Road bike or Hybrid

gateian

Hi Guys,

I'm considering buying a bike in the £500 - £750 range with the intention of doing the coast 2 coast (UK) ride in June this year. But i'm not sure whether to go with a pure road bike or hybrid.

My gut says go for a road bike, but my main concern for that is that some or the routes I may take will be country paths or lanes that may be littered with 'puncture causing' debris. Also, alot of the training routes around where I live will require me to go up and down kerbs from time to time. Seems to me that this might not be good for a road bike.

Also, i'm not intending to break any records here and I have no intention to go into any competition. I just want to do it, to get fit and have fun.

Any thoughts?

craker

Pop into your LBS and give both a try.

It's not so straightforward as road bike = light, fast & fragile, hybrid = more robust. Get a road bike with wider puncture tyres for example.

tedwards

have you considered touring bikes...would be ideal - the sportiness of a road bike with comfort and versatility of a hybrid

gateian

Thanks guys. Yeah I think I will have to try a few out and see what I feel most comfortable with I guess. Just wanted to check out if road bikes were strictly 'road only'

I've not heard of touring bikes, but that sounds interesting. Is there any well known good makes?

u05harrisb

cyclocross bike?

kilo

Get a road bike that fit's properly, get wider tyres on if neccesary. Road bikes are used in Paris Roubaix and other cobbled classics and not neccesarily going to fall apart the moment you drop off a kerb, do it carefuly and you'll be fine . Hybrid great if you commuting but a road bike offers a greater variety of hand postions and will be faster

maddog 2

make the judgement based on the ergonmics and setup you prefer, not just the perceived 'toughness' of the bike.

You can get heavy, tough drop bar bikes and light fast flat bar hybrids and everything in between.

Try some. I just built a do-it-all CXer for a mate and he didn't like the drop bars at all so we've just swapped to a flat bar setup which he likes a lot better, so every bike and rider is different. The main thing is to be open minded and do your research, IMO.

gateian

Thanks guys. You're all guiding me in the right direction. Cylocross looks quite interesting actually. Good suggestion. That looks to me to be about where I was thinking.

Something like this looks pretty good http://www.evanscycles.com/products/pinnacle/expede-00-2010-cyclo-cross-bike-ec021920

Now the task is to find a decent local shop out of the hundreds around here

toontra

The advantage of drop bars is that you have far more possibilities for hand positions. On a long ride this really helps to prevent hand/wrist fatigue.

u05harrisb

the specialised 'cross bikes are really good value too! best bet is to go into a shop that you know has a fair few 'cross bikes and just sit on some and check them out. there the best bet! putslicks on them and you have a slightly heavier road bike, check for pannier holes and you could have a touring bike and obviouslt pop some nobblies on and you can go everywhere!

Berk Bonebonce

A hybrid is a road bike with flat handlebars (and fewer hand positions).

maddog 2

bar ends

clx1

Road bike with Winter tyres, if you get a Hybrid you will only end up getting a Road bike six months later.

petemadoc

u05harrisb wrote:

cyclocross bike?

^^^^ What he said

bendertherobot

CLX1 wrote:

Road bike with Winter tyres, if you get a Hybrid you will only end up getting a Road bike six months later.[/quote

THIS, this is the thing. You'll probably love it. So get a good road bike, good tyres.

Then get a good winter bike, perhaps a crosser.

Then get a good hybrid for popping to the shops.

PERHAPS a single speed after that.

Then an MTB.

MaxwellBygraves

As above just get the road bike, you'll only want one soon anyway.