New bike for heavy rider (touring bike?)

TheGardenGnome

For some context:
I'm approx 35kg overweight (weighing ~110kg) and use cycling for commuting (25m round trip) and weight loss. My 4 year old hybrid is breaking down bit by bit. I need something "easily" capable of handling my weight so that I may continue cycling to work without worry.

The options I have are touring or CX, I'm not seeing a great difference between the two other than steel being used more in touring, with touring designed for heavy loafs. I'm leaning towards touring due to stronger wheels/frame.

On the Evans site, there are 3 alu and 6 steel bikes from which to choose from- what's the deal here? Is there anything I need to know about the two frame materials on a touring bike?

Also there are around 8 disc brake bikes, 1 rim brake bike. With mechanical vs hydraulic, how big of a difference is there, which would be less likely to fail on me? How is puncture repair with disc brake wheels vs rims?

The minimum requirements for a new bike for me are:
Wheels strong enough to be used on a truck :d
Mudguards
Pannier rack
Brakes that work well...

Weight of the bike is not an issue for me, just the sturdiness. My budget is max 1000, if I'm getting a massive benefit if I spend a little more I may consider it.

These are the contenders...
https://www.evanscycles.com/bikes/touri ... edium-size

What does the collective wisdom of the board think of them?

The Rookie

Its more about 'quality' than strength, parts on a cheaper bike last long than the parts on a more expensive bike as a rule (until you get very high end when its weight that is lost more than adding strength).

What bike do you have now, as for breaking down after 4 years, well it depends on how far you've ridden and what TLC you've done, no bike will do 4 years of a reasonable annual mileage without TLC and not start to suffer.

wolfsbane2k

Following for interest.
Im 120kg, doing similar mileage on a commute, and Will be looking again for a new buy in the next 6 months when c2w opens again

TheGardenGnome

The bike is a Ridgeback Meteor, it didn't get much TLC during those years, just 1 full service at Evans. It's done over 5000 miles, could be as high as 7000 miles. It's only recently that I'm learning about basic maintenance of bikes.

roger_merriman

TheGardenGnome wrote:

For some context:
I'm approx 35kg overweight (weighing ~110kg) and use cycling for commuting (25m round trip) and weight loss. My 4 year old hybrid is breaking down bit by bit. I need something "easily" capable of handling my weight so that I may continue cycling to work without worry.

The options I have are touring or CX, I'm not seeing a great difference between the two other than steel being used more in touring, with touring designed for heavy loafs. I'm leaning towards touring due to stronger wheels/frame.

On the Evans site, there are 3 alu and 6 steel bikes from which to choose from- what's the deal here? Is there anything I need to know about the two frame materials on a touring bike?

Also there are around 8 disc brake bikes, 1 rim brake bike. With mechanical vs hydraulic, how big of a difference is there, which would be less likely to fail on me? How is puncture repair with disc brake wheels vs rims?

The minimum requirements for a new bike for me are:
Wheels strong enough to be used on a truck :d
Mudguards
Pannier rack
Brakes that work well...

Weight of the bike is not an issue for me, just the sturdiness. My budget is max 1000, if I'm getting a massive benefit if I spend a little more I may consider it.

These are the contenders...
https://www.evanscycles.com/bikes/touri ... edium-size

What does the collective wisdom of the board think of them?

In terms of alloy vs steel? How something is made, makes much more difference, and touring bikes should be broadly similar.

Non of the those Touring Bikes have Hydraulic brakes but one has a hybrid system ie cable pulles a Hydraulic Caliper, it does auto trim I think which is one Hydraulic easy maintenance. On the whole disks are a lot less hassle than rims you just feed it disk pads, though my bike being a old MTB has full Hydraulic so it works until the pad has worn to the metal! For myself cable disks are better than rims but not massively so, Hydraulics are quite a big step up, but also for road bikes a fair step up in price.

Touring bikes will all take pannier racks and most come with guards.

At that price would pay for quite a lot of maintenance, I feed my bike (I do similar commute distance) chains and pads, I do have a good local bike shop for stuff I’m not keen on.

TheGardenGnome

I've gone off script and bought myself a hardtail mountain bike instead. I don't think I'm ready for drop bars yet as my gut is probably too big to allow me to comfortably pedal and a mountain bike would have the wheels to deal with my weight. The strange thing is that I'm at least as quick if not quicker on my new mtb with its chunky tyres than I am on my hybrid with slimmer wheels and tyres.

keef66

TheGardenGnome wrote:

I've gone off script and bought myself a hardtail mountain bike instead. I don't think I'm ready for drop bars yet as my gut is probably too big to allow me to comfortably pedal and a mountain bike would have the wheels to deal with my weight. The strange thing is that I'm at least as quick if not quicker on my new mtb with its chunky tyres than I am on my hybrid with slimmer wheels and tyres.

For commuting I'd suggest you stick some slick tyres on it. They can be as fat as the MTB knobblies but they'll roll a lot better and last longer.

My first few years on the road were on a MTB with slicks

TheGardenGnome

I'll be getting slicks for them for sure, the hybrid is not road worthy anymore unfortunately, I'll be getting another bike down the line as I need my n+1, the mtb is my primary.