Hybrid cycles for commuting & long(ish) tours?

On 8/2/04 10:19 pm, in article [email hidden], "Ian

Teelan said:

Hello all,

Chatting with a mate who is thinking of getting back into cycling after some years away.

He's tempted to get a hybrid bike and work up to doing his daily commute (approx 15 miles each
way). Later on he might want to try longer trips like coast to coast. Personally I think a sales
man has given him some good patter.

Does the group feel that a hybrid is a feasible bike for this kinda riding or would a traditional
tourer be better?

A good hybrid 'city bike' is an ideal machine for such a purpose. It provides a comfortable posture
for relatively short (ie not multi hour) trips, good control and visibility, and will have (fittings
for) a rack, mudguards and an appropriate range of gears. With good tyre selection and the addition
of bar ends it will be a great machine to get back into cycling on.

Obviously you get what you pay for, but there is no reason why such a bike cannot be a good commuter
and tourer.

..d

Ian Teelan said:

He's tempted to get a hybrid bike and work up to doing his daily commute (approx 15 miles each
way). Later on he might want to try longer trips like coast to coast. Personally I think a sales
man has given him some good patter.

Does the group feel that a hybrid is a feasible bike for this kinda riding or would a traditional
tourer be better?

Fitted with mudguards, a rack and good lights, either type would be fine.

--
Dave...

Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live. - Mark Twain

Ian Teelan said:

He's tempted to get a hybrid bike and work up to doing his daily commut=

e

Quoted message said:

(approx 15 miles each way). Later on he might want to try longer trips =

like

Quoted message said:

coast to coast. Personally I think a sales man has given him some good patter.
=20
Does the group feel that a hybrid is a feasible bike for this kinda rid=

ing

Quoted message said:

or would a traditional tourer be better?

Either sort of bike will do the job. A tourer will be a bit better on=20 the open roads into a
wind, the hybrid will be a little more forgiving=20 to ride in traffic as you'd probably not be
in a crouch so would have a=20 better view and less weight on the bars which makes
signalling/one=20 handed riding a little easier. Where hybrids really score over tourers is you
get a much better choice=20 because they make up a bigger chunk of the market. You can get a=20
perfectly acceptable hybrid for about =A3200 (like the Ridgeback and Dawe= s=20 models, for
example) plus the cost of some mudguards and a rack.=20 Tourers start at about =A3450, and though
you get what you pay for it=20 doesn't mean you've got =A3450+ to spend, plus hybrids are
available in=20 that price range too.

People ride around town on tourers, people have done end to ends on=20 hybrids: they're actually
pretty similar machines except for the default =

handlebar designs. Only thing that bothers me about hybrids is that=20 marketing has currently
decreed that MTB suspension forks are apparently =

a Good Thing and many come with them. For road use that's often just a=20 way of sucking out power
when you're climbing unless you regularly cover =

a lot of cobbled streets, but there are plenty available with rigid=20 forks too.

Pete. --=20 Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics,
Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden]
dundee.ac.uk~pjclinchOpen ↗

"Ian Teelan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello all,

Chatting with a mate who is thinking of getting back into cycling after

some

Quoted message said:

years away.

He's tempted to get a hybrid bike and work up to doing his daily commute (approx 15 miles each
way). Later on he might want to try longer trips

like

Quoted message said:

coast to coast. Personally I think a sales man has given him some good patter.

Does the group feel that a hybrid is a feasible bike for this kinda riding or would a traditional
tourer be better?

Cheers,

Ian

Don't get a Hybrid please, get a Tourer I beg you, please !!

Graham

"Ian Teelan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

He's tempted to get a hybrid bike and work up to doing his daily commute (approx 15 miles each
way). Later on he might want to try longer trips

like

Quoted message said:

coast to coast. Personally I think a sales man has given him some good patter.

Quoted message said:

Does the group feel that a hybrid is a feasible bike for this kinda riding or would a traditional
tourer be better?

Tricky. A hybrid is a better pootling bike, but for 15 miles each way I'd want the drop bars. Since
there's not thet much difference in the geometry, though, if he buys a decent hybrid he can change
the bars later if he wants to.

Any bits of Sustrans or bridleways along the route? That might make the choice. I find flat bars
better on these routes.

--
Guy
===

WARNING: may contain traces of irony. Contents may settle after posting.
chapmancentral.co.ukchapmancentral.co.ukOpen ↗

Ian Teelan said:

Hello all,

Chatting with a mate who is thinking of getting back into cycling after some years away.

He's tempted to get a hybrid bike and work up to doing his daily commute (approx 15 miles each
way). Later on he might want to try longer trips like coast to coast. Personally I think a sales
man has given him some good patter.

Does the group feel that a hybrid is a feasible bike for this kinda riding or would a traditional
tourer be better?

A traditional tourer probably would be better (and a recumbent possibly better still) at least for
the commute and for longer on-road trips. The main issues are posture and hand positions.

A straight-bar or riser-bar hybrid handlebar without bar-ends is going cause serious wrist and
hand pain on a long trip, because you can't change hand position to rest painful tendons. Adding
good ergonomic bar-ends will help that, but will still not offer as many hand positions as
traditional drops.

Secondly, many 'hybrids' have a fairly upright riding position, with the handlebars higher than the
saddle. That's fine for short journeys but I would find it painful on longer ones.

Having said that, I'm planning to take not a hybrid but a full suspension cross-country
mountain bike on my 'coast-to-coast' this year, even though I have a good road bike. This is
because a road bike
- even a 'traditional tourer' - is really uncomfortable and slow on uneven off-road surfaces,
whereas a mountain bike is not too bad on the road. So on a route which is at least partly on poor
surfaces and which has interesting off-road sections, a bike with at least some suspension is
likely to be a win over all.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) jasmine.org.uk~simonOpen ↗

;; Friends don't send friends HTML formatted emails.

"Ian Teelan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hello all,

Chatting with a mate who is thinking of getting back into cycling after

some

Quoted message said:

years away.

He's tempted to get a hybrid bike and work up to doing his daily commute (approx 15 miles each
way). Later on he might want to try longer trips

like

Quoted message said:

coast to coast. Personally I think a sales man has given him some good patter.

Does the group feel that a hybrid is a feasible bike for this kinda riding or would a traditional
tourer be better?

Cheers,

Ian

I've got a good quality tourer/audax bike and a cheap (£200) hybrid. Both are fitted with lights,
panniers etc. (and a couple of mountain bikes one of which is fitted with slicks and pannier frame)

I nearly always use the hybrid for my 25 mile per day commute through suburbs and into London. The
upright position is good for visibility. The continual stop/start and bar ends mean that I am
continually changing hand position.

However, if I had only one bike it would be a tourer.

Paul.

"Paul Moss" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I nearly always use the hybrid for my 25 mile per day commute through suburbs and into London. The
upright position is good for visibility. The continual stop/start and bar ends mean that I am
continually changing hand position.

I like sitting upright with hands on a set of v-brakes for town. But my old commute was 10% that and
90% open road.

Last week I saw a bloke with flat bars and tribars- something I never dared go for. He had a 600k
audax sticker on his bag too!

"Ian Teelan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hello all,

Chatting with a mate who is thinking of getting back into cycling after some years away.

He's tempted to get a hybrid bike and work up to doing his daily commute (approx 15 miles each
way). Later on he might want to try longer trips like coast to coast. Personally I think a sales
man has given him some good patter.

Does the group feel that a hybrid is a feasible bike for this kinda riding or would a traditional
tourer be better?

Cheers,

Ian

The correct answer is both! One bike is not enough and either would do his commute. If he is just
getting back into cycling he can get a decent hybrid for £200-£300. He is not shelling out too much
cash. Then if he keeps cycling its time to get a tourer and keep the other bike for the winter and
any time its getting parking the bike somewhere dodgy. Iain

Peter Clinch <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Only thing that bothers me about hybrids is that marketing has currently decreed that MTB
suspension forks are apparently

a Good Thing and many come with them.

Suspension forks for 700c wheels tend to be the cheaper versions, too, with the inevitable 'bobbing'
effect when riding out of the saddle. Rock Shox, of course, used to make a very high quality 700c
suspension fork (for caliper brakes only), but it fell from favour when the UCI banned it from being
used in Paris-Roubaix....

Quoted message said:

For road use that's often just a way of sucking out power when you're climbing unless you
regularly cover

a lot of cobbled streets

Never felt the need for suspension on cobbles personally; I always found, when I lived in York, that
climbing the cobbled part of Micklegate at 20-ish mph was actually quite fun [1]!

David E. Belcher

[1] No ill-effects to either myself or the bike!

On 12 Feb 2004 11:16:48 -0800, [email hidden] (David E. Belcher) wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Rock Shox, of course, used to make a very high quality 700c suspension fork (for caliper brakes
only), but it fell from favour when the UCI banned it from being used in Paris-Roubaix....

The UCI banning an innovation in cycling? Unheard of. They keep up to date with the very latest
fashions! Why, last year all the riders were on safety bicycles, not an ordinary in sight!

Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
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