Which bike?

[TerryField]

Help! I am in my late 60’s and ride about 3-4000 miles a year, almost all on lanes, voie vertes in France, and similar. My main bike is a Thorn Mercury with a Rohloff hub - fabulous for French touring with a full load, but a bit slow and heavy (15kg) for the large part of the year when I am simply out for a ride.

I want something a bit quicker so that can help me keep up with my mates, some much younger and fitter, some with electrics!

I am thinking of a relatively lightweight bike (less than 11kg?), and it must have straight bars, not drops. Lugs for mudguards would be useful. Sus forks are probably not an option due to the weight. Tyres up to 35c.

Price is obviously an issue, but probably not a limiting factor.

What do the assembled brains recommend?

Terry

[horizon]

So I want something a bit quicker so that can help me keep up with my mates, some much younger and fitter, some with electrics!

I don't think it will be a bike but I look forward to the replies.

[NetworkMan]

OK, I'll stick my neck out....
For speed in order of importance.
1. Training and fitness.
2. Aerodynamics - clothes and riding position.
3. Tyres.
4. Weight of rider.
5. Weight of bike.

This might change if it's extremely hilly.

[TerryField]

Mmmm. Can’t do a lot more training / riding, and fitness levels are not going to improve dramatically at my age.

Ordinary lycra shorts and tops, aerodynamics a bit academic at the speeds I ride!

Current bike was purpose built to fit me and my riding style (hence the straight bars, not drops)

Tyres to be suitable for muddy lanes and good gravel tracks (voies vertes).

I’m 72 kilos and that ain't going to change much!

Over to you!

[slowster]

I would have thought that many or even most hybrids would meet the criteria you have given.

[Samuel D]

Ordinary lycra shorts and tops, aerodynamics a bit academic at the speeds I ride!

Don’t be too sure about that! At 20 km/h, about half of your power is used to overcome aerodynamic drag. So reducing drag has a big effect on speed. You might be surprised how much a tight-fitting winter jacket reduces the effort needed to keep up.

Tyres to be suitable for muddy lanes and good gravel tracks (voies vertes).

The other half of your power at 20 km/h, very roughly speaking, goes on rolling resistance. Tyres vary enormously in rolling resistance. For example, among narrow road tyres that all look about the same there’s a 3× range. New bicycles with few exceptions come with slow tyres.

So the right clothes and the right tyres will make a bigger difference to keeping up with your companions than any bicycle that money can buy.

A lighter derailleur-gear bicycle will help a little too, but only a little in itself.

[Vorpal]

What budget? What kind of brakes?

Trek FX?

[NetworkMan]

Ordinary lycra shorts and tops, aerodynamics a bit academic at the speeds I ride!

Don’t be too sure about that! At 20 km/h, about half of your power is used to overcome aerodynamic drag. So reducing drag has a big effect on speed. You might be surprised how much a tight-fitting winter jacket reduces the effort needed to keep up.

Tyres to be suitable for muddy lanes and good gravel tracks (voies vertes).

The other half of your power at 20 km/h, very roughly speaking, goes on rolling resistance. Tyres vary enormously in rolling resistance. For example, among narrow road tyres that all look about the same there’s a 3× range. New bicycles with few exceptions come with slow tyres.

So the right clothes and the right tyres will make a bigger difference to keeping up with your companions than any bicycle that money can buy.

A lighter derailleur-gear bicycle will help a little too, but only a little in itself.

+1
What's more if you get total weight down from 87 to 83 kg., that is a saving of under 5%. That means you can climb a steep hill at best 5% faster. When riding at constant speed on the level you won't notice the tiny, tiny reduction in rolling resistance.

[TerryField]

Thanks for the comments about clothes and tyres. I’m currently using Schwalbe Mondiale for the puncture resistance when touring, but happy to look at something better for riding closer to home and unladen.

Had a quick look at the Trek page; I think that is the sort of thing I had in mind, but don’t really have the knowledge of what is available out there, hence the original question.

[whoof]

Lightweight straight barred bikes are not that common.
You might see if you can find a Giant Rapid. Mrs Whoof has had one for a few years and is pleased with it. Her's has caliper brakes, more likely now to come with disk brakes. This may help to increase the maximum tyre size the calipers will take a max of 25mm with mudguards.
Edit seems to have been replaced with the Fastroad.

[Jamesh]

Boardman hybrid?

Cannondale quick.

Wiggle / Evans own brands?

Cheers James

[NickJP]

My wife likes flat bars on her road bikes. I had a look at a couple of complete flat bar road bikes in local bike shops, but they all come with the steerer already cut too short to get the bars high enough for her liking - she likes to sit pretty upright or she gets a sore back on long rides, so I buy road frames and set them up that way for her. Here's the latest one I setup - as well as the flat bars, the 1x12 gearing (34t chainring, 10-50 cassette) seems to be a success. As she's pretty short, to minimise the standover height I also fitted 650b wheels instead of the 700c that the bike was intended for.

[Ontherivet77]

Boardman used to do a very nippy looking Hybrid with skinny tyres and disc brakes and there have been various Giant Hybrids that have been very similar to a standard road race bike, I think the Fastroad is the latest. Having said that a Specialized Sirrus is reasonably lightweight with a set of 28mm tyres.

[thelawnet]

E-bike.

Or it would be helpful to state what kind of speeds you're targeting, because, say, 12mph average is different from 16mph.

At 60psi, the CRR of 37mm Marathon Mondial is 0.00800.

Marathon Almotion is 0.00513, Marathon Supreme is 0.00573.

I think some of the fancy gravel tyres should be quite fast also.

As far as going up hills goes, I'm not sure weight is that significant, but you're going to lose speed if you're not 'aero' on the flats.



That's the extreme position but you can see there the goal is to present as small an area to the wind as possible, firstly by being bent over at 90 degrees (or as near as damnit), and secondly by having arms far closer together than would be typical on say a MTB.

This Jones H Bar is a flat bar option that gives you the option of a more aerodynamic position.



Of course you might not WANT to be bent over more. but those are really your options:

1. smoother tyres/possibly higher pressure (at least for smooth roads)
2. tight fitting clothing
3. minimising the area you present to the wind.

IMO the problem with flat bars for speed is that there is no choice of positions, so you can go fully crouched


but that might not be comfortable all the time.

[Vorpal]

Thanks for the comments about clothes and tyres. I’m currently using Schwalbe Mondiale for the puncture resistance when touring, but happy to look at something better for riding closer to home and unladen.

Had a quick look at the Trek page; I think that is the sort of thing I had in mind, but don’t really have the knowledge of what is available out there, hence the original question.

I bought a Trek FX 7.2 for my daughter.

They aren't making that exact bike anymore, though the FX3 is a similar bike, it only seems to comes with disc brakes. Disc brakes have some advantages, but not everyone likes them, which is one reason I asked about the brakes.

Another possibility is something like a Giant Escape.

I would recommend visiting some shops and riding bikes. Farther than just around the car park. That will give you an idea what some of the bikes are like and how much they help.