Bike for a friend..probably hybrid, but I have no idea....

Nickodemus

Hi All,

Need a little advice.

A friend wants to get a bike, but I have no idea about the kind of bike she wants (the range of gears, etc, etc), so if anyone can help i'd appreciate it.

She wants a women specific bike, for commuting / family rides / rides down canals, etc, etc. I'm guessing not road specific, but she also doesn't want an all out 'girly' bike (eg, no basket, no girly top tube, etc, etc).

I'm thinking, obviously, a hybrid...so which ones are good? Her budget is around the £400 mark, and she's going to do it on CTW scheme, so eBay is out fo the question.

With road bikes, i've always gone on the assumption that you should buy the best grouspet you can afford on your budget, so on that basis, which stock hybrid's come with decent groupset for that money? (i'm thinking Spesh, but she doesn't know if she likes the compact geometry frame look)....

Any advice would be amazing!

Thanks.

arlowood

Hi there

Seems like a hybrid would be the best compromise for the range of riding she is planning to do.

In the current Cycling Active issue they have reviewed 5 hybrids in the £450 price range. The winner of this was the Fuji Absolute 3.0 - link to the spec below

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/fuj ... gn=froogle

Only problem is that all those tested have the "compact" frame geometry that she doesn't want - but she may want to consider the Fuji as it performed quite well in the review.

Nickodemus

arlowood wrote:

Hi there

Seems like a hybrid would be the best compromise for the range of riding she is planning to do.

In the current Cycling Active issue they have reviewed 5 hybrids in the £450 price range. The winner of this was the Fuji Absolute 3.0 - link to the spec below

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/fuj ... gn=froogle

Only problem is that all those tested have the "compact" frame geometry that she doesn't want - but she may want to consider the Fuji as it performed quite well in the review.

Great, thanks arlowood!

Do you think you'd go for that over the equivalent Spesh (Specialized Vita Sport 2011), for example?

arlowood

Hi Nickodemus

Both bikes look fairly well specced for the price point. I have a Spesh Secteur Elite road bike myself so might be tempted to favour the Spesh over the Fuji.

However closer inspection of the make up of each bike shows slight differences that might push your friend one way or the other. The Spesh has a 48,38,28 triple crankset married to an 8 speed 11 - 32 cassette which suggests a leaning to more mountain bike type or off-road usage. The Fuji on the other hand has a 52,42,30 triple coupled with an 11 - 28 cassettte which points the gearing more towards road usage but with good capability for going off-road.

So it's really horses for courses but personally I like the look of the Fuji over the Spesh.