Used Rigid fork Hybrid. Light and Cheap

nanakios

Last year I purchased a used Raleigh Detour. I was on a budget so I think I got a decent bike for £100. Although it is a hybrid bike, it feels like it weights a ton when riding it and a ton and half when carrying it up three flight of stairs.

I thought of changing a few things on the bike but the problem lies on the frame.

I was looking for a new bike but I couldn't find something appealing enough to justify the pricetag (they have a lot unnecessary extras). Plus all high range bikes have disk brakes which I hate. Building a bike from just a frame seemed ideal until I actually saw the cost.

So now I am actually looking for a used bike with a nice light frame that could give me the liberty to build around it.
I found a few Giant escapes selling under £200. Is it a good choice, and what other options do I have

This is what i am going for.
*Light frame
*7 or 8/1 gear arrangement or Hub gear in the future
*V brakes
*Mudguards
*Strong light rims to withstand the Glawsgow potholes

dhope

How tall are you?

The Rookie

The Giant frame is not overly light.

If you can pick up a B'Twin Triban 300 or 500 (better specced) they are a good buy with a decent lightweight frame.
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-500-f ... 22664.html

Slightly less light but still pretty good is the Carrera Gryphon (came as Disc but also avialable as V-brake spec) and they come up fairly often used, My commuter uses a Gryphon frame with mostly MTB components (including 26" wheels as I run discs), 1x9 gearing and it 9Kg dead before rack and guards are added.

nanakios

dhope wrote:

How tall are you?

I am 6.2 but I am quite flexible and i can adjust to different geometries.

The Rookie wrote:

The Giant frame is not overly light.

If you can pick up a B'Twin Triban 300 or 500 (better specced) they are a good buy with a decent lightweight frame.
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-500-f ... 22664.html

Slightly less light but still pretty good is the Carrera Gryphon (came as Disc but also avialable as V-brake spec) and they come up fairly often used, My commuter uses a Gryphon frame with mostly MTB components (including 26" wheels as I run discs), 1x9 gearing and it 9Kg dead before rack and guards are added.

Thank you .


What is your take on Revolution Courier race? The 2016 version will be with v brakes but i think it is a bit heavy compared to competition.
http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/product ... urier-1-16

dhope

nanakios wrote:

dhope wrote:

How tall are you?

I am 6.2 but I am quite flexible and i can adjust to different geometries.

Oh well, there goes my suggestion. Was hoping you might be closer to 5'2"
http://www.ukbikesdepot.com/m89b0s799p1 ... _50cm_2015

Honestly, I'd look to increase the budget a bit and get something modern.

Why do you need V Brakes? Entry level calipers can be a bit crap, but there's nothing wrong (and a lot right) with modern Tiagra or 105

dhope

Do you need gears?
http://www.ukbikesdepot.com/m89b0s799p1 ... _60cm_2015

The Rookie

nanakios wrote:

What is your take on Revolution Courier race? The 2016 version will be with v brakes but i think it is a bit heavy compared to competition.
http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/product ... urier-1-16

Not too bad at all, parts are all sensibly specced for the price point and the weight is good at that price point (aided by the 1x gearing of course).
With time some sensible mods will shed some weight for not much cost, the limitiation though is that it uses a spin on freewheel and not a freehub.

I'd still look for a decent used Gryphon, can be had for circa £115-180, only a little heavier but going to 1x gearing will lose around 300-450g, 8 speed freehub as standard and the Formula wheels appear on bikes costing upto £650 new.

nanakios

dhope wrote:

nanakios wrote:

dhope wrote:

How tall are you?

I am 6.2 but I am quite flexible and i can adjust to different geometries.

Oh well, there goes my suggestion. Was hoping you might be closer to 5'2"
http://www.ukbikesdepot.com/m89b0s799p1 ... _50cm_2015

Honestly, I'd look to increase the budget a bit and get something modern.

Why do you need V Brakes? Entry level calipers can be a bit crap, but there's nothing wrong (and a lot right) with modern Tiagra or 105

I just prefer the simplicity of v brakes and i find the cost of disk brakes unjustifiable.
As for budget, i was thinking of getting something around 200-250 so that i have the freedom to spend another 200-250 modifying it to my liking. I just needed info on bikes with light frame as i couldn't find weight data on frame alone. and i value the opinion of more experienced people.

dhope

I'm not particularly advocating disc brakes, was just curious about the v brake mention specifically.

Anyway.
Spending 250 and then another 250 modifying it will almost certainly get you something worse than spending 500 in the first place.
You'll be buying something with cheap kit then throwing the cheap kit away and not having enough money left over to put anything better on.

Buy a Ribble with Tiagra 4700 and Shimano 501's
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/ribble-7005-race/build/
£590 and you're done. It's light and fast, with modern, simple parts.

There's loads of decent stuff around the £500 mark. Even more if you buy a 2nd hand £500 bike.
Much less at the £250+£250 mark

UndercoverElephant

Bought the ladies version of this for my youngest daughter:

https://www.evanscycles.com/norco-vfr-3 ... e-EV211847

It's actually pretty nice, relatively light - bit flexy for me to ride, though.