milo

i need a new cycle. i am not using it off-road - altho some of the roads and cycle paths around here are pretty bad, so its not like i'll be riding it on clean straight tarmac.

i dont do many miles a day (probably 10 maximum, often less) but have managed to run a £300ish cheapy saracen (halfords gimmick bike) into the ground in only 4 months so i guess i need something that is more sturdy. i am thinking a mtb for this reason - even tho im not running it off-road, it's less likely to crumple on me than a hybrid or road-only bike.

i guess it would be nice if i could use it for off-road stuff incase i decide i want to get into that in the future (tho unlikely).

budget isnt fixed. will £500 get me something good, or do i need to spend nearer £1k? i have looked on the paulscycles website and will be visiting them, as £500 there seems to buy a £800 bike (and £1k gets something nearer £2k).

what should i be looking out for in terms of components? are there any brands that should be avoided and any that are really good? i am guessing i should look for a hard-tail with disc brakes (are these really better)? i dont really need front suspension i dont think, but they all seem to have them.

i know everyone says "get a good frame", but what constitutes a good frame exactly?

any help appeciated.

ProperCharlie

should be able to get something like a decent trek, marin or kona for about £700-£800. I've had a trek road bike and a marin mtb, both cost about £750, and where both good bikes. i've still got the trek (did 15 miles a day on it for over a year) but the marin was nicked.

imlach

Err....run a £300 Saracen into the ground in 4 months doing only 10 miles a day on rough roads/paths???

That's pretty heavy wear. I took a £200 road bike over rocky mountain passes, and it lasted 10 years before the frame broke. What exactly are you doing to it???????

A racing bike frame/hybrid frame is not so weak as to "crumple" after 3 months of road use - even offroad use!! As I said, before the advent of mountain bike frames, normal thin walled tubing was fine for rough stuff - look at cyclocross for example.

You don't need a mountain bike for urban use. You're crippling yourself by lugging around the extra weight of a full-on mountain bike.

imlach

Cannondale BadBoy. £600. No suspension, no $hit, just a fast urban bike.

imlach

..or if you want suspension and disc brakes (unneccessary for urban cycling), the Bad Boy Ultra...

the moose

On-One Inbred - either geared or SS - is my recommendation.

SJ_Skyline

Madone 5.9 (drool) a snip at £4K

MooseRacer

Have a gander at Edinburgh Cycles Courier - same idea as the badboy but a more realistic price. Cracking urban bike.

imlach

Yes, the wife has an Edinburgh Courier - it is £239 IIRC. They are good value for the money....single chainset at the front, which is all that is required for urban use.

Mate at work has one, and has used it for the daily commute to work (24 miles there & back) for the last 4 years - every day, winter included (snow & ice!).

The irony is that it'd be cheaper than your Saracen.

unclebuck

There's a nice one on Ebay...



That'll get you around, no problem.

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

Just bought a hybrid 2004 Specialized Crossroads Sport which I'm v happy with.

D

Harry_Boy

Now, that is A BIKE....

super_si

Being a fat boy make sure it'll take ya weight hehehehe

Philip Attaway

I think you definately need full suspension, if only to make the roads last a little longer than 4 months!

milo

8% bodyfat right now... hows your dieting going again? i should fatten up a LOT - it's killing my ROM on bench

but yeah.. im pretty sure the reason i buggered the saracen so fast is cos i weight a *little* more than most people i dont think they're intended to take that much weight... plus, i stand up when going uphill and really put some power into it... so thats quite a lot of force going thru a cheap pedal crank (and im using gear 21 all the time which cant help). thats whats broken/creaking right now. plus the brakes are faded, the geometry is shot, the pedals are breaking, and the suspension is seriously screwed. it doesnt ride straight anymore either. it just bounces all the time.

thank u for all the comments. that edinburgh one sounds really good especially at that price. are these types of bikes really that much lighter than mtb's? i see that is 12kg. what does an mtb usually weight?

with regards to that 4k bike - at that price it should have an engine. or at least some frickin' pedals!!!

thank u all

super_si

8% watch out Pudzianowski

imlach

Out of interest, what weight? I bet you're less than me....bikes are well up to taking a lot of weight. Even >20 stone.


I put a hell of a force through my bike, and have only cracked frames once every 5 years or so....that was with 10,000 miles/year.

Do you know what your cadence (pedal revs) is? Your ideal cadence is 80-100rpm (pros are higher - 120rpm) at all times. If you're in top gear and your cadence is <60rpm, you should be using a lower gear ideally. Higher cadence is more efficient.....as well as causing less stress/strain on the bike.

I would expect component failure such as you've had on sub £100 bikes, but for a £300 bike, it seems a bit premature.

If you really want a stiff bike frame, you should look at a steel frame rather than aluminium. Aluminium does tend to lose it's strength over a relatively short time (5 years) as opposed to steel frames.

An MTB with front & rear suspension at £500 could be >30lbs.
With front only suspension at £500, prob around 26-28lbs.
With no suspension, probably about 24lbs. Think the BadBoy is 23-24lbs.
A racing bike at £500 would be around 20lbs.

Reducing rotating mass has most effect - ie, the lighter your tubes & tyres, the more effect it will have. Mountain bike tyres & tubes can easily weigh nearly 1kg in total. Racing bike tyres & tubes can be down at 400g in total.

Hence why sticking light, slick, tyres on a MTB help reduce effort required so much. It's not so much the rolling resistance, but the rotating mass reduction.

the moose

Seriously, consider a singlespeed if you (a) stand on the pedals a lot (b) only use top gear. And get a hardtail, possibly even a rigid. Tyres - if you're on-road, get decent slicks or semi-slicks rather than knobblies, 'cos they just slow you down.

You'd be able to stick together a good On-One for £700, and it would weigh in the region of 26lbs. Spend more, and it'll weigh less, but wear out just as fast.

milo

like im worried about that fat weakling

milo

around 130kg. add the weight of whatever is in my backpack at the time onto that.


to be honest it varies greatly. with my background (bodybuilding and powerlifting) i have a lot of explosive power, but run out of stream pretty quick. so its probably around 120 for a couple of minutes, then drops down to 60 or less for a few. which is probably really bad for the bike?

i am very keen on hiit cardio - so this is what i want anyway (intense for a few mins, then backing off, then repeat).

maybe i ended up with one that was slapped together on a friday afternoon. remember, this £300 bike is a gimmick bike with full suspension - so you'd kind of expect them to have cut corners.


does the difference of 6lbs between mtb and badboy really make that much difference given the weight of a person?


so might i be better getting an mtb and putting semi-slicks on it? or would i just be wasting my money on the disc brakes and front susp that come with the mtb, and that i should definitely go hybrid?

ProperCharlie

imo suspension is a waste of money unless you are doing serious downhilling. but that's just my opinion.

6lbs on a bike does make quite a difference. the mass of a person is pressing down on the pedals - the mass of the bike isn't.

<ok purists - stick gravity in there somewhere>

the moose

Several don'ts

(1) Don't go hybrid, not at your weight. You'll destroy the frame!

(2) Disc brakes are nice, but only if (a) you need the power (b) you habitually cover your bike in mud. Entirely unnecessary on-road, and oftentimes off-road.

(3) Forget about front suspension for the road, especially at your weight - every time you stand up you must squash the forks to within a fraction of their life.

(4) Don't buy cheap crap. Get a good frame - everything else is disposable. The first good frame I had made such a difference to the way I rode - like the difference between horrid old plimsolls and a decent paid of Saucony running shoes.

(5) Don't forget that at your weight you're stressing the wheels/cranks/hubs a lot as well. I'd go down the custom build route myself (not that much more expensive) and make sure I had decent kit - Mavic rims/Shimano hubs (get from Merlin - less than £100/pair), Shimano LX or XT cranks, Middleburn or Raceface front rings, SRAM chain ... you could build a light, strong bike for not too much and it'd serve you well.