Where do i start....

masterk · 27 Jun 2015 at 20:06

Hi all

Appreciate this is going to sound very nooby.... But wondered if i could beg some advice.

I currently commute to work on an old rickety, heavy apollo mountain bike, which i am convinced isnt even my size.... I am wanting to upgrade to something half decent, lighter and a bit faster...

Where do i start? I still really would like something that can go off-road on trails etc (not necessarily scaling any rocky crevasses).

Also a concern is i am over 6ft tall and would really like to ensure i get a frame large enough.

I don't want to spend more than £400.... Are there any models you can recommend? Or suppliers?

Thanks in advance

#Chri5# · 27 Jun 2015 at 20:37

£400 will just get you into a cyclo-cross (CX) bikes. A CX bike would hit the spot between road riding and some light off-roading on hard pack trails (forest fireroads etc)

Evans have this one down from £650 to £400:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/jamis/nova-sport-2015-cyclocross-bike-ec073009

I suspect that would be a huge upgrade from a nasty Apollo special

grudas · 27 Jun 2015 at 21:17

how long have you been commuting ? how often do you go off-road on your current bike? reason I ask, is often people buy mtb's with a "I want to go off-road" in their heads and never use them for anything other than roads, where a road bike is obviously way more suitable and better over-all

masterk · 27 Jun 2015 at 21:53

Hi chaps

Thanks for the comments and the Nova recommendation! A nice bike for sure.

Only been commuting to work a few months, 5 mile round trip. I live in a pretty rural area so I would like to go off-road in the future, there are some big woods nearby as well, but yes currently mostly road cycling.

How about the rockrider 560? Would that be too impractical for the commute?

Roady · 9 Jul 2015 at 12:31

masterk said:
Hi chaps

Thanks for the comments and the Nova recommendation! A nice bike for sure.

Only been commuting to work a few months, 5 mile round trip. I live in a pretty rural area so I would like to go off-road in the future, there are some big woods nearby as well, but yes currently mostly road cycling.

How about the rockrider 560? Would that be too impractical for the commute?

Bit of a late response I'm afraid...

The rockrider 560 would be slightly impractical for commuting on, as it's a 29'er with front suspension. The upright riding position, small wheels and offroad tyres would make it harder to maintain speeds you would otherwise maintain on a CX bike like the Nova. Obviously swapping to road tyres are easy on either of them. You would generally expect a 29er with suspension to weigh much more than a CX/road frame too (built stronger and not made for maintaining speeds). The suspension you generally wouldn't use when road riding (yes I know you can lock them...).

Consider the two like this, the rockrider is a pure offroader like a Land Rover with knobbly offroad tyres. The Nova is a lighter Audi Q5 happy to travel at speed but clearance to go off road. A pure road bike would be an Audi A6, lighter again and made for the open road. They'll all go on road and off road, just some are better (easier to drive/maintain/more economical) than others at each.

A nice twist is the CX bike having disc brakes which are even better for commuting in the winters/wet than the rim brakes you would find at that price point on a road frame.

TLDR; Just don't buy a hybrid/MTB.

As the vast majority of your riding is going to be on road commuting you can exclude a pure off road bike. As you want to ride the occasional trail and want an option for offroad tyres then you can exclude the pure road bike.