SummitFreedom wrote: ↑10 Jun 2023, 12:51pm
But one of the biggest debates is hybrid with suspension forks or not? As you can see above, some people say it's useless on a hybrid and won't deal with the small gravel stones
And Steve from Canterbury bike told me to get a mountain bike. So confusing.
Personally, unless I was spending loads and was going to do a lot of "mountain biking", I wouldn't go for suspension - for reasons that I think I went into in the other thread. Given the various uses you've mentioned, if I were in your shoes, I would go for a hybrid bike around the £400-£600 mark (because I think that kind of money gets a decent "introductory" bike). I would want it to have good clearance for tyres (probably 47mm tyres or bigger) and also for mudguards in case I want to fit some later. I would want it to be able to take a luggage rack. I would also want a bottom gear of about 28" or lower (preferably 20" or lower but I like low gears). I wouldn't go for suspension but your opening post states that you do - so if that's a "must" - then I'd get the same as I've described but with suspension forks - I might look to be spending a couple of hundred or so more to cover the cost of reasonable suspension forks (but I don't know much about suspension forks so I would be concentrating my efforts on researching them - but that's a moot point because I wouldn't consider them).
As a digression with a little significance, I'm looking at getting a new bike because I want to do more rough stuff and I find my 32mm tyred touring bike not ideal. At first I was looking at basically building a customised replacement for my touring bike on a new frame but with disc brakes and wider tyres but after starting a thread to canvass for opinions about newer technology
here, I'm now thinking of getting a second bike for the rough stuff but also capable of some road and loaded use - possibly a customised build of
this bike (but the one in the picture has a Ti frame and carbon forks - I'm looking at steel frame and forks).