Which type of bike

NotAGolf · 22 Aug 2018 at 21:47

I'm trying to work out what type of bike I should get myself and the wife. The types of rides will be 5-20 miles to begin with, possibly edging up to 30/40 in a year or two. The types of routes we'd do will be ~40% road, 30% paved path, 30% gravelly/sandy/torn up roads. We wont be going on anything too off-road as we'll often have a kids seat/trailer on the back.

I've currently got a road bike, and this 'city' bike. The road bike is too aggressive for such casual rides, and too slippy on the poorer road surfaces. The city bike is ok but feels a little clunky and the single speed is quite restrictive.

There seems to be all sorts of potential categories for the sort of bike I'm looking for: tourer, cyclocross, hybrid, gravel, adventure etc.

I'm not sure the wife would be comfortable with drop bars, and some of the cyclocross bikes I think would be way to aggressive riding position for these sort of casual rides. Conversely I don't want something too upright and weighs 10 tonnes due to the racks/mudguards etc.

Budget is ideally ~£550, £650 at a push, which from what I've seen so far is pretty limiting so we may have to go down the second hand route.

Thanks for any help.

#Chri5# · 23 Aug 2018 at 09:45

A visit to a few LBSs and test rides is in order IMO. I'd probably be looking at the gravel / adventure bike options - should have fatter tyres (32 to 40mm) for a comfortable ride on road but still cope well with dirt and gravel tracks.

I wouldn't rule out drop bars for your wife as they do give more hand positions and that can add comfort as you build up the miles. A good bike shop should be happy for you to take a bike out for at least an hour rather than just five minutes up/down the street. When I've been testing bikes recently, one shop let me have a demo bike for a 3 day bank holiday weekend for no charge.

mattyfez · 24 Aug 2018 at 20:47

I'd say a mountain bike style hybrid with rigid forks.

Is that budget for 2 bikes or is that the budget for each?

A couple of voodoo marassa or similar would be the obvious choice of in a budget.

NotAGolf · 25 Aug 2018 at 13:00

mattyfez said:
Is that budget for 2 bikes or is that the budget for each?

Budget for each.

mattyfez · 25 Aug 2018 at 16:49

This looks pretty good at the current sale price, reasonable spec and weighs in at 10.8kg in medium size which is a fair bit lighter than the voodoo and your current vitus

https://www.evanscycles.com/hoy-shizuoka-002-2018-hybrid-bike-EV246155

mattyfez · 25 Aug 2018 at 17:07

Ahh it seems the hoy is only available in small . Might be good for the wife though depending how tall she is.

Thing with good bargains is the medium sizes tend to sell more which leaves xs, s or xl or xxl sizes where you can pick up really good bargains.
So if your tall and your wife is short then you can get some good deals.