LBS recommendation

tony said:

The other said a hybrid is just a MTB with road slicks

The term hybrid covers quite a range of bikes from
almost-a-road-racer-with-flat-bars to
mountain-bike-with-slightly-thinner-wheels. You choose where your
ideal bike lies in that continuum.

Quoted message said:

and I'd be better off
with the latter because a) it has a wider range of gears

Might have.

Quoted message said:

b) it has more resale value if I decide I don't like cycling,

Used bikes have very little resale value, especially if they were
inexpensive to start with. I wouldn't try to factor this in to a
purchase

c) a MTB is easier to ride for novices

He's making it up

tony said the following on 20/10/2006 08:50:

Quoted message said:

I'm still looking for a hybrid commuter bike. Many here recommended a visit
to a LBS, I went to two. The first recommended a Dawes Mojave for £200 and
said the hybrid was the way to go.

Sounds sensible.

Quoted message said:

The other said a hybrid is just a MTB with road slicks

Hmm.... There's a bit more to it than that. My "hybrid" is a road bike
with flat bars and chunky-ish tyres. (Soon to go back to drops though.)

Quoted message said:

a) it has a wider range of gears

Not necessarily relevant. Do you actually *need* a low enough gear to
winch yourself up a 1:1 rocky slope?

Quoted message said:

c) a MTB is easier to ride for novices.

Rubbish!

Quoted message said:

both are reputable bike shops. so who's right?

Based on your post, my gut feeling would be with the Dawes man. He
sounds like he isn't basing his advice on dodgy prejudice.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

In article <[email hidden]>

tony said:

I'm still looking for a hybrid commuter bike. Many here recommended a visit
to a LBS, I went to two. The first recommended a Dawes Mojave for £200 and
said the hybrid was the way to go.

The other said a hybrid is just a MTB with road slicks

It might be, or it might be a road bike with chunky tyres and flat bars.

Quoted message said:

and I'd be better off with the latter because

Quoted message said:

a) it has a wider range of gears,

Depends - often it's pretty much the same between hybrids and ATBs,
although hybrids may have fewer and higher gears most have gears lower
than you'll need for road use.

Quoted message said:

b) it has more resale value if I decide I don't like cycling,

Unless it's an expensive bike the resale value is probably negligible
anyway (that's not to say that you couldn't sell it for a reasonable
price, just that you shouldn't count on it).

Quoted message said:

c) a MTB is easier to ride for novices.

I wonder where he got that idea. A road-oriented hybrid might have
livelier handling than an ATB-based one, but that arguably makes it
easier to ride.

Quoted message said:

He recommended a Giant Rock for £165 (with slicks and pannier
rack).

he also has a Giant Expression hybrid for £180 ish but was quite keen for me
*not* to buy it, despite telling me that he sells very few of them (which
doesn't make much sense as I'd have thought he'd want to get rid of any
stock he has)

Maybe he keeps it in just to have it in stock, but makes more profit on
the others (or has a load of them to shift).

Quoted message said:

both are reputable bike shops. so who's right?

The second one sounds like a plonker - was it a young chap with a silly
haircut? You could buy the Expression just to [censored] him off, but it's
probably better to establish a relationship with the shop that doesn't
lie to you.

in message <[email hidden]>, tony

(') said:

I'm still looking for a hybrid commuter bike. Many here recommended a
visit to a LBS, I went to two. The first recommended a Dawes Mojave for
£200 and said the hybrid was the way to go.

The other said a hybrid is just a MTB with road slicks and I'd be better
off with the latter because a) it has a wider range of gears, b) it has
more resale value if I decide I don't like cycling, c) a MTB is easier to
ride
for novices. He recommended a Giant Rock for £165 (with slicks and
pannier rack).

/That/ was [censored]. An MTB is not easier to ride on the road, it's
considerably harder - and a £165 mountain bike (even one by Giant) isn't
any good off the road either. He was just trying to shift stock he
couldn't sell.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; When your hammer is C++, everything begins to look like a thumb.

tony said:

The other said a hybrid is just a MTB with road slicks and I'd be
better off with the latter because a) it has a wider range of gears,
b) it has more resale value if I decide I don't like cycling, c) a MTB
is easier to ride for novices.

Absolute tripe.

A hybrid generally has thinner tyres than an MTB, which means you need
to put in a lot less effort to move.

A hybrid will usually be lighter than an equivalent MTB, which again
makes it much less effort to ride.

A hybrid will generally have gears suited to road use, whereas an MTB
will have them suited to off-road use. My hybrid bike has gears that
enable me to climb steep hills, and pedal comfortably at 20mph. The
MTB that we have at work has the same number of gears, but all are
much shorter - meaning that I would never need the lowest gears, but
am spinning too fast to be comfortable at 20mph.

If you're only planning to ride it on roads and good quality paths, a
hybrid is a much better option.

--
Stevie D
\\\\\ ///// Bringing dating agencies to the
\\\\\\\__X__/////// common hedgehog since 2001 - "HedgeHugs"
___\\\\\\\'/ \'///////_____________________________________________