Advice on new bike purchase please

JustAnotherSaver

I'm looking to get in to cycling for a few reasons. An activity i can do with my wife as she recently got a bike for her birthday and is enjoying it but also as a means of exercise since i cancelled my gym membership (& with my bad knees the bike was about the only cardio machine that was ok).

I wont be cycling to work. To begin with it'll just be 'out-&-about' on the road, main roads, back roads, country roads. My wife wants us to be cable to go off down the canal together so i think that would force me more towards hybrids? Although i think the vast majority will be road cycling. We're not talking hitting 50+ miles per day right from the off but i'd like to look at getting in a good 30-60 mins regular as part of exercise.

The budget will be in the £500-£600 mark since i cashed in my balances from Quidco & TopCashback.

Looking at the bike shop i'll be going to and probably buying from, in the range is Trek 7.2FX, DS1, DS2, FX1, FX2 to name a few. Giant Cypress, Escape 1, Escape 2 GE again to name just a few really.




* disc brakes or what i think are called 'v' brakes? Or does it not matter?
* Front suspension or not? I read that cheap suspension is worse than no suspension.


Those are the 2 main things i was wondering but i'm sure there's things i've not even considered because i just don't really know what to look for.

So advice certainly welcome.

Johnmcl7

More boring detail below but in short, if possible I'd try to hire a hybrid (Trek FX's are quite popular hire bikes) and see how you find the bike. If not, I'd see if there are any good bike shops that would let you have a feel of some of the bikes you're thinking of as it really comes down to what you like the feel of. I was helping my mum with a bike recently and she hired a couple of different bikes, preferred one over the other and bought that one - the stuff she preferred the second bike for were ones I wouldn't have picked up on but made a difference to her.

Brakes - Disc brakes use a dedicated disc mounted on the wheel near the hub while v-brakes or other rim brakes use the rim of the bike for braking. Disc brakes come in two main formats, mechanical and hydraulic - the mechanical brakes function purely by pulling a cable whereas hydraulic brakes work similar to your car and use hydraulic pressure to apply the brakes. Mechanical brakes are simpler but may need a little adjustment more often while hydraulic brakes offer more power but when they need maintenance they're more complex.

The main advantage of the disc brakes is you have a dedicated braking disc whereas with rim brakes your rims have to share being a braking surface and being a wheel. They work well in wet conditions and also if the wheel is slightly buckled, it won't affect your braking.

The main advantage of v-brakes is that they're very simple to maintain, generally just need a little cable adjustment now and again.

For mountain bikers and daily commuters cycling in all weather conditions, disc brakes are a good choice for their consistency but for fair weather cyclists they're less of a benefit.

Suspension is a tricky one, as you've said cheap suspension isn't much good, it adds weight to the bike and the spec of the bike is generally worse to account for the cost of the suspension fork. Personally I find suspension useful on a mountain bike to absorb impacts when the bike has left the ground, I don't find it useful for soaking up rough paths as instead I prefer bigger, softer tyres. However some people do find suspension makes a ride a bit smoother for them.

JustAnotherSaver

Thanks for your feedback. I actually went & bought the bike yesterday. I went with the Trek FX2. I was actually looking at the FX3 but the 2 had £50 down on the list price anyway at £400 instead of £450. The FX3 was £550 and even though i was using the money i got through TopCashback & Quidco (so a budget of £600) and not money that i'd actually worked for, i couldn't justify the extra £150. The FX3 felt nice but so did the FX2. There wasn't £150's worth of difference between them, not to me and certainly not as my first proper bike.

They threw in mudguards and a helmet for an extra £40 or so i think it was too so all in all i was happy enough. They've been very good with my wife's bike & the customer service after the sale has been top notch since hers ended up with a fault which they fixed pronto. They've offered a ton of advice and answered questions throughout. We never felt rushed. If anything we felt we had to edge towards the door because you just get chatting so long so i was more than happy to go with the shop i went to.

So just a case of picking it up when it's ready now

Rebecca_Palmer

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Thanks for your feedback. I actually went & bought the bike yesterday. I went with the Trek FX2. I was actually looking at the FX3 but the 2 had £50 down on the list price anyway at £400 instead of £450. The FX3 was £550 and even though i was using the money i got through TopCashback & Quidco (so a budget of £600) and not money that i'd actually worked for, i couldn't justify the extra £150. The FX3 felt nice but so did the FX2. There wasn't £150's worth of difference between them, not to me and certainly not as my first proper bike.

They threw in mudguards and a helmet for an extra £40 or so i think it was too so all in all i was happy enough. They've been very good with my wife's bike & the customer service after the sale has been top notch since hers ended up with a fault which they fixed pronto. They've offered a ton of advice and answered questions throughout. We never felt rushed. If anything we felt we had to edge towards the door because you just get chatting so long so i was more than happy to go with the shop i went to.

So just a case of picking it up when it's ready now

Nice bike! Mine is 3 years old and I plan to get a new one.

kaffenback

Rebecca_Palmer wrote: »

Nice bike! Mine is 3 years old and I plan to get a new one.

Why? What is wrong with the old one that a bit of servicing and a replacement part or two will not put right? Bikes are not like cars, they can and should last for decades with a bit of regular servicing and the odd new tyre, chain or brake pads (as long as they are reasonable quality bikes to start with, which a Trek defintely is). I hate the thought of all that aluminium being chucked back into the recycling after only three years, not very sustainable transport in that case :mad:

elverson

Happy riding OP, just remember a bit of maintenance now and again.

ABC for air (pump up the tyres), brakes (pads aligned and not worn away), chain (degrease and oil when required).

fred246

I service and repair my own bikes inc wheel building. I never need the services of a bike shop. I taught myself using youtube videos. My dad always used to say "you can't have too many tools" so I bought all the tools I needed without hesitation. In the early years I was always ordering from Chainreaction, Wiggle, bike-discount etc. Once I was set up with everything I needed it's amazing how cheap it is to run bikes. I hardly order anything now. You just replace whatever needs replacing. No need to ever buy a new bike.

glasgowdan

fred246 wrote: »

No need to ever buy a new bike.

You haven't heard of n+1 then?

fred246

I've only got four bikes at the moment. Used to have five till a few months ago. Enough till I die anyway. I know what you mean though. It's always tempting when you look at some new bikes on the internet. I don't think my wife would be very happy if I bought any more.