New bike or fix oldie?
TheGardenGnome
Posts: 170
Fix up hybrid or buy new bike?
I recently took my hybrid bike (7000 miles of mileage, with very little maintenance- MY fault) to the LBS where they told me it would be more cost effective to buy a new bike than fix it...
I've replaced the brake pads and bought a pair of second hand wheels (with one less cog- 7 spd instead of 8) for around 40ish. The bike works but it's not in an ideal state for my 26 mile round trip, the chain skipping over the cassette under force on the lower gears doesn't help. The chain ring, cassette, chain, derailleur and pedals still need to be replaced.
I'd be willing to spend 100 on fixing up a 4 year old bike, or spend 500 (absolute max 700) on a new bike and extend the fleet at home. The hybrid I have was bough for 400, so it's not some fancy bike.
I'm quite active on my bike but very heavy for my height at 5 ft 5, I weigh 110kg, so I don't know if a roadie bike is even suitable for me, I will see if I can do a trial ride on one soon but I worry the blob of 48 inches will get in the way. I'm impartial about whether to get hybrid or road bike, but I'd need advice from experienced commuters.
New bike or not? If so, what should be recommended?
The current household fleet:
2x cheap Halfords mountain bikes
Brompton
Ridgeback hybrid
I recently took my hybrid bike (7000 miles of mileage, with very little maintenance- MY fault) to the LBS where they told me it would be more cost effective to buy a new bike than fix it...
I've replaced the brake pads and bought a pair of second hand wheels (with one less cog- 7 spd instead of 8) for around 40ish. The bike works but it's not in an ideal state for my 26 mile round trip, the chain skipping over the cassette under force on the lower gears doesn't help. The chain ring, cassette, chain, derailleur and pedals still need to be replaced.
I'd be willing to spend 100 on fixing up a 4 year old bike, or spend 500 (absolute max 700) on a new bike and extend the fleet at home. The hybrid I have was bough for 400, so it's not some fancy bike.
I'm quite active on my bike but very heavy for my height at 5 ft 5, I weigh 110kg, so I don't know if a roadie bike is even suitable for me, I will see if I can do a trial ride on one soon but I worry the blob of 48 inches will get in the way. I'm impartial about whether to get hybrid or road bike, but I'd need advice from experienced commuters.
New bike or not? If so, what should be recommended?
The current household fleet:
2x cheap Halfords mountain bikes
Brompton
Ridgeback hybrid
0
Comments
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Unfortunately a fixie/single speed bike won't do for me as I have hills 1/3 of the journey.
I changed my budget as I did not think about it in any detail. Cycling to work would save me £700 a year in fuel alone and as I'll lose weight cycling and become fitter, I don't see why I can't spend £700-£1400 a year on that transportation vehicle. I'm also a bit clumbsy, the house I live in contain many clumbsy people so a carbon road bike is too fragile for my situation.
So aluminium or steel frame (and fork- I'm suffering from carbonphobia).
I'm looking at the Evans Cycles website a lot and the nearest store is 2 miles from me. There are a lot of aluminium and steel bikes but many of them have carbon forks. I have preference for steel simply because it seems a lot more robust to dings/bumps but there are a handful of bikes available.
https://www.evanscycles.com/bikes/road- ... e_material0
