£1000 - what bike?

daddy0

Hi everybody!

A little while ago I bought a second hand Scott Sportster P4 for £150, and put slicks on it. have happily been commuting on it, but feel its time to upgrade. Main reasons for this are: the Scott needs a new free wheel and the sus forks make my hill climb (Anerley Hill) a strictly sit down only experience.

So I have badgered my company and they have signed up to "Cyclescheme". £1000 bike - here I come!

So what bike? I can't decide. My commute is about 6 miles each way with hill climbs and downhills. One hill climb is quite long (Anerley Hill, Crystal Palace) and gets reasonably steep and I find it tough even on the 24 speed hybrid in easiest gear. Will this climb be easier or as easy on a light (8-9kg) road bike with say a 20 speed set up? Or do you think I should go for a triple chain ring? I'm quite keen to get compact gearing, but don't want to have to walk the bike up the hill every morning...

Next, I'm not sure about dropped bars. I like weaving in and out of stopped traffic, in rush hour there is so much of it. The hybrids flat bars allow me to see over cars whilst having my fingers on the brakes should I need to stop. But then I also really like seeing how fast I can get on downhill runs which the drops will obviously help with. BTW I'm kind of on a mission to get 50+mph on a bike, which I've gotten close to on the high up and heavy hybrid, but after a near death experience where the chain came off whilst I was cranking hard I've put this on hold until I get the new bike. So do I go for a road bike with flat bars, or shall I go full drop?

Also, I don't know if I should go down the SPD route or not. The shoes, pedals and cleats all seem to be quite expensive.

Looking forward to all the MTFU comments ;-)

The Rookie

MTFU......

Seriously, hybrid or road is a decision only YOU can make, if you have dropped bars you can get crosstop levers on there, a CX bike will also give you the gearing you want, so no reason not to have a CX or a Hybrid, the choice, as they say, is yours!

What C2W scheme, is it actually Cyclesheme or one of the other suppliers?

signs

hi i bought a boardman hybrid pro for cummuting and put some bar ends on for the steep stuff real good bike

andyg1966

I've got a Whyte Stirling, great for commuting. £999 RRP, should get one in the sales ...

daddy0

The Beginner wrote:

MTFU......

Thanks :-)

The Beginner wrote:

the choice, as they say, is yours!

Thanks our Graham! Yeah I know, its a hard choice to make though. I'm looking for people to tell me either "don't get dropped bars if you're going through traffic", or "get dropped bars, MTFU" etc ;-) Crosstop levers is a good idea, if the brake levers on the bike are compatible...

The Beginner wrote:

What C2W scheme, is it actually Cyclesheme or one of the other suppliers?

Its Cyclescheme. I'm realising now that I should've probably looked into all of the different schemes before I got work to set this one up, I didn't realised there are multiple schemes until afterwards...!

daddy0

signs wrote:

hi i bought a boardman hybrid pro for cummuting and put some bar ends on for the steep stuff real good bike

Thanks, I will take a trip to Halfords and have a go one one if they let me.

daddy0

andyg1966 wrote:

I've got a Whyte Stirling, great for commuting. £999 RRP, should get one in the sales ...

Looks good, I guess I'd quite like disc brakes. Will see if I can find somewhere that has one to try it out.

BigLee1

I could be wrong but I don`t think Halfords do Cyclescheme, they do their own version

passout

Look at planet x - good value. If in doubt, go flat bar & bar ends. Unless your hills are very serious (i.e. 1 in 8 and long IMO) then single speed might be an option...?

sskelly

I have just bought a Kenesis Crosslite 5T (carbon fork variant) on Halfords bike2work.

Very nice bike that rides well on road or rough terrain. I intend to do a bit of cross racing as well, good all rounder.

Initialised

You don't need a road bike to do 50mph. I pulled it off on a Specialized Rockhopper (£800 of MTB complete with oem knobblies). Being on a mountain road in the slipstream of an experienced roadie helped. I've had 48ish locally on my own bike, but which also doesn't have drops.

So I think you need a CX with suicide levers and hydraulic discs on slick tyres. The thinking man's hybrid. I'd buy something like that if I had £1k to drop on a bike. Might stick a decent shock on the front for true perversion.