Bike for fitness

Ader1 · 23 May 2017 at 8:25PM

I'm thinking of buying a bike to help get me fit. The roads I will hope to be cycling on will be small country road which are sometimes very steep and having a not too good a surface. I don't think a drop-handle racing road bike will be hardy enough. And I'm wondering if a mountain bike will be too heavy. I won't be doing any off-road cycling. Would you advise me to get a kind of hybrid bike or what do you guys suggest? Thank you.

Mr_Singleton · 24 May 2017 at 5:04PM

A CX bike sounds about right.... what's your budget?

wongataa · 24 May 2017 at 7:27PM

Ader1 wrote: »

I'm thinking of buying a bike to help get me fit. The roads I will hope to be cycling on will be small country road which are sometimes very steep and having a not too good a surface. I don't think a drop-handle racing road bike will be hardy enough. And I'm wondering if a mountain bike will be too heavy. I won't be doing any off-road cycling. Would you advise me to get a kind of hybrid bike or what do you guys suggest? Thank you.

A drop handlebar road bike would be perfectly sturdy enough for country roads with poor surfaces. They aren't very fragile.

brat · 24 May 2017 at 8:21PM

I'd also suggest a cyclocross (CX) bike. They're pretty sturdy and will take 32mm road tyres which will give you a good cushion against the poor road surface. I use a CX bike as my poor weather road bike and commuting bike, and I love it.
Keep it clean and serviced and it shouldn't let you down, even on the roughest of roads.

Ader1 · 24 May 2017 at 8:28PM

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking of around 5-600 hundred pounds. I would consider more. Preferably less. I might even look for a good second hand bike.

Johnmcl7 · 24 May 2017 at 9:28PM

Have you looked to see if there's any local places that can hire bikes? Getting a road bike out for a day is probably the best way to assess whether it's suitable for your use or not.

I do a mix of on road and off road cycling and my road cycling is primarily on back roads which don't often have great surfaces as I prefer to avoid traffic as much as possible. The road bike can be a bit hard on the wrists on some roads but I find it's manageable and in turn it's a quick, effortless bike to ride (mine is an aluminium model, nothing fancy), the drop bars give you a few different positions for your hands (great on long rides) and the less upright position plus the option of riding on the drops makes it much easier to cut into the wind.

Hybrids have their place I'd say for day to day commuting but I don't think they're great for longer road rides as they're more upright, usually heavier and you're fixed in one position.

I dislike riding mountain bikes on the road as they just feel out of place completely although mine are set up for off road riding rather than road riding.

A CX bike is a road bike with a bit more tolerance for wider tyres originally intended for off road racing in the winter for the roadies but they're also a good choice for being able to take bigger tyres which can soften the ride a bit.

There is no one answer though and it's really what you like riding the best that's important as that way you'll keep on riding, if possible you'd be best to try out any bikes you can and see what feels right. Purely for fitness a mountain bike is technically no worse but I prefer for the same effort being able to go further and faster on the road bike.

John

Bike for fitness

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