Hybrid Bike - Suggestions?

mbailey

I am looking for a Adult male Hybrid bike, mainly for road usage, but also must be able to handle some minor offroad.

I have seen the Mongoose Crossway 350 range which look good but I can't find many reviews.

Budget is £300, although would spent less if I don't need to.

Steve_Groves

mbailey wrote: »

I am looking for a Adult male Hybrid bike, mainly for road usage, but also must be able to handle some minor offroad.

I have seen the Mongoose Crossway 350 range which look good but I can't find many reviews.

Budget is £300, although would spent less if I don't need to.

I can't believe I am recommending Halfords but have a look at the Chris Boardman hybrid bikes. The website is showing them for £499 but I saw one instore for £300 a couple of weeks ago. It might be a 2008 bike hence why the price is so good.

Also have a look at the Hybrids at EvansCycles (http://www.evanscycles.com/categories/complete-bikes/hybrid-bikes). There seemed to be some nice Trek, Scott and Specialized bikes less than £300. I would rate them generally better than Mongoose because they have more of a road bike background but that is just personal opinion.

mbailey

I checked my local Halfords and they had no bargain boardman bikes in store unfortunately, everything >£400 from memory. Looking on the Halfords website now they seem to have aload reduced from £450 to £350.

The only thing that worries me about the boardman bikes is that they are alot more road biased (not surprisingly really) and not that off road biased, and I need a hybrid that can cope with a little more off road. I would like tyres around 700x35 or a little more width, but the boardman is only 700x28 from what I can see.

I went to an Evans bike shop this afternoon and they recommended the Scott Sportster, or the Specialized Globe. (They did initially suggest the Specialized Sirrus, but said that was probably too much road biased for me and not that good off road.)

Decisions decisions...

lcparkinson

I've just spent ages researching this (it's birthday today and need to spend the OH's money well!), and although I've had my trusty second hand Raleigh Pioneer Hybrid for the last 15 yrs I often help mates buy cycles.

My budget is a bit higher than yours - I would recommend that 400 is about the benchmark to get a bike that will last you 15 rather than 1.5 years, and I intend to spend less than 500.

I eventually settled on a shortlist of Cannondale Bad Boy 650, Diamondback Kalamar, Kona Dew Deluxe, Raleigh Pioneer Urban 5, Trek 7.2 or Felt QX85.

I generally buy 1 or 2 seasons behind the current, as it's rarely the important bits that change e.g frame, and if you want to upgrade the chainset or brakes later (with the exception of going from V to disc unless the frame accepts both or you buy new forks and wheels) you'll end up with this years bike in everything except colour anyway. Same goes for buying bikes in a 'range' - for instance the 2006 or 2007 Dew or Dew Plus by Kona will be in your price bracket, and has the same frame and several of the same components as the higher end of the Dew set of bikes.

My current fave is definitely the Dew Deluxe - it has all the things I need, which are ability to take rear rack, panniers and mudguards for touring purposes, hydraulic disc brakes (good V brakes are better than poor mechanical disc brakes IMO), 700C wheels as I have all the associated garb from my current bike's 700Cs to use up and they're a bit better for road speed than 26" mountain bike sized wheels, a good drive train. I'm off to Evans at the end of the week for a trial ride to make sure - they will get any bike in for you to trial for a 50 quid returnable deposit. V important as the geometry of the frames is different between different manufacturers and your riding style and leg v body length will make one bike fit and the next one not.

I know that the Specialized Sirrus is well regarded in the hybrid world also, but I personally don't like the way it looks. The Mongoose Crossway isn't really tough enough to handle the odd bit of off roading so well, especially anything rougher than a canal tow path or with deep or frequent pot holes.

I also find a Froogle search the best way to find the internet bargains as Pricerunner/Kelkoo etc are useless - the Dew Deluxe 2008 is retailing in sales in lots of shops for sub400.

Enjoy your cycling!

Jimibeee

You have a fair point there about the biase in the 08 range of boardmans towards road, which I agree considering the range is pordcued by a road racer then you would expect that, Ihave had a look at the 09 range and the have chnaged the nmake up quite a bit adding a a fair few hybrids and a lot of MTB's. Got an email to show me the range the other week and the boardman bike 09 range where all on it. But im happy to look as im a bit skint at the mo!

brummybloke

if you have a cycle to work scheme at work then your budget could be increased by 38% as you dont pay vat or tax and the momey comes out of your wages before nasty tax man gets any, 1 time per month.

i just grabbed a giant alliance 1 disk 08 , it is costing me £535 over 12 months, it is listed at £1100.

5limJim

brummybloke wrote: »

if you have a cycle to work scheme at work then your budget could be increased by 38% as you dont pay vat or tax and the momey comes out of your wages before nasty tax man gets any, 1 time per month.

i just grabbed a giant alliance 1 disk 08 , it is costing me £535 over 12 months, it is listed at £1100.

election period is open again, seriously thinking about getting one of the new Boardmans from Halfords (They're the company that our employer has elected to go woiht)... 17miles to work everyday is gonna take me a while to build up to fitness wise