I'm thinking about a new bike again. An hybrid?

[Captain Stupido]

I posted a while back about new bikes. I was getting seduced by ads, and part of me wanted to see what I was missing out on on the trails. viewtopic.php?f=41&t=404692

Since then I saw sense (thanks in no small amount to the very sensible responses of forum members here) and decided to save my pennies.

On boxing day I had a fall in the wet and hurt myself. I'm getting better, but don't really feel up to much in the way of mountain biking at the moment and when I do I have plenty of nice retro steeds that I enjoy on the trails.

What I could do with right now is something comfy and fairly fast for general purpose road and path exploration... possibly some light touring. My old general purpose bike was the Dawes below. I love it, but it's not had much use recently. It's comfy but it's not fast. I recently moved to a very hilly area and the combination of weighty build and relaxed geometry is no longer ideal...in fact my Clockwork is better in the hills here even though the knobbly MTB tires are not ideal on the road. But my feeling is that something with 700c wheels would be better still.

I'd like a sportier, lighter version of the Dawes... mudguards, a rack, 700c wheels with fairly wide tyres. A wide range of gears. V brakes would be fine, and I'd like flat bars. I think so, anyway. But definitely a not too head down/racy riding position.

Obviously part of me is tempted to build or fix up an older bike. But the truth is I want something that's ready to go, not another project to obsess over... Seems to me that what I really want is a boring, basic hybrid. And they're not even all that expensive.

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-li ... e-EV339937
https://www.evanscycles.com/cannondale- ... e-EV360888

Now, I know the drivetrain components on these are a bit cheaply built, but to my retro-specced brain, other than that I can't see all that much wrong with those two... Saying that, I do generally prefer steel frames, but I'm trying to be open minded, and the value for money of modern alu seems hard to deny...

Anyone care to either talk me out of it, point me to a bargain, or suggest a better idea? Or even confirm that I might as well just buy a cheap boring bike?

 

[The History Man]

29er? Better tyre clearance. Probably disc brakes though. Unless you find an older model.

 

[jimo746]

More road biased tyres on the Clockwork?
Both those hybrids look fine for road and light off-road use, there's a multitude of hybrids to choose from tbh, basically a flat bar gravel bike (not tempted by drop bars?).

 

[Captain Stupido]

29er? Better tyre clearance. Probably disc brakes though. Unless you find an older model.

The Pinnacle is described as "part rigid 29er mountain bike and part touring or city bike". Looks like it has plenty of tyre clearance. For £300 I like it.

More road biased tyres on the Clockwork?
Both those hybrids look fine for road and light off-road use, there's a multitude of hybrids to choose from tbh, basically a flat bar gravel bike (not tempted by drop bars?).

Cool.

Yeah, I've been thinking that (changing tyres on the clocky). I'm building a second clockwork and once it's done I was half planning to change tyres (and fit rigid forks... possibly some more tweaks) on old faithful. It's just that the new build keeps getting held up...and the old one is my go-to for any kind of off-roading so I'm loath to mess with it.

Longer term, the clockwork would be less versatile in terms of racks and mudguards. That pinnacle has crud mounts, mudguard bosses, it even has front fork rack mounts... The frame looks nice to me - worthy of nicer drivetrain components etc...

Re drops... yes I'm tempted, but not 100%. I had them with barcons on my last "all rounder" and ultimately didn't enjoy them. They were comfy but control was compromised. It's tricky to get the set up just right for this sort of bike, and potentially lots of messing about with cables, bar tape, etc along the way!

Saying that if I saw an off the peg drop bar bike that looked really appealing as a package I'd be tempted. Most of the suitable stuff is disc equipped which is overkill IMO.

 

[CassidyAce]

Re:

Out of the box, you might find the gearing a little high on the Cannondale for an especially hilly area: 48-38-28 and 12-28. The Pinnacle has lower gearing: 42-34-24 and 12-32. For its price point, it looks pretty good (apart from the Tourney bits).

However, if you're patient, you could probably find a 1990s 'hybrid': 700c wheels, flat bars, 21 speed but with nice cromo ride quality. Trek Multitrack, Specialized Crossroads, Marin Stinson/Larkspur/etc. - Diamondback, Ridgeback and others had their own too. I've got a 96 Stinson (replaced the cantis with Vs): relaxed position, climbs well, faster than my MTBs, lovely ride quality - ticks a lot of boxes.

 

[Captain Stupido]

Re: Re:

Out of the box, you might find the gearing a little high on the Cannondale for an especially hilly area: 48-38-28 and 12-28. The Pinnacle has lower gearing: 42-34-24 and 12-32. For its price point, it looks pretty good (apart from the Tourney bits).

However, if you're patient, you could probably find a 1990s 'hybrid': 700c wheels, flat bars, 21 speed but with nice cromo ride quality. Trek Multitrack, Specialized Crossroads, Marin Stinson/Larkspur/etc. - Diamondback, Ridgeback and others had their own too. I've got a 96 Stinson (replaced the cantis with Vs): relaxed position, climbs well, faster than my MTBs, lovely ride quality - ticks a lot of boxes.

Good call re the gearing, and agreed that the tourney bits let bikes down at this price point. I can’t see much else wrong with them though. Easy enough to upgrade those bits as and when they wear out too...

Yeah, I’ve had an eye out for a nice 90s hybrid for a while. Oddly enough nothing has turned up that’s either sufficiently local, well priced, or decent. I did pick up a nice bonded alu trek multitrack frame that I’ve failed to do anything with. I think it might be a bit on the big side anyway though. I guess with lots of that sort of stuff it just gets ridden into the ground... practical commuting bicycles get worked pretty hard by their owners...

I might pop into a bike shop and have a look. £300 is nothing really, easy to spend way more than that on even a “budget” retro build...

 

[Rank_21]

Sound like you'd want one of those "gravel bikes"

 

[Captain Stupido]

Re:

I went into Evans today and took the pinnacle for a ride. For £300 it’s brilliant. Ironically enough though despite the uber cheap components being the obvious difference between a £1000 bike, the frame is probably the thing I like the least about it... it’s just like any other modern aluminium bike I’ve ever ridden in feel, stiff but dead. Actually the components all worked smoothly - low tech but fine. It was pretty light and reasonably fast... really for the money it’s a very good bike.

I’d want to change bars (too wide, something with some sweet back would be nice too) and tyres (too slick) but other than that I could totally live with the spec...but...

Sound like you'd want one of those "gravel bikes"

Well...having had a look in a bike shop this morning my conclusion is that “gravel bike” means disk brakes, and 1x gearing, and drop bars, which is not really what I want to be honest.

A basic hybrid is what I want... I’m just not convinced I can live with an aluminium frame... maybe better to wait for something older after all...

Maybe I’d get used to the feel.

 

[The History Man]

Or build one.........

 

[rwm1962]

I nearly recommended a Pinnacle! I mainly use a couple of old geometry P7's for commuting. With the right gearing & tyres they are pretty nimble.