London to Brighton bike road and hardly ridden in 15 years

jcmmcj

Hi, I have talked myself into doing the London to Brighton ride in June with some work colleagues for the BHF. I've done one proper bike ride in the last 15 years which was last year on holiday. It was 26k and went ok except for extreme saddle soreness though the bikes were rented and very very old. I need to buy a bike and am looking for advice on what to buy. I obviously need something that will help through the London to Brighton ride, but I may then choose to bike to work which is a 10 mile journey on flat roads. It would also be nice to have some limited off road suitability for weekends. A work colleague has suggested a hybrid bike is my best option. I've discounted mountain bikes as these don't seem that well suited to biking on roads longer distances. My main criteria for buying is something that's comfortable to ride, light (ish) and easy to ride. I can spend about £300-£700. Is a hybrid the one to go for, and any suggestions what I choose?

afcbian

Get yourself a hardtail mountain bike with a 100mm fork. It'll do pretty much everything !
Something like a Carrera Fury (£500) would suit well and still give you change. But there are other very good bikes in that price range.
For the sort of riding you describe it would be very comfortable to comute on and would actually be great starter bike should you get the bug for MTB riding.
As for comfort it's personal taste but MTB's are good for long distance too providing they are set up correctly. For long road journeys simply replace the nobbly tyres with a set of 1.5" road slicks (£30) and bob's your uncle
Only way to truly find out what suits is to get on one
I've done the L2B 4 times and always done it on an MTB 3 times with nobblies and only once with slicks.

loltoride

Go to the road section & ask same question, you should only really be looking at either Hybrid or Road bike a journey like that will not be fun on a mountain bike.

The Spiderman

If you ride only on roads I`d normally say get a road bike.If you haven`t ridden a ridden a bike for a long time though you might find the razor sharp handling and drop bars of an out and out road bike a bit unnerving,at first though.

Mountain bikes are sluggish on road but more beginner friendly and offer more comfort,and fitting them with slicks,makes them a lot faster.

They are also very versatile and give you the option to go off road should you decide to.

Hyrbids come in many forms,some are really just MTBs with slicks,at the other extreme some are basically flat barred road bikes.

Your best bet is to find a bikeshop with a large selection of bikes and ride as many as possible,to find what suits.

JamesBrckmn

you could get a more road orientated hybrd like a specialized sirrus. basicaly a road bike with flat bars and is comfier