What bike? No clue!

flamed

Hi, I am interested in buying a new bike, but have no idea what one or where to start.
I'm not a serious rider so don't require an all singing and dancing model but at the same time I want a nice, good quality bike (I'm thinking around the £400 mark max). I just want it for leisure, a bit of fun & fitness. It'll be used on the roads, cycle paths, towpaths, parks, woods & uneven tracks, so a bit of an all rounder that's why I'm thinking Hybrid, but other than that no idea.
Any suggestions, recommendations, advice please?
Thanks in advance!

Mr.Duck

http://www.evanscycles.com/categories/b ... ice_to=400

moarspeed

If your even thinking about taking a bike offroad, then it needs to be somewhere between mountain bike and hybrid.

Two main types of hybrid:

1) MTB with road tyres
2) Flat bar road bike

Sounds like you want the first, but for your money you'd probably get better value from a hard tail mountain bike and quite frankly the most offroad your gonna want to do on a hybrid is a gravelled over canal toe path.

The Rookie

MOARspeed wrote:

quite frankly the most offroad your gonna want to do on a hybrid is a gravelled over canal toe path.

Should that be canal tow or camel toe?

Carrera Subway or Carrera Vulcan (Halfords) would be good starters, or a Rockrider 5.3 from Decathlon.

Or this is ruddy good value http://www.amazon.co.uk/Falcon-Spartan- ... lcon+bikes

moarspeed

The Rookie wrote:

Should that be canal tow or camel toe?

Either? It largely depends on the weather tbh....... Them camels no likely the rain

flamed

Thanks for the replies! I'll have a look at your suggestions.

Do I need suspension? Seen one with locking front suspension, or should I just avoid it altogether?

I quite like the idea of going off-road over camel toe ;-)

moarspeed

flamed wrote:

Thanks for the replies! I'll have a look at your suggestions.

Do I need suspension? Seen one with locking front suspension, or should I just avoid it altogether?

I quite like the idea of going off-road over camel toe ;-)

I definitely think you want a MTB for the use you've mentioned, i've got a F/S mountain bike and a Hybrid, the hybrid doesn't like mounting a kerb, never mind going off road.
Also I wouldn't touch a Halfrauds bike with a barge pole

Have a look here http://www.evanscycles.com/categories/b ... tain-bikes
If I had only £400 to spend on a NEW bike, you'd really struggle to steer me away from those Trek and Specialized bikes.

The Rookie

Specialized are dreadful at this price point and Trek only a little better, you'd have to be mad to suggest they were better than most the Halfords offerings....

Example spesh Hardrock disc has cable brakes and undamped forks for the same price as the vulcan has Hydraulic discs and a damped forks all on a lighter frame, it also has a worse drivetrain.

Big_Paul

I sold my Rockrider 5.3 a while back, and although it had a few teething problems, it was a very good bike, just ditch the Python tyres it comes with as they're the only tyre I've ever seen that has crap grip on all surfaces.

Despite being sold by Halfools, the Carerra Subway is a half decent bike, according to the blokes I see commuting on them.

Unless you're jumping off stuff, you won't need suspension forks, IMO.