Which first 'adult' bike, commuting, leisure & charity ride?

CrispyUK

Evening all,

Have been doing a bit of reading around today but thought best to start my own topic to see what you can suggest. Although I used to cycle loads in my youth it's been a few years since I was last on a bike. I've been toying with the idea of getting back on 2 wheels and having now been talked into a 45 mile charity bike ride in August for our work charity I need to get started!

Aside from the above charity ride I'd like something I can use for light off-road trails and such at the weekends and I'm in the process of buying a house so commuting by bike might be something I want to do in fairer weather (8 mile round trip). It looks like a hybrid bike would be what I need to go for?

Budget-wise, given that I'm not sure just how much I'm going to get back into cycling and the aforementioned first house purchase which is an expensive business, I'm ideally looking around £200, possibly stretching up to £300 at a push.

Halfords have got half price this weekend on the Carrera special editions, whilst I'm aware the RRPs of these are inflated the research I've done seems to suggest Carrera are OK rather than BSO's? For £200 is the Carrera Subway 300 a good buy for what I'm after? Would it be worth paying a bit more for a Subway / Crossfire 1 / Crossfire 2 with front suspension and/or disc brakes?

Would appreciate any other thoughts and suggestions within the £200-300 price range as I'm a total novice in terms of what I'm looking for and what is good spec-wise

notnot

The Carrera sounds fine for most of what you want. I wouldn't bother with suspension - you don't need it for what you're planning (unless the charity ride will be very rough), it's heavy and it's something else to go wrong. Some people do want disc brakes. I'm quite happy with decent v-brakes - I certainly wouldn't bother with discs if money is tight - but maybe see if you can give the bikes a try?

If the charity ride is on roads, you might find that 45 miles more comfortable/faster on something like a Triban road bike. You'll be able to do it on a hybrid, though, and it sounds like this might be better overall.

Remember to budget for accessories (often cheaper online). You'll need at least a pump and one or two spare tubes. Mudguards and lights may well be useful (if you're riding after dark you'll need lights, of course, and unless it's for fair weather only get mudguards). If you want a helmet, budget for this too.

Happy riding. Once you're started on cycling that commute, the bike will pay for itself in no time

Kieran_Burns

Quick addendum to the above: check to see if your employers are running cycle to work scheme. You could get a better bike for the same outlay. (or all the accessories lumped in)

montyburns56

If you going on 45 mile long trips then I'd buy a more road based hybrid such as the Carrera Crossfire, as cycling that kind of distance on something like the Subway could be pretty tiring. For the kind of riding that you are planing to do you don't really need disc brakes, so the Crossfire 1 would be perfectly adequate