help me help me im lost

matthewkerr

I am really struggling at the first hurdle of my bike choice. I want to start commuting to work ( 16 mile round trip ) but at the same time there are some great trails in Scotland id like to do. im not kidding myself though the mtb side would be the easy grade stuff.

I dont know if i should go for a hybrid or a MTB and switch the tyres for road use for the commute.

My budget is around £600 stretch to £700 ANY help would be greatly appreciated im starting to get frustrated with all the different options.

Thanks

BelgianBeerGeek

If you are doing off-roading then MTB. For your budget you will get more for your money than any hybrid.

Your round trip is doable on road for an MTB, just a bit slower than a road bike. And being in Scotland, the winter is probably too grim for all-year round road biking anyway.

have fun!

slowbike

sounds like you need a MTB and a second set of wheels with slicks on for the commute ...

Phil_D

Two bikes?

£300 will get you a Triban 3 which will cover your commuting needs and £400 should get you a fairly reasonable deal on ebay.

Long_Time_Lurker

For a 16 mile round trip, i would just buy the MTB and stick with the knobblies.
Look at the knobblies as a training aid. After 2 weeks the tyres won't bother you.
Worst comes to the worst (or if you get lots of punctures), you can always spend £30 on a pair of Continetal Travel Contact slicks for the summer.

lockstock666

Phil_D wrote:

Two bikes?

£300 will get you a Triban 3 which will cover your commuting needs and £400 should get you a fairly reasonable deal on ebay.

This makes a lot of sense considering you have two very different needs/wants.

An 8 mile road commute will be sooo much better on a road bike.
On a MTB you are probably looking around 45 minute journey? Possibly slightly more?
On a road bike its more likely to be around 32 minutes? All depending on traffic/ fitness /hills of course.

The hybrid will pretend to tick both boxes but in reality it will fall short on the MTB trails and on the road and you will probably want to replace it within a few months.

submers

Cyclocross bike?

http://www.evanscycles.com/categories/b ... ross-bikes

submers

The bike in this review is out of your price range but the last paragraph might be some help: 'From now on, if anyone tells me they’re going to buy a hybrid… I’ll be sure to tell them to buy this instead.'

http://cyclecentre.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... port-disc/

Initialised

submers wrote:

The bike in this review is out of your price range but the last paragraph might be some help: 'From now on, if anyone tells me they’re going to buy a hybrid… I’ll be sure to tell them to buy this instead.'

http://cyclecentre.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... port-disc/

Cyclocross The thinking man's hybrid! Only thing to watch out for is gearing, a 46t big ring will spin out too easily on the road.

submers

I'm currently looking for a do-it-all CX and I've noticed while looking a lot of them come with 50/34 front rings which might be better for primarily road use.

Initialised

I'm running 50/34 x 11-30. 45mph plus down hill I doesn't spin-out (like I used to on a hybridised 26" mtb with 48x11) and in the other direction I don't feel like I'm running out of low range gears. I didn't quite make it to that 25% climb when I was out this morning so not able to test it on more than 15%.

mikebikemike

for that money I'd definitely be looking at 2x second hand

joelsim

I have a hybrid which is great on the road, but there is no way I would take it off road, it's just not the right bike for that, it would be way to difficult to handle and bloody uncomfortable too