Hello,
I am a novice to the bike scene and wanted some recommendations/advice on which hybrid bike to purchase. It's my first bike.
Later in the year I will be participating in Coast to Coast so I need a bike to start training. I have been informed hybrid is the way to go as the route is mainly road and some light terrain. Plus I want a bike for fitness/leisure.
My budget is around £500-600. Giant Rapid 3 looks good to me but any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Hybrid Bike Choice?
- tykeboy2003
- Posts: 1277
- Joined: 19 Jul 2010, 2:51pm
- Location: Swadlincote, South Derbyshire
Re: Hybrid Bike Choice?
I have a Giant Escape hybrid with disk brakes which looks very similar (£100 2nd hand on eBay).
Good things
Brakes - excellent.
Gears - crisp reliable shifting
Comfortable ride
Not so good things
It was awkward to fit mudguards and rear rack due to disk brakes. They should have added some braze-on captive nuts to allow for this. In the end I had to buy a special rack which looped round the rear brake and had to bend the front mudguard stays round the front brake.
The front mech seized up so I soaked it in some WD40-type stuff overnight which sorted it out, could have happened to any bike though.
Good things
Brakes - excellent.
Gears - crisp reliable shifting
Comfortable ride
Not so good things
It was awkward to fit mudguards and rear rack due to disk brakes. They should have added some braze-on captive nuts to allow for this. In the end I had to buy a special rack which looped round the rear brake and had to bend the front mudguard stays round the front brake.
The front mech seized up so I soaked it in some WD40-type stuff overnight which sorted it out, could have happened to any bike though.
- ChrisOntLancs
- Posts: 527
- Joined: 20 Oct 2016, 9:47pm
Re: Hybrid Bike Choice?
that giant looks like a pretty safe bet to be honest, good frame with entry level parts that can get upgraded later, if you want that is (i'm perfectly happy with my altus MTB parts!).
shimano road groupsets (sram will have their own hierarchy)
https://www.evanscycles.com/coffeestop/ ... -hierarchy
this giant seems to mix and match groupsets in a similar way to my hybrid, in fact i think i have the same brakes.
those tires are a little thin for my liking, but you're on the other end of 'hybrid' to me i guess. they will be brilliant on the roads but if you're planning on riding a lot of loose surfaces it might be a good idea to check if you can run something slightly fatter.
if you're going to get clipless pedals with it my advice is go with MTB pedals as they're better for walking and a lot of them also function as flat pedals (see crankbros) so they're great for cities and shared paths. pedal +plus shoe will add anywhere from 50-150 to your original budget though so you might want to start with some flats
EDIT get bar ends... well, if you want to. they make climbing almost enjoyable and with those flat bars you'll still be able to grab the ends like bull horns on a fixie and duck out of the wind. this advice applies to anybody with flat bars. how did bar ends become uncool!?
shimano road groupsets (sram will have their own hierarchy)
https://www.evanscycles.com/coffeestop/ ... -hierarchy
this giant seems to mix and match groupsets in a similar way to my hybrid, in fact i think i have the same brakes.
those tires are a little thin for my liking, but you're on the other end of 'hybrid' to me i guess. they will be brilliant on the roads but if you're planning on riding a lot of loose surfaces it might be a good idea to check if you can run something slightly fatter.
if you're going to get clipless pedals with it my advice is go with MTB pedals as they're better for walking and a lot of them also function as flat pedals (see crankbros) so they're great for cities and shared paths. pedal +plus shoe will add anywhere from 50-150 to your original budget though so you might want to start with some flats
EDIT get bar ends... well, if you want to. they make climbing almost enjoyable and with those flat bars you'll still be able to grab the ends like bull horns on a fixie and duck out of the wind. this advice applies to anybody with flat bars. how did bar ends become uncool!?