New Hybrid Bikes
Roobie
Posts: 4
Hi, my partner and I purchased really cheap mountain bikes to see if we liked it, and we do. We now want to buy a couple of hybrid bikes as we need to road cycle to all of the trails near us, and it is an effort to do this on mountain bikes. We don't do serious off-roading so think hybrids will do. We also can't use the car to carry them as they don't make a cycle carrier to fit our car.
Budget is only about £300 each unfortunately. We have no idea what we should be looking for? What are decent makes within that price range? Do we need rigid suspension or not? There are a few Carrera ones on Halford website in our price range e.g. Carrera Crossfire 1, Carrera Subway 1 & Carrera Crosspath (sorry, don't know how to do links) - are any of these any good? I appreciate that £300 is a small budget when it comes to bikes. We've also been looking at Evans and Decathlon but we're clueless! Any help/advice would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks.
Budget is only about £300 each unfortunately. We have no idea what we should be looking for? What are decent makes within that price range? Do we need rigid suspension or not? There are a few Carrera ones on Halford website in our price range e.g. Carrera Crossfire 1, Carrera Subway 1 & Carrera Crosspath (sorry, don't know how to do links) - are any of these any good? I appreciate that £300 is a small budget when it comes to bikes. We've also been looking at Evans and Decathlon but we're clueless! Any help/advice would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks.
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Comments
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Rockrider 520 from Decathlon at £240 each0
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To be honest if getting to the trails is an "effort" I think that you are doing something wrong. Even if it's not quite as refined as a road bike, a mountain bike will not be bad on road for anything but long road rides or races.
What I'm saying is that if it's hard for you on a mountain bike, it won't be much easier on a hybrid.-Cube Acid 29" 2013
-A new Giant Trance 3 2015!0 -
Just fit some hybrid style tyres to the MTB's, that will give you 90% of the benefit for 10% of the cost!
What Mountain bikes? Do you have the saddles at the right height? Tyre pressures? All of that will have more effect that buying a hybrid (unless the MTB's are really bad!).Currently riding a Whyte T130C, X0 drivetrain, Magura Trail brakes converted to mixed wheel size (homebuilt wheels) with 140mm Fox 34 Rhythm and RP23 suspension. 12.2Kg.0 -
I would agree with Rookie - make sure you have tyres which are not too nobbly and work on the road, although maybe not complete slicks if you want to go offroad too. Something like the Specialized Fast Trak can be got very cheap and fit this brief pretty well in my opinion, but there are lots of others.
If you have a lockout switch on your suspension, which stops it compressing, then engage that on road so that you dont bob up and down.
If you really want to buy another bike though then the Rockrider is hard to beat - be careful what you buy as you could end up with something not really much better than you have right now for the money you are talking about, unless you choose wisely.0 -
Thanks for all your replies. The MTBs we've got are really bad! They were £99 Muddyfox ones from Argos, the gears don't work properly, so we definitely need to upgrade. Can I ask what the difference between a MTB and a hybrid is then, other than the tyres?0
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Hybrid is a very wide band - basically anything from a mountain bike that has been tweaked to be better on road to a road bike which has been softened and set up to allow wider tyres to work better off road.
Their most common variants are:
1) a mountain bike with bigger (29 inch) wheels and suspension that can lock out - the ones available tend to be heavy and low spec - tend to be the worst of both worlds rather than the best but maybe have their place in some circumstances.
2) A road bike with clearance for wider tyres and more commonly these days disc brakes as well - often referred to now as 'gravel bikes' or 'cyclocross bikes'
3) Option two but with flat bars as well. So road bike wheels, rigid forks, generally quite light.0 -
I don't think the problem is riding MTB's as such but the MTB's you are riding.
A semi decent MTB or Hybrid will be a lot better than what you have now, Decathlon or Halfords will be your likely choices.
As APR says Hybrids span a broad spectrum from MTB's with rigid forks and road orientated tyres (e.g. carrera Subway), through those with more road biased looks and frames but short travel suspension through to those that are almost road (racing bikes in old parlance) bikes with flat bars.
For a wee bit over budget you have one of the best value for money bikes you can get
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/h ... ybrid-bike
For a little less money this is also quite a good option for those who look to 'pootle' rather than ride fast
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/h ... ybrid-bike
for under your budget halfords don't have much I'd consider acceptable, but this is another good value option
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/h ... ybrid-bike
beware of cheap bikes with suspension, often the suspension is more hindrance than help.Currently riding a Whyte T130C, X0 drivetrain, Magura Trail brakes converted to mixed wheel size (homebuilt wheels) with 140mm Fox 34 Rhythm and RP23 suspension. 12.2Kg.0 -
That's really helpful, thanks everyone.0
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I may be well off the mark but I got a XC bike, btwin rafal 740.
It does everything I ask of it... Paths, roads, grass, mud, and some (not so extreme) off road stuff, i suspect it would handle much rougher terrain with the right rider.
It's very light and rides fast, decent forks that lock out, large gear range, some may consider the riding position slightly uncomfortable but it's fine for me.
I'm sure there are options that would come in / around your budget from decathlon but an XC bike ticks a lot of boxes for where I find myself riding.
Second hand may be a better option at £300 , should be bid to get quite a bit of bike for that?0
