Newbie bike advice
Discussion
Hi all,
I feel rather rude asking for advice as a beginner after seeing some of the members bikes on this forum but hope someone can point me in the right direction.
I am hoping to take up cycling to help get fitter but am at a loss as to what bikes are good for beginners for the price paid.
We have recently moved house and live near a very nice park which has lots of trails. Although I believe it would be best to get a bike I can use on the road as well as light trail use.
I am hoping to go for a Hybrid.
Height - approx 5ft 8"
Budget - would prefer to spend less than £200
Also, other than the obvious helmet and mudflaps, are there any other things I need to consider purchasing?
The last time I got on a bike I was a teenager on a bright green Raleigh Max!
Thanks in advance.
I feel rather rude asking for advice as a beginner after seeing some of the members bikes on this forum but hope someone can point me in the right direction.
I am hoping to take up cycling to help get fitter but am at a loss as to what bikes are good for beginners for the price paid.
We have recently moved house and live near a very nice park which has lots of trails. Although I believe it would be best to get a bike I can use on the road as well as light trail use.
I am hoping to go for a Hybrid.
Height - approx 5ft 8"
Budget - would prefer to spend less than £200
Also, other than the obvious helmet and mudflaps, are there any other things I need to consider purchasing?
The last time I got on a bike I was a teenager on a bright green Raleigh Max!
Thanks in advance.
Don't be scared! We're quite friendly, but...
Nothing new worth bothering with unless you double (at least) that budget. Yes you can buy something bike shaped but it will be heavy and rubbish and put you off getting into it more seriously.
Small framed something local (with proof of ownership) off ebay/gumtree/a mate then £40 on a check over/service at LBS.
Nothing new worth bothering with unless you double (at least) that budget. Yes you can buy something bike shaped but it will be heavy and rubbish and put you off getting into it more seriously.
Small framed something local (with proof of ownership) off ebay/gumtree/a mate then £40 on a check over/service at LBS.
Me and the gf spent i think £250 last year on a Carrera Valour each from Halfords. A heavy hardtail.
We have discovered we spend 95% of the time on roads, so we are now looking at upgrading this year. To be honest both bikes are already showing signs of wear and tear (i thought spending £250 on a bike it would last) and if i could choose again i would have thought about my usage and bought an expensive bike with quality parts from the start.
At £200 your choices are rather limited, i would just get the bike that fits you the best and is most comfy. I like the 13s at Halfords however these start at £400.
Nowadays you don't get much for your money it seems.
It would have made more sense for me last year to spend £800 on a bike, than spend £250 then another £800 this year.
Can you not benefit from the cycle to work scheme through work?
We have discovered we spend 95% of the time on roads, so we are now looking at upgrading this year. To be honest both bikes are already showing signs of wear and tear (i thought spending £250 on a bike it would last) and if i could choose again i would have thought about my usage and bought an expensive bike with quality parts from the start.
At £200 your choices are rather limited, i would just get the bike that fits you the best and is most comfy. I like the 13s at Halfords however these start at £400.
Nowadays you don't get much for your money it seems.
It would have made more sense for me last year to spend £800 on a bike, than spend £250 then another £800 this year.
Can you not benefit from the cycle to work scheme through work?
Many thanks for the honest advice, its much appreciated. I will look around and see what is for sale on such sites.
Just a quick check, what are your opinions on this Hybrid? I know its halfords but the reviews seem positive, although over my budget.
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/hybrid-bikes...
and also;
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/hybrid-bikes...
which falls just under budget.
If those are a no go then I will keep looking around.
Just a quick check, what are your opinions on this Hybrid? I know its halfords but the reviews seem positive, although over my budget.
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/hybrid-bikes...
and also;
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/hybrid-bikes...
which falls just under budget.
If those are a no go then I will keep looking around.
Out of those two, personally I'd go with the cheaper one.
Bad? Basic gears, and 'Vee' brakes. But mostly the fact that it weighs near 14kg.
Good? Basic gears are cheaper to replace bits when they wear out (they will, all of them, even the expensive ones). Those 'Vee' brakes. Yes. Really. At this budget you're starting to see disc brakes but they are low grade stuff, which WILL require a degree of knowledge to keep bearings lubricated and pads/cables adjusted to account for pad wear. Rigid forks, which keep the (already significant) weight down a bit, and are 100 times more reliable than the utter crap that passes for 'suspension' forks at this sort of price.
Caveat? If you buy 'Vee' brakes, you're stuck with them as your frame will likely not have disc mounts, and anyway, if you want to swap from rim brakes to discs you'll need new wheels too. So if there's even a squeak of a chance that you might upgrade to decent hydraulic disc brakes at any stage, FFS buy a frame and fork which already has mounts for the calipers, and wheel hubs that can take a disc rotor.
As for "after seeing some of the members bikes on this forum"? I've got form as a beginner too. I now have two very nice bikes, one road, one off-road. But I came through the 'learning from your own mistakes phase' on the way.
Example 1. I'll let you do the maths, but in 1996 I bought a £230 road bike. Nearly 20 years on and after being abused/unmaintained for 12 years of hard use, and ignored at the back of the garage for another 6 years, this time last year I recommissioned it using parts of a broken bike and a few quid on bearings etc. A similar sort of bike now would be, at a guess and allowing for inflation, about £500 to £600, possibly a fair bit less though.
Example 2. My first 'proper' mountain bike. I bought a second hand bike from a mate for £30, which needed a new pair of wheels. Before I could buy those wheels it got stolen (in CenterParcs) and my home insurance was 'new for old'. I got sent to a GT dealer (the brand that was stolen) and they put me on a new (£300) bike as close as possible to what was nicked. I had no real idea what I was getting. Brakes and gearing on that was roughly what you'd find on that Carrera Crossfire you linked to. After 4 years of fairly low grade local canal paths and trails I graduated to getting out on "real" MTB trails and terrain which killed the brakes and resulted in an £80 upgrade to hydraulic calipers. Then another 2 years on I dipped my toe into racing. The bike scraped through a three race winter series, but was pretty shredded. Soon after that series I broke it massively. Just last week I spent close to £200 getting the damned thing back into working order for my son to commute to college on it, after it had sat broken at the back of the garage for over a year.
Example 3. Bringing me neatly onto probably the biggest 'success story' in BSO ('bike shaped object') history. Rewind 11 years, and my oldest son needed his first full sized adult bike. Having no real knowledge I went to my local independent bike retailer, and said "what is your cheapest bike for a teenager with a 31 inch inside leg". £89 lighter in the wallet, his Christmas present was sorted. It was heavy. It was basic. It had rigid steel forks, a steel frame, 18 gears, and 'Vee' brakes. As a bike, it was a terrible thing but we had no real experience of anything 'better' so it was entirely acceptable. My wife rode a heavy hybrid, I was on that first road bike from '96, we didn't venture any further off road than the local canal and gravel forest roads. Now folk will tell you that BSOs will dissolve within weeks, but whilst it was heavy, lacked a suitable suite of gears for climbing hills, and lots of safety critical bolts needed frequent checking and tightening, it lasted until earlier this year. That was with virtually no maintenance for the first nine years, when it was in almost daily use with both of my boys using it to commute 4 miles a day to college. Last year I did a small amount of maintenance on it, a fresh set of (salvaged) brakes, (salvaged) gear cables, and brake blocks. A few years ago my eldest crashed it into a wall and lightly bent the forks but it kept going. This year my youngest was riding it when the rear axle finally protested about the lack of maintenance and it finally snapped. This took with it the rear drop-outs, bending the frame and I dismantled it and threw it in a metal skip at the local tip. But what's the point of this rambling reply? The insane value we got for that money, that £89 spent. 11 years of daily commuting for two hefty lads. Spares I salvaged off other bikes, but it rarely got any care or attention. The local shop still sells the same frame, rebranded, and with ever so slightly better components for £120.
I'm not advising you to buy dirt cheap because I, and both my sons, also have/had "better" bikes to ride for pleasure, but that cheapo bike was almost disposable toward the end of it's life. I probably wouldn't even have reported it if it'd have been stolen, just pitied the poor misguided fool who stole it. Honestly, the more you can spend the more likely you are to have an enjoyable introduction to cycling, but cheaper bikes within your budget WILL do the job. Just not as efficiently and enjoyably as something from a higher price point.
Oh, and because it hasn't been mentioned yet, have a dip into Pauls Cycles... http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/offers.php?cat=9 ...for an idea of the reductions it's possible to find on previous years' models and run-out stock.
Good luck with the search. If you stay away from Sports Direct, Tesco, Asda, et al, it's hard to buy a truly terrible bike in this day and age. Also ask at local independent shops about second hand bikes. Regulars replacing things may be wanting to move something on, the shop will maybe have sold it, can be reasonably sure of provenance and regularity of maintenance. My local shop even sells a few pre-owned bikes out the front. It'll do no harm to ask around a few shops even if it just gives you an idea of how friendly/helpful they are for future reference.
Bad? Basic gears, and 'Vee' brakes. But mostly the fact that it weighs near 14kg.
Good? Basic gears are cheaper to replace bits when they wear out (they will, all of them, even the expensive ones). Those 'Vee' brakes. Yes. Really. At this budget you're starting to see disc brakes but they are low grade stuff, which WILL require a degree of knowledge to keep bearings lubricated and pads/cables adjusted to account for pad wear. Rigid forks, which keep the (already significant) weight down a bit, and are 100 times more reliable than the utter crap that passes for 'suspension' forks at this sort of price.
Caveat? If you buy 'Vee' brakes, you're stuck with them as your frame will likely not have disc mounts, and anyway, if you want to swap from rim brakes to discs you'll need new wheels too. So if there's even a squeak of a chance that you might upgrade to decent hydraulic disc brakes at any stage, FFS buy a frame and fork which already has mounts for the calipers, and wheel hubs that can take a disc rotor.
As for "after seeing some of the members bikes on this forum"? I've got form as a beginner too. I now have two very nice bikes, one road, one off-road. But I came through the 'learning from your own mistakes phase' on the way.
Example 1. I'll let you do the maths, but in 1996 I bought a £230 road bike. Nearly 20 years on and after being abused/unmaintained for 12 years of hard use, and ignored at the back of the garage for another 6 years, this time last year I recommissioned it using parts of a broken bike and a few quid on bearings etc. A similar sort of bike now would be, at a guess and allowing for inflation, about £500 to £600, possibly a fair bit less though.
Example 2. My first 'proper' mountain bike. I bought a second hand bike from a mate for £30, which needed a new pair of wheels. Before I could buy those wheels it got stolen (in CenterParcs) and my home insurance was 'new for old'. I got sent to a GT dealer (the brand that was stolen) and they put me on a new (£300) bike as close as possible to what was nicked. I had no real idea what I was getting. Brakes and gearing on that was roughly what you'd find on that Carrera Crossfire you linked to. After 4 years of fairly low grade local canal paths and trails I graduated to getting out on "real" MTB trails and terrain which killed the brakes and resulted in an £80 upgrade to hydraulic calipers. Then another 2 years on I dipped my toe into racing. The bike scraped through a three race winter series, but was pretty shredded. Soon after that series I broke it massively. Just last week I spent close to £200 getting the damned thing back into working order for my son to commute to college on it, after it had sat broken at the back of the garage for over a year.
Example 3. Bringing me neatly onto probably the biggest 'success story' in BSO ('bike shaped object') history. Rewind 11 years, and my oldest son needed his first full sized adult bike. Having no real knowledge I went to my local independent bike retailer, and said "what is your cheapest bike for a teenager with a 31 inch inside leg". £89 lighter in the wallet, his Christmas present was sorted. It was heavy. It was basic. It had rigid steel forks, a steel frame, 18 gears, and 'Vee' brakes. As a bike, it was a terrible thing but we had no real experience of anything 'better' so it was entirely acceptable. My wife rode a heavy hybrid, I was on that first road bike from '96, we didn't venture any further off road than the local canal and gravel forest roads. Now folk will tell you that BSOs will dissolve within weeks, but whilst it was heavy, lacked a suitable suite of gears for climbing hills, and lots of safety critical bolts needed frequent checking and tightening, it lasted until earlier this year. That was with virtually no maintenance for the first nine years, when it was in almost daily use with both of my boys using it to commute 4 miles a day to college. Last year I did a small amount of maintenance on it, a fresh set of (salvaged) brakes, (salvaged) gear cables, and brake blocks. A few years ago my eldest crashed it into a wall and lightly bent the forks but it kept going. This year my youngest was riding it when the rear axle finally protested about the lack of maintenance and it finally snapped. This took with it the rear drop-outs, bending the frame and I dismantled it and threw it in a metal skip at the local tip. But what's the point of this rambling reply? The insane value we got for that money, that £89 spent. 11 years of daily commuting for two hefty lads. Spares I salvaged off other bikes, but it rarely got any care or attention. The local shop still sells the same frame, rebranded, and with ever so slightly better components for £120.
I'm not advising you to buy dirt cheap because I, and both my sons, also have/had "better" bikes to ride for pleasure, but that cheapo bike was almost disposable toward the end of it's life. I probably wouldn't even have reported it if it'd have been stolen, just pitied the poor misguided fool who stole it. Honestly, the more you can spend the more likely you are to have an enjoyable introduction to cycling, but cheaper bikes within your budget WILL do the job. Just not as efficiently and enjoyably as something from a higher price point.
Oh, and because it hasn't been mentioned yet, have a dip into Pauls Cycles... http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/offers.php?cat=9 ...for an idea of the reductions it's possible to find on previous years' models and run-out stock.
Good luck with the search. If you stay away from Sports Direct, Tesco, Asda, et al, it's hard to buy a truly terrible bike in this day and age. Also ask at local independent shops about second hand bikes. Regulars replacing things may be wanting to move something on, the shop will maybe have sold it, can be reasonably sure of provenance and regularity of maintenance. My local shop even sells a few pre-owned bikes out the front. It'll do no harm to ask around a few shops even if it just gives you an idea of how friendly/helpful they are for future reference.
The Kona Dew is a good suggestion.
But potentially better, and keeping nearer your budget I'd suggest this could fit the bill. I cannot imagine you could do better for the money anywhere. It's all new and under warranty so will work beautifully.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/verenti-division-1-2016/
But potentially better, and keeping nearer your budget I'd suggest this could fit the bill. I cannot imagine you could do better for the money anywhere. It's all new and under warranty so will work beautifully.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/verenti-division-1-2016/
Seeing as you are happy with a bit of budget creep take a look at the Pinnacle range at Evans, this is a good deal: https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-neon-two-2015...
Whatever you do, at this kind of price don't go for suspension. I was advised not to 5 years ago by my bike friends and didn't listen, I ended up riding everywhere with them locked solid because bouncing about was a waste of time so they were nothing but a big chunk of additional weight.
Whatever you do, at this kind of price don't go for suspension. I was advised not to 5 years ago by my bike friends and didn't listen, I ended up riding everywhere with them locked solid because bouncing about was a waste of time so they were nothing but a big chunk of additional weight.
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