Hybrid Bikes

Soldato
Joined
22 Oct 2005
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Hi all.

I'm looking into buying a bike. I've never bought a decent bike so I'm a bit clueless as to what to look for.

I would love a road bike but I don't want to be limited to only riding on road and I don't have enough money to get 2 bikes, so that will have to wait until later in life! So that leaves mountain bikes, but I will be doing a fair amount of road riding as well so I was thinking of looking at hybrid bikes. Thing is I don't know much about bikes!

First off, how 'robust' are hybrids? I wont be jumping down mountains or anything hardcore but I would like to use it off road and not have to worry about breaking it!

My budget is not great, perhaps £300-400 but the less spent the better. Anything I should look for/avoid? Particular brands etc?

One last question, where would you suggest buying from? There are no decent bike shops near me so I will almost definitely be buying online.

Thanks very much for any help.
 
Associate
Joined
20 Jan 2005
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Leeds/Oxford
A hybrid will be quite a lot slower than a normal road bike, and poor traction compared to a mountain bike, unless your not wanting to do either that well i'd say specialise.

I recently bought my first road bike, for a measly £150, it's not all that bad and a large improvement over a "normal" bike. I think in hindsight i would have got a second hand bike. Possibly try a cycling forum?
 
Soldato
OP
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I like the look of that specialised bike Reality|Bites, but wont changing the tyres be quite a lot of hassle?

How much difference would there be with a mountain bike with 'slick' tyres compared to a standard road bike? If there's not too much difference I'd maybe go for this idea but I'd have thought there's be quite a difference, gear setups, weight etc.

A second hand bike might be an idea. I could perhaps get a feel for a road bike. Although my mate has a good one so maybe I should just ask to try his.
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Nov 2003
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How much difference would there be with a mountain bike with 'slick' tyres compared to a standard road bike? If there's not too much difference I'd maybe go for this idea but I'd have thought there's be quite a difference, gear setups, weight etc.

A MTBer will tell you that there isn't much difference between them, but a Roadie will tell you that they are light years apart. I'm in the second camp.
 
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