maintenance.

Sorry I meant 8 miles each way, so I'll hopefully be doing more like 80 per week eventually, will take me a while to manage everyday though I reckon. I hadn't really thought about the maintenance costs, but should be managable, thanks!
Well it's nice to know that if I go for that bike it should be fine, but now I'm debating with myself whether I should go for a cyclo-cross instead, dammit!

rolf_f

pedal-pusher wrote:

Well it's nice to know that if I go for that bike it should be fine, but now I'm debating with myself whether I should go for a cyclo-cross instead, dammit!

Where do you live? Proper mountains and trail centres want a proper MTB. Softer offroad suits cyclocross bikes. 8 miles isn't so far - my round trip is about 13 hilly miles and the MTB (not a very light one) is fine for it. I think you'd probably be compromising your weekends more with the cyclocross bike than you would your weekdays with an MTB!

pedal-pusher

Rolf F wrote:

pedal-pusher wrote:

Well it's nice to know that if I go for that bike it should be fine, but now I'm debating with myself whether I should go for a cyclo-cross instead, dammit!

Where do you live? Proper mountains and trail centres want a proper MTB. Softer offroad suits cyclocross bikes. 8 miles isn't so far - my round trip is about 13 hilly miles and the MTB (not a very light one) is fine for it. I think you'd probably be compromising your weekends more with the cyclocross bike than you would your weekdays with an MTB!

I'm in Glasgow.
Thanks Rolf, two very helpful posts. Yeah I'm still erring on the side of MTB. As for the Triad, your probably right, but I don't think I can stretch that far unfortunately!

suzyb

pedal-pusher wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

pedal-pusher wrote:

Well it's nice to know that if I go for that bike it should be fine, but now I'm debating with myself whether I should go for a cyclo-cross instead, dammit!

Where do you live? Proper mountains and trail centres want a proper MTB. Softer offroad suits cyclocross bikes. 8 miles isn't so far - my round trip is about 13 hilly miles and the MTB (not a very light one) is fine for it. I think you'd probably be compromising your weekends more with the cyclocross bike than you would your weekdays with an MTB!

I'm in Glasgow.
Thanks Rolf, two very helpful posts. Yeah I'm still erring on the side of MTB. As for the Triad, your probably right, but I don't think I can stretch that far unfortunately!

In that case you'll need an MTB as it'll be the only thing that can survive the potholes

rolf_f

pedal-pusher wrote:

I'm in Glasgow.
Thanks Rolf, two very helpful posts. Yeah I'm still erring on the side of MTB. As for the Triad, your probably right, but I don't think I can stretch that far unfortunately!

Glasgow - yeah, go MTB though Wallace might argue on that one!

As for the model - I'd really recommend you ask this question again in the MTB beginners forum. They'll not eat you and they will have good suggestions as to what the best deals are at that price (some of the Halfords bikes get good ratings as long as you don't have to rely on the staff to make sure the bike is safely assembled......)

As for the Revolution bikes - a What Mountain Bike review was very favourable of one of the higher spec Triads a while back so the frame at least can't be bad.

simon_e

I think you would benefit from visiting some shops and having a look at what's available.

Before going further you should choose whether to go for drop bar or flats. Cyclocross bikes are often mentioned on here as versatile both on and off road, with plenty of clearance for mudguards, but most are probably outside your budget.

Through the winter I use my 12 year old rigid Kona MTB with slicks for the commute. Suspension isn't really necessary anyway, when we go offroad I seem to get down the things my mate does on his expensive hardtail.

Kona Dew, Revolution Courier or Pathfinder and Specialized Sirrus are worth a look. However, if you want a bouncy bike the Specialized Hardrock disc is a really good buy (a colleague has one) and I'd expect the Giant Boulder/Yukon to be similarly effective. Whatever you get I'd suggest adding proper mudguards if possible and Schwalbe City Jet tyres.

KulaBen

Hello Pedal-Pusher,

I thought i'd wade in with my three-penneth too. I bought a commuter with the same aim as you have- ie so it could handle a bit of off road too. I quickly realised that for anything more strenous than a tow-path you need proper fat nobbly tires and possible suspension too. Also after a few trips out I got the MTB bug and ended up buying one of those. My point is that it is worth really being sure about how much off road you want to do. If you're convinced then i'd say go with an MTB and just swap the tires. If not then something like a spesh sirrus, kona dew (which I have and think is great) or the revolution you have mentioned are all good bikes, and will have 700c wheels which will help with the commute. Any bike that trys to do too many things will be something of a compromise, it just depends where you want your compromise to be.
A final option would be if you can find a cannondale badboy in the sale. These are pretty much rigid mtbs but with slick tires- but because they have 26 inch wheels you could easily swap them for proper mtb tires. They also have good mud clearance if you do.

Either way try to find 08 and 09 bikes that have been reduced as for your budget they'll get you a much better bike, especially as over the last few a number of manufactureres have just changed the colour and not the spec from year to year.

A final bit of advice -there's a guy on youtube who posts his commute videos through Glasgow. Well worth a look, though I forget his name, sorry must be getting senile!

Happy biking

Ben

pedal-pusher

Thanks for the further advice guys, I'll be heading out today to look at some bikes so I'll check out ones mentioned here and that's two recommendations for Schwalbe City Jet tyres, so guess I should be looking at getting those!
And I looked up the Glasgow Youtube commuter, it's Magnatom now I really want to go through the Clyde Tunnel!

KulaBen

Magnatom! That's him, he strikes me as a good bloke.

I'm moving jobs in feb, and my commute will be down to ten miles, so thinking of biking it. Any recommendations on panniers? Also is it worth getting a decent service in first?

supersonic

If you want to go offroad and tackle some decent terrain, then you will be better off with an MTB.

Have a look in our MTB forums for lots of ideas, cmmon choices and reviews.