Bike purchasing advice sought

viridian

Hello! I'm researching options for a bike purchase and have stumbled across your forum, so I thought I'd seek advice from some people who may know :¬)

I've been cycling to work for about a year on an old diamondback mountain bike I bought for a tenner. When the cycle to work scheme came round I decided I'd shown sufficient commitment and signed up. I've now got a £750 "ride2work" voucher which can only be spent at Evans.

Here are my criteria:

• hydraulic brakes. I went over the bonnet of a car which crossed in front of my path last year because I couldn't stop quick enough. I'd like less of that!
• No suspension. I've ridden bikes with suspension and I found myself bouncing gently up and down as I peddle. I want my energy to go into me moving forward, not up and down!

I can't afford to put any of my own money towards the purchase, so £750 is my ceiling, but I have a list of nice-to-have accessories so I have the option of buying a bike for as little as half of that, and investing the remainder in accessories (panniers, better lock, better lights etc). Equally, I'm quite happy to buy accessories over the next few months from my local bike shop, who advises me that Evans charge relatively high prices for accessories.

I commute 13½ miles a day on roads of mixed quality, and last summer I enjoyed cycling some dedicated cycle routes and tow paths around Leeds.

Given the hydraulic brake and light off-road requirements, I've figured a hybrid is my best choice. I checked out the Specialized Sirrus Elite Disc 2013, and found a review which suggested the bike is mainly for road use, possibly ruling it out. I also looked at the Trek 7.4 FX Disc 2014 Hybrid Bike which said it had a huge gear range and steady handling, which sounded good. I then investigated the Pinnacle Lithium Five 2014 Hybrid Bike, but I've been unable to find any acceptable reviews. I believe Pinnacle to be an Evans-only brand, which I understand puts some people off, but I just want to find a good value bike which will meet my requirements so brand really isn't a factor for me.

So, good people of the Bike Radar forum, what advice can you offer? Have you tried any of these bikes? Do you see anything which should ring alarm bells? Are there other bikes on the Evans website which might suit me better? Advice would be appreciated!

[Edit]Sorry, I forgot to mention, I'm 72 inches tall. This certainly restricts my options on 2013 bikes, which appear to be better value for money - or, at least, have a larger sale discount![/Edit]

night_porter

Firstly any of the bikes you mention will be fine for the type of riding you are doing (even the Spesh).

The best value for money is the Pinnacle because it is Evans own brand so you are not paying a premium for the name. They are very good solid bikes with excellent kit on them. The Pinnacle equivalent of the Trek/Spesh is actually the Lithium 4 which is on sale at £495 and yes that would be fine for you too.

Given that you want to get some accessories as well I would go for the Lithium 4 and do not believe what you lbs says Evans are on a par with everyone on price but if they are not then they will price match so you get it from them at the cheaper price. So choose you accessories and scan the web for the best price and tell Evans get it cheaper and buy everything from one place.

Of course the really smart thing to do would be to get Evans to get the bikes you are interested in at the shop for you to test ride them and then make a choice based on how they ride for you. I would suspect you would have a favourite once you had ridden them all, if not get the cheapest or the prettiest.

Good luck!

antonyfromoz

it might be worth you also looking at the Hoy bikes they sell - this one seems to fit your requirements and is on a reduced price of £550 http://www.evanscycles.com/products/hoy ... 9#features
I seem to recall that the Hoy hybrid bikes had some great reviews like this 8/10 from road.cc http://road.cc/content/review/97861-hoy ... -city-bike as well as getting a comprehensive thumbs up from the reviewers on the Evans web site (which is not always the case there...). The only thing is the gearing which might be a bit low depending on your location, your fitness and how fast you want to be riding. If you wanted to change this then it would be easy to put a slightly bigger chain ring on and it would still be way under your budget. I must say though that when i was in Evans late last year the Pinnacle bikes did look very nice too. Have fun deciding!

markhewitt1978

I think the Trek 7.4 seems a good choice.

Don't discount rim brakes as they aren't all created equal but I can understand your reasoning.

As a bit of a left field choice. Can you get a cyclocross bike for that? I would suggest the Boardman CX comp but you can't get that at Evans.

viridian

Thanks all for your replies!

night_porter, you say a couple of things of use: firstly (after figuring out what LBS stands for!), knowing that accessories at Evans are not exorbitant has encouraged me once again to consider buying a cheaper bike, and spending the extras on accessories. Secondly, trying bikes out at Evans is almost certainly the way to go. However, Evans do charge a £50 refundable deposit per bike, and they can take 10 days to get the bikes in. I would struggle to find £200 - £300 which I can manage without for 10 days! It may be that I put a deposit down for a couple of bikes after narrowing my selection. And no, I can't use my ride2work voucher in place of a deposit. The gits!

antonyfromoz, my sincere thanks for taking the time to look at the Evans website for bikes which meet my criteria! I had looked at the Hoy (the price was indeed tempting!) but, as you say, the gearing is very much on the low end. I'm no specialist at these type of figures, but I have a solid understanding of maths and excel. Today I noted all the numbers of teeth on the chainsets and cassettes, and knocked up a spreadsheet which calculates the distance each bike travels in its highest gear. My knackered old diamond back carmadillo goes further on one pedal than the Hoy! There are a couple of downhill sections on the way home from work where I can just about get to 30mph on my current bike, and I find myself wishing I could go faster. At the same time, I calculated the distance each bike travels in lowest gear. This turns out to be really useful information. The Specialized was has the fastest fastest gear, but it's slowest gear is way faster than any of the other bikes! Combining this information with the narrowness of the tyres and a review which described it as very much a road bike without the drop handlebars puts this one as a "not likely". Similarly, the Pinnacle turns out to be slower than my current bike in top gear, which is not what I'm after! This leaves the Trek, and also a "Kona Dew Plus" which meets all my requirements.

So, martinhewitt1978, it turns out I'm looking at the Trek just as you recommend! The bloke at my local bike shop also suggested a cyclocross bike. I asked what the difference was between a cyclocross and a hybrid, and he said something about aggressive geometries, which I think means that you're hunched down over the handlebars more. Frustratingly, I put my back out over Christmas (wrapping presents while sat on the floor!) and although I've successfully restarted commuting on my bike, I'm not sure I'd be able to cycle hunched over any time soon.

So right now it's looking like either the Trek 7.4 or the Kona Dew Plus. They appear virtually identical in terms of my requirements, but one is £125 more expensive than the other - £125 better off put towards accessories, perhaps? Also the Kona is a terrible, terrible brown colour which really appeals to me!

If anyone wants to check my work, and has the sufficient skills in digital clairvoyancy to figure out what I was getting at, in google spreadsheets no less, you can see my notes here (press F2 in cells to view formulas).

Of course, I could go the other way and take another look at the slightly more expensive bikes - there was a Cannondale Bad Boy 6 2014 Hybrid Bike if I could scrape together an extra 50 quid, or a BMC Alpenchallenge AC02 Alivio 2014 Hybrid Bike which is just in budget, but if I fed them into my spreadsheet would I see anything to make them stand out sufficiently? I may have to do that now...

Thanks again for your useful contributions! If anyone has had any negative experiences or feedback about any of the bikes mentioned in this thread could you please post them? The more information I have, (hopefully) the better-informed choice I can make!

antonyfromoz

The only thing I would mention is that it is very easy to change the gearing on any of these bikes - and pretty cheap to do so too. On the Hoy, for example, the chainring could be swapped out for a larger one, and on the others you can quickly and easily change the cassettes to have either a higher or lower range (or a wider range generally).. Having said that, either of your choices would suit your needs. Why did you discount the Norco range?

markhewitt1978

viridian wrote:

So, martinhewitt1978, it turns out I'm looking at the Trek just as you recommend! The bloke at my local bike shop also suggested a cyclocross bike. I asked what the difference was between a cyclocross and a hybrid, and he said something about aggressive geometries, which I think means that you're hunched down over the handlebars more. Frustratingly, I put my back out over Christmas (wrapping presents while sat on the floor!) and although I've successfully restarted commuting on my bike, I'm not sure I'd be able to cycle hunched over any time soon.
!

He would also be wrong about that .

You can think of a hybrid like the Trek FX as a mountain bike which has been adapted for road use.

A cyclocross bike is a road bike which has been adapted for off road use; the most notable thing being the drop handlebars rather than the flat bars on the hybrid.

But drop bars doesn't mean you have to be hunched over in an aggressive position, most people ride road bikes where the position isn't that much different from a hybrid position. The difference is that with drops you can vary your position over the course of the ride from being high up to low down, whereas with fat bars you have one position and that's it.

That being said the Trek FX 7.4 Disc looks nice

friedpizzainbatter

Few points:
I bought from Evans on cyclescheme, and they will not sell on these schemes at the same discounts that the sell for cash or credit card, as they lose some money to the scheme. It maybe that your company uses Evans own scheme which may not follow the same rules, but worth checking.

Don't get too caught up in gear ratios. Teeth combinations can be changed at request, if Evans stock the components that are on the bike they will probably swap bits on the bike. I did this with my bike, I had to pay for the new crankset as Evans did not stock the one I had replaced, but I sold it on ebay. Evans will not charge for fitting for these changes.

As has been said millions of times, "Try the bikes out, buy the one that feels best", Evans should have a number of cyclocross and hybrid bikes in the shop in your size, try them out first and you won't have to pay the £50 deposit. You might try one that instantly clicks (incidentally cross bikes are not always more aggressive than hybrids, it depends on your size and how the bike fits, it might be worth sitting on one before ruling it out. There are more potential hand positions on drop bars than flats).
Once you pick the one you like if you then feel limited by gearing on the bike, change it. Although remember that unless you want the bike for scary gradient hills don't get too caught up wanting the biggest ratio. I have a mtb that I hardly ever get into the big ring on, so it did not need to be a triple. I also have a commute bike with 50/34 on front and 12/30 at the back. I've never found that I needed more than this, and my commute is a mix of cr4ppy hilly roads and cycle paths.

markhewitt1978

Agreed that the OPs way of looking at gear ratios is a bit confused and I don't think it's helping the issue?

viridian

Hi all, and thanks again for replying!

Last night I clearly wasn't tuned in to the idea of replacing parts on a bike as soon as it's bought. I'm far more a technology person, and if you buy a laptop or a games console, and immediately start swapping out parts, you invalidate the warranty! I freely admit that my view on gear ratios may be confused. Unfortunately a corollary of this is that I would struggle to determine what alternative chainrings or cassettes I would need!

Antonyfromoz, the Norcos won't be available until mid-Feb, and I am terribly eager - I get paid tomorrow, so tomorrow will be the day I put the refundable deposit down to get them shipped to Leeds!

Friedpizzainbatter, I'm on the Evans Ride2Work scheme, which is why I must buy a bike from Evans. They've made no mention of withholding sale discounts. I heed your advice to consider more the feel of the bike, but I don't think I'd be able to make a decision on which bike feels best without leaving the shop! On my current bike I spend 99% of the time on the big ring, both uphill and down. I'm not desperate for a triple, but I'm reluctant to consider a single ring, as there's one hill on my way home which is too hard for me with a rucksack full of shopping on my back.

So, finally for this post, damn you for bringing up cyclocross! I had a brief look at the range on Evans, and the funny handlebars look most appealing. I get pins and needles in my left arm sometimes while cycling, and the option of shifting positions may well help. However, there are none with hydraulic disk brakes in my price range. There are mechanical disk brakes, but I have an irrational aversion to these - I once attempted to improve the performance of mechanical disk brakes and couldn't figure them out. Logically hydraulic brakes would be even harder, but I don't have this mental reservation with hydraulic brakes!

Thanks again for all your feedback. I've got today off work, so I may now have to go back to Evans to see what bikes in my size are in stock!

markhewitt1978

I just think that you're over thinking the gear ratio thing when it's really quite simple to work out.

Assuming equal wheel sizes and crank lengths then you just divide the teeth on the front by the back.
Your lowest gear is smallest on the front biggest on the back so e.g. 30/28 = 1.07 or 34/28 = 1.21. In this case the second one has a higher bottom gear, so will be harder to pedal up hills.

For the most part it's the low gears you want to be worrying about, most if not all bikes will have sufficient high gears to get you going at a right old clip.

viridian

OK Mark, I think I've got it. So, on the Kona Dew Plus the cassette is 11 to 34, and the chainring 28 to 48. So the lowest gear is 28 / 34 which evaluates to approximately 0.82. And if I'm right, that means that for every full rotation of the pedals, the back wheel will rotate 0.82 times. So, assuming an outer diameter of 28½ inches on the wheel (which I'll take as 72.4cm), one full rotation of the pedal will result in covering a total distance of 72.4cm × π × 0.82, or about 187cm. So using similar formulas I've determined the travel I'll get in the easiest and hardest gears for each bike.

I think I've worked out why I can't get hydraulic disk brakes on a cyclocross, I think it's because of the integrated gear change mechanism on drop handlebars. You guys have got me really seriously considering cyclocross bikes now! Three new options, all with mechanical disk brakes: the Jamis Nova Sport 2014, the Fuji Feather CX 1.3 2014, and the Norco Threshold A3 2014. I've updated my spreadsheet with the stats for these bikes.

So I now have way more potential bikes on my list than I could possibly afford to put deposits down on! Discounting the gear ratios, which you guys all say are quickly and cheaply fixed, how do I now go about narrowing my selection? Ideally I'd like to get in no more than four bikes. I called both Evans Leeds and Evans Castleford this morning, neither have any bikes in my size I'm remotely interested in :¬/ I guess I should go for two hybrids and two cyclocross.

Incidentally markhewitt1978, when "viridian" is taken on a forum I go for "viridian1978" :¬)

friedpizzainbatter

viridian wrote:

I heed your advice to consider more the feel of the bike, but I don't think I'd be able to make a decision on which bike feels best without leaving the shop!

Evans should let you take bikes out for a test ride, providing the weather isn't too horrible, and you leave a drivers licence or credit/debit card with them. I rode both of mine a few miles, which I bought from Evans, before deciding.

viridian wrote:

I'm not desperate for a triple, but I'm reluctant to consider a single ring, as there's one hill on my way home which is too hard for me with a rucksack full of shopping on my back.

I was meaning a compact double '50/34' is big ring teeth/small ring teeth. Some cross bikes have these as standard, some have 46/36

markhewitt1978

viridian wrote:

I think I've worked out why I can't get hydraulic disk brakes on a cyclocross, I think it's because of the integrated gear change mechanism on drop handlebars. You guys have got me really seriously considering cyclocross bikes now! Three new options, all with mechanical disk brakes: the Jamis Nova Sport 2014, the Fuji Feather CX 1.3 2014, and the Norco Threshold A3 2014. I've updated my spreadsheet with the stats for these bikes.

They all look reasonable buys. Make sure they have at least Claris and not 2300 (the old version of Claris)
Remember it goes: Claris, Sora, Tiagra, 105, Ultegra, Dura-Ace.

So the Nova has a slightly better gearing system, but there's a lot more to consider than just that.

One advantage with CX is that if you change the tyres you've basically got a road bike, not something you could do as well with a hybrid

notnot

If you're looking to regularly go over 30mph, that might be a reason to give drop bars a go - I find going at anywhere that speed much more comfortable with the lower position on drop bars.

Disk brakes have advantages, but I'm not sure I'd get hung up on the benefits of hydraulic over good manual disk brakes (or well set-up v-brakes for that matter). A good-quality and well-maintained manual disk brake will stop you pretty well, as bike brakes go.

Hope you fine something you like

friedpizzainbatter

viridian wrote:

I think I've worked out why I can't get hydraulic disk brakes on a cyclocross, I think it's because of the integrated gear change mechanism on drop handlebars. You guys have got me really seriously considering cyclocross bikes now! Three new options, all with mechanical disk brakes: the Jamis Nova Sport 2014, the Fuji Feather CX 1.3 2014, and the Norco Threshold A3 2014. I've updated my spreadsheet with the stats for these bikes.

Not to add more decision to your platter, but you could also have a look at this, if they have in stock (although £15 over budget):
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/pin ... e-ec054863

If you're worried about brakes this comes with Avid BB7 which are pretty well thought of.

viridian

I went into Evans yesterday and learned that I can only put a deposit down on two bikes. They had the Trek and the Jamis Nova Sport in stock, so I gambled that the Trek wouldn't sell and put a deposit down on the Jamis, and a deposit on the Kona which they hope will be in on Tuesday. Once I have confirmation that the Kona is in, I'll wait for a non-unpleasant-weather day, then spend the afternoon trying the bikes out. Having seen the Jamis in the flesh, it's currently my favourite. We'll have to see how the test ride goes!

Thanks Friedpizzainbatter for highlighting the Pinnacle Arkose, but as you say it is over budget. Yesterday I made a list of all the accessories I need and those I want, and those in the "need" section are going to come in way over the £50 accessories voucher I'll get. So unfortunately it's just too expensive.

Thanks all for your advice, I'll let you know which one I end up with!