# Which Hybrid bike



## RDB85

I am looking at getting a Hybrid bike to ride to work etc. I have a local bike shop: https://www.formbycycles.co.uk/ but I am unsure which brand to go for? Any help or ideas please?


----------



## SimTaylor

What is your budget?


----------



## RDB85

Budget is £2000. I would rather buy something that will last and is excellent quality. But if I can get something just as good for less that is a bonus.


----------



## MagpieRH

£2000 will buy you pretty much any bike you want!

How far is your commute, will you be using it regularly for leisure as well, what are the roads/cycle lanes like around you?
Do you want drop (like a road bike) or flat (like a mountain bike) handlebars? How hilly is your route to work?

Answers to any or all of those will help narrow it down :thumb:


----------



## RDB85

How far is your commute - *about 8 miles a day*
will you be using it regularly for leisure as well - *yes*
what are the roads/cycle lanes like around you? - *roads are quite smooth, and there are cycle lanes*
Do you want drop (like a road bike) or flat (like a mountain bike) handlebars? - *flat handlebars*
How hilly is your route to work? - *only one hill to work*


----------



## bigalc

Recommend a Cannondale, they do some cracking hybrid bikes as do Boardman and they are available at Halfords.
That is some budget


----------



## SimTaylor

Yes I'm my opinion you should spend 1/4 of your budget get a decent hybrid for that especially if its only for commute and a little leisure. I don't see the need to spend 2000 on a commute to work bike personally. Plenty of bikes out there for £500 that will be good.


----------



## RDB85

Okay so if I went for something up to £500 - £1000. and a Cannondale. Which one would you choose: http://www.formbycycles.co.uk/bike/hybrid-bike/cannondale-hybrid-bike.html


----------



## bigalc

I have a Cannondale quick cx 2 in 2016 colours of matt green and blue.
I love the look of the matt black bad boys.
A lot of bike for the money.
Definately buy local if you can


----------



## Peter D

Genesis Datum 20? At the moment you can get one from Rutland cycles for £1350 (including May voucher code). Probably a bit more 'racy' in geometry, but still comfortable with 32c tyres?
Peter


----------



## bigalc

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/bikes/urban-bikes/

Worth a look here too



Peter D said:


> Genesis Datum 20? At the moment you can get one from Rutlan cycles for £1350 (including May voucher code). Probably a bit more 'racy' in geometry, but still comfortable with 32c tyres?
> Peter


Cracking looking bikes as well


----------



## RDB85

Thanks guys I will check those out, anything from https://www.formbycycles.co.uk/ thats a local bike company.


----------



## bigalc

From formby i would go with a Cannondale bad boy.


----------



## TheRover

I'm a keen cyclist and recently bought a cannondale CX, if I had to pick one from the ones I've got and sell the rest I'd take the cannondale all day long and it's not the most expensive one I've got. Looking at the formby site they sell a decent selection whilst they might not stock them all? 

Best advice I could give is go for a look and sit on as many as possible, you'll rule some out straight away due to the riding position and from what you've described you dont need a racing position. Ask to take one out for a spin.

As for the budget, my first bike was £500 and the most recent was the cannondale at just over £1000 and the difference is night and day. 
So if I was in a market for another ( 7 would be too many?? ) my starting point would be £1000, that said I do a few thousand miles a year so feel I can justify it.

I've bought all my bikes from a local bike shop ( LBS ) whilst my kit generally comes from buying online as they'll admit they can't beat the big companies here. Very rarely do I get charged for the odd tweek and service charges are always low as he knows I'm a good customer.

Whilst I'm not knocking the folks on here you might get different views by joining/looking at forums like bikeradar and cyclechat. 

Good luck.


----------



## RDB85

Thanks I will look at a Canondale. I do like the look of https://www.evanscycles.com/cannondale-quick-carbon-1-2017-hybrid-bike-EV239431

I will try and sit on as many as possible. What would be the main areas to look out for?


----------



## wee man

May have missed it if mentioned but if you are using it to go work can you use the bike to work scheme? Financial help for purchase available if the company is part of the scheme.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk


----------



## RDB85

wee man said:


> May have missed it if mentioned but if you are using it to go work can you use the bike to work scheme? Financial help for purchase available if the company is part of the scheme.
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk


I have asked work about it, but they have not come back, many of them offer finance which is fine for me:

What do you think of http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/hybrid-bikes/boardman-hybrid-team-bike?_$ja=kw:skimlinks_phg|tsid:40392&cm_mmc=Affiliates-_-PerformanceHorizon-_-skimlinks_phg-_-TopLink


----------



## TheRover

Not sure why I didn't mention this in my last post, my brother in law bought one of these and rates it. I haven't seen it yet but he's pleased with it.

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/hybrid-bikes/boardman-hybrid-bike-pro

Also, look at joining British cycling, they have different levels of schemes but you get a 10% discount at halfords with the card. It applies to all products, I bought some meguairs kit and a socket set yesterday and used the card to get a discount.

That said, check it applies to bikes!:thumb:


----------



## RDB85

Out of the 2 Boardman bikes the one I linked and the £1000, is the extra £300 worth it?


----------



## Jag_Andrew

I bought a Boardman hybrid a few years back when I first got into cycling and it was a fantastic bike. Mine was the £750 bike with the carbon fork, it had a good range of gears for hills and was pretty quick on the flat. I rode distances up to 60 miles on mine and it was very comfortable.









Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk


----------



## TheRover

RDB85 said:


> Out of the 2 Boardman bikes the one I linked and the £1000, is the extra £300 worth it?


Your link isn't working for me, pretty sure I remember my bro in law saying it was worth the extra, to be fair he got it on a cycle to work scheme so it was a no brainier for him.

Get yourself to your local Halfords for a look. They come in for some stick on cycling forums on how some bikes are assembled and leave the shop, seems a bit hit and miss but if I bought one from them I'd be going round it with some tools checking that it's ok. :thumb:

Googling boardman hybrid brings up plenty of info.


----------



## MagpieRH

The £700 one has an external bottom bracket, much, much easier for maintenance (Team Sky and a few others on the pro circuit have changed back from pressfit to external BB for this very reason).
The cheaper one also offers a wider selection of gears - you have 2 chainrings up front as opposed to one, with 10 at the back, versus 11 on the £1k. The easiest gear is approximately the same between the 2, but you'll notice larger jumps between gears on the 11 speed as it has a wider range (10-42 vs. 11-32).

Both will come with cheapo pedals, so it may be worth investing an extra 20 or 30 quid in some quality ones.

See if your local Halfords have them in stock (Boardman is a Halfords brand now, so they should be able to get hold of one), and try them for yourself - it may look good on paper but you may find you just don't get on with one while you love the other.

One final word of advice, ignore their sizing guide - anything that sizes your bike on overall height is total crap. Measure your inseam, knock off 30cm and that will give you a good estimate for the seat tube length (that's from centre of bottom bracket to top of seat tube). Anyone who tries to tell you bikes are sized by top tube is again, ill-informed. I don't know where that came from, but it seems a common misconception.
You can also use your inseam to set your saddle height - knock off 10cm and measure from the centre of the bottom bracket to top of saddle (along the seat tube) and you should be pretty much there. You may well need to adjust slightly, but we're talking mm rather than cm.

In all honesty, I can't see much reason to go for the more expensive one - you can always upgrade components at a later date if you wish, and most frames at that price should be fairly decent so you should be fine with either.

Hope that helps :thumb:


----------



## RDB85

MagpieRH said:


> The £700 one has an external bottom bracket, much, much easier for maintenance (Team Sky and a few others on the pro circuit have changed back from pressfit to external BB for this very reason).
> The cheaper one also offers a wider selection of gears - you have 2 chainrings up front as opposed to one, with 10 at the back, versus 11 on the £1k. The easiest gear is approximately the same between the 2, but you'll notice larger jumps between gears on the 11 speed as it has a wider range (10-42 vs. 11-32).
> 
> Both will come with cheapo pedals, so it may be worth investing an extra 20 or 30 quid in some quality ones.
> 
> See if your local Halfords have them in stock (Boardman is a Halfords brand now, so they should be able to get hold of one), and try them for yourself - it may look good on paper but you may find you just don't get on with one while you love the other.
> 
> One final word of advice, ignore their sizing guide - anything that sizes your bike on overall height is total crap. Measure your inseam, knock off 30cm and that will give you a good estimate for the seat tube length (that's from centre of bottom bracket to top of seat tube). Anyone who tries to tell you bikes are sized by top tube is again, ill-informed. I don't know where that came from, but it seems a common misconception.
> You can also use your inseam to set your saddle height - knock off 10cm and measure from the centre of the bottom bracket to top of saddle (along the seat tube) and you should be pretty much there. You may well need to adjust slightly, but we're talking mm rather than cm.
> 
> In all honesty, I can't see much reason to go for the more expensive one - you can always upgrade components at a later date if you wish, and most frames at that price should be fairly decent so you should be fine with either.
> 
> Hope that helps :thumb:


That is some superb advice, thank you. Just one question what pedals would you recommend?


----------



## MagpieRH

RDB85 said:


> That is some superb advice, thank you. Just one question what pedals would you recommend?


It depends really whether you want clip in or not - if you want the option, you can get pedals which are flat on one, and have a clip-in mechanism on the other. 
(Something like these: Boardman single-sided)

If you don't want clipless pedals (if it's mostly used for the commute, I imagine you'll be stopping and starting a lot, so clipping in and out constantly would be a pain), try something like these:
Boardman Flats

I have Boardman pedals on my road bike, and they have been great, would happily go for the same again. Lightweight, quality and actually look pretty slick too. I think I paid £35.

If you do decide to buy from Halfords, see what they'll offer you as a package; as I say, they own Boardman bikes now, so they will have some movement on price. If you buy from the local bike store, they should be able to advise you on decent kit, but you can't go too far wrong with the big names for components. You can find pedals for well into 3 figures if you look hard enough, but unless you're at the top of the game, I don't see any real need. If you're asking for recommendations, go in under your budget by about 10% - they'll likely try to upsell you a bit, so you'll end up paying what you wanted to :thumb:


----------



## RDB85

MagpieRH said:


> It depends really whether you want clip in or not - if you want the option, you can get pedals which are flat on one, and have a clip-in mechanism on the other.
> (Something like these: Boardman single-sided)
> 
> If you don't want clipless pedals (if it's mostly used for the commute, I imagine you'll be stopping and starting a lot, so clipping in and out constantly would be a pain), try something like these:
> Boardman Flats
> 
> I have Boardman pedals on my road bike, and they have been great, would happily go for the same again. Lightweight, quality and actually look pretty slick too. I think I paid £35.
> 
> If you do decide to buy from Halfords, see what they'll offer you as a package; as I say, they own Boardman bikes now, so they will have some movement on price. If you buy from the local bike store, they should be able to advise you on decent kit, but you can't go too far wrong with the big names for components. You can find pedals for well into 3 figures if you look hard enough, but unless you're at the top of the game, I don't see any real need. If you're asking for recommendations, go in under your budget by about 10% - they'll likely try to upsell you a bit, so you'll end up paying what you wanted to :thumb:


Thanks I will pop down to Halfords and have a look. I will also look at the Boardman Flats as they look a solid purchase.


----------



## RDB85

Can you recommend a bike on Formby that is around the same price as the Boardman? Just so I can compare them.


----------



## MagpieRH

This one cannondale Quick 1 disc seems to be similar spec, 1x11 gears as the 1k Boardman, but with external bb. (SRAM GXP bottom bracket setup is actually very clever, and needs only an 8mm Allen key to remove the cranks)


----------



## RDB85

MagpieRH said:


> This one cannondale Quick 1 disc seems to be similar spec, 1x11 gears as the 1k Boardman, but with external bb. (SRAM GXP bottom bracket setup is actually very clever, and needs only an 8mm Allen key to remove the cranks)


That looks quite nice, which one would be better in terms of upgrades?


----------



## MagpieRH

RDB85 said:


> That looks quite nice, which one would be better in terms of upgrades?


Just looking at specs, not much to choose between them tbh; I've just realised the Cannondale at Formby is 2x11 so that one has the greatest choice of gears of all 3 bikes. Also has Shimano 105 which seems to be universally agreed as the best value of Shimano's better groupsets. Not much wrong with the Sram setup on the Boardman, but 105 probably edges it (i.e. less need to upgrade I would say).

All 3 have alloy frames with carbon forks, so your best bet would definitely be to give them a once over if you can. Likelihood is they're all pretty good though, and that's the bit you want to make sure is solid if you want to upgrade in future rather than replace.

ps. ignore what I said about GXP, that must've been another bike - the cannondale quick has FSA bottom bracket; equally decent (I have one on my bike) but will need a little more effort to remove the cranks (we're talking 3 bolts instead of one. Not exactly hard labour)


----------



## RDB85

Thanks for that, I will have a look at theses in Formby:

http://www.formbycycles.co.uk/cannondale-quick-disc-1-hybrid-bike-2017.html

http://www.formbycycles.co.uk/cannondale-quick-carbon-1-hybrid-bike-2017.html

http://www.formbycycles.co.uk/cannondale-bad-boy-1-hybrid-bike-2017.html

And I will ask them about those bikes. Once I have all the information I need then I will try Halofords and see which one is best, I will also try them out for size and see which feels the best.


----------



## MagpieRH

See if you can actually take them for a test ride too, you can get a proper feel for them then :thumb:


----------



## rukilo

I think for choosing that you need to be conscious. Choosing the best hybrid bike under 500 may be difficult but there are a few things you will need to take into consideration. I am using the Hiland Hybrid Bike, which has It features an aluminum frame, 700c wheels, 38c tires, and 7 gears so you can tackle long distances with ease. Whether you’re riding through rough roads or smooth highways, this bike will keep up with your pace. But it has Only one size and Without suspension, it may feel uncomfortable on bumpy roads. Except for these two things I loved its Lightweight yet sturdy aluminum frame, Smooth shifting between gears Upright riding position, Easy assembly, 3 colors with male and female styles, Comfortable saddle, and a Chain guard to protect the rider’s clothes, and Double brakes. you can try this out.


----------

