# Beginner bike choice wrong?



## DirtGambit (12 Apr 2012)

Hi, This is my first post. I have been cycling for about 4 months, I really enjoy it but I think my first bike choice was wrong. I only do road cycling for leisure and just to get out the house and keep fit. recently I have became more competitive and I want to beat my 20 mile time. The bike I purchased was a moutain bike, it was a cheap £200 paradox from halfords, its very heavy and looking at others times who do the same route as me they are able to knock 20 - 25 minutes from times i posted and are using hybrid and road bikes. Will upgrading to a hybrid make my 20miles more enjoyable or should I just keep practicing on my paradox. 20 miles on it is hard work, and I mean hard going, especially at hills, i just seem to crawl up them and thats where im losing my time. A cyclist passed me on a hill using a boardman hybrid, he was going so much faster than me and Im a fit guy. Should I upgrade to a boardman?


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## Hacienda71 (12 Apr 2012)

A quick google tells me an Apollo Paradox is a full suspension bike. In which case it will be difficult to improve it for road riding. So yes your mates on hybrids and road bikes will go a lot faster. The difficulty is that the suspension will absorb the energy you are trying to put through the pedals. Adding slick tyres would help a little but the best way is to gety a road specific bike either hybrid or road. If you like to ride off road a bit then a hardtail mtb with suspension lockout is a better compromise than a full suspension bike. There is nothing wrong with using the existing bike until you are in a position to get a new bike but it will feel hard work because the bike is not designed for road riding and therefore may reduce your motivation to get out there.


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## PaulSecteur (12 Apr 2012)

If you are riding for fitness and to get out of the house then any bike, even a heavy full suspension bike will do.

I suspect that if you want to enjoy it more, especially if you are chasing times then a hybrid will be better, or if there isnt a reason not to have drop handlebars, why not a road bike. Decathlons Triban 3 seems to be the best budget choice.


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## Globalti (12 Apr 2012)

Congratulations, you are becoming a proper cyclist because you are already becoming more discriminating about your equipmernt!

The problem with cheap full-suspension bikes is that they have to be built very strong to take all the stresses that the suspension sets up in the frame and the low budget means you will only get cheap alloy tubes, which have to be thick for strength and are therefore heavy.

Even if you could only afford cheap again, a regular "two triangle" bike frame with rigid forks would be better because the design is much stronger in engineering terms so can be built lighter.

Taking this further, to ride on the road you don't need suspension at all, so even a cheap traditional two triangle hybrid or road bike will be lighter, faster and much more fun than a cheap FS or hardtail bike. On top of that you will be on 23 or 32 mm slick tyres, twice or three times faster than fat knobblies on tarmac.


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## 400bhp (12 Apr 2012)

I love my cycling, but if I was stuck with a full suspension mountain bike on the roads, I would get tired of it too.


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## CopperCyclist (12 Apr 2012)

If you're looking for more speed, then absolutely yes a hybrid, road bike or cyclocross would be a good upgrade for you. I went from 14mph average on my mountain bike (Hardtail) to 17mph average when I got my cyclocross.

Boardmans are good, but not your only option, and the excellent value for money can be offset sometimes by the Halfords factor - and I speak as someone with one!


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## DirtGambit (12 Apr 2012)

Thanks for the advice, Ill be ordering a hybrid very soon. I wasnt really in the know when I purchased this bike, last time i bought a bike there were 3 kinds, racer, mountain and bmx, now there are quite a few. I didnt go for the racer as Id like to take the bike out for leisure cycling so wanted upright handle bars. It has been a slog putting miles in with this bike, i still want to get out and will continue to use it until my new bike comes. 

Thanks


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## Alun (12 Apr 2012)

In the meantime, console yourself with the fact that mile for mile you'll be getting much fitter than someone on a hybrid/road bike


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## DirtGambit (12 Apr 2012)

Alun said:


> In the meantime, console yourself with the fact that mile for mile you'll be getting much fitter than someone on a hybrid/road bike


 
Which was the point of getting a bike anyway until i found lap times


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## Globalti (12 Apr 2012)

You could make it more bearable by fitting slicks to the MTB and pumping them up very hard indeed. It will go much faster.


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## Hacienda71 (12 Apr 2012)

Jubilee clips around the front suspension as a rudimentary lockout.


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## BrumJim (12 Apr 2012)

Think again about the dropped handlebars. They give a greater variety of hand positions, and so are preferred for rides of 50 miles or more. Which is probably a lot more within your grasp than you realise.
If you are competitive for speed and times, I'd skip the hybrid and go straight for a full-on road bike. That is what I have and use day-in day-out for commuting and weekend rides.


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## daSmirnov (12 Apr 2012)

BrumJim said:


> If you are competitive for speed and times, I'd skip the hybrid and go straight for a full-on road bike. That is what I have and use day-in day-out for commuting and weekend rides.


 
Road bike is good. Hybrid is good for the missus, but I want the speeds!

I was in a similar situation a couple of years ago, started getting out/commuting on my old mountain bike and enjoying it. Wanted to go faster, thought long and hard about it and decided better go road bike, cuz I'd knew if I went for a hybrid I'd be wanting another upgrade 6 months later. Now road-bike is strictly on road, mountain bike anything slightly bumpy. Simples.


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## Psyclist (12 Apr 2012)

DirtGambit said:


> Thanks for the advice, Ill be ordering a hybrid very soon. I wasnt really in the know when I purchased this bike, last time i bought a bike there were 3 kinds, racer, mountain and bmx, now there are quite a few.* I didnt go for the racer as Id like to take the bike out for leisure cycling so wanted upright handle bars*. It has been a slog putting miles in with this bike, i still want to get out and will continue to use it until my new bike comes.
> 
> Thanks


 
Specialized Sirrus or Giant Rapid are two good choices, basically racers with flat (upright) bars.


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## DirtGambit (12 Apr 2012)

Thanks for the help and suggestions, I havent been on a racer for years and I never felt comfortable on them when i did own one, obviously things have moved on a bit from then, just wish I could maybe take one out for a good cycle and see what its like before parting with money, if I get the right bike next time that will do me for many years so it has to be right. Ill keep an open mind about the racer, I dont want to spend money on a hybrid only to find my times tumble and then I want to go a step further and make them tumble some more, I tend to do that with other things too, start at bottom and its an expensive ride all the way up. Im going to think long and hard about it, there is some good suggestions on this forum, ill keep checking. Thanks


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## Banjo (12 Apr 2012)

Your mountainbike wont be wasted.Good to have for any canal path or dirt trail rides or even just going to the pub or whatever.

A decent lightweight hybrid will fly by comparison.

Ultimately I suspect you may end up with a road bike with drop handlebars so you may be better off to move straight up to it. You spend most of your time riding a road bike with your hands up on the brake hoods anyway so its not a hugely different position to a hybrid,once you get comfortable on it getting down in the drops makes a big difference battling into a headwind or on a fast descent.

Good Luck


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## MisterStan (12 Apr 2012)

I bought a flat bar road bike on the CTW scheme and though I love it, I wish I'd bought a bike with drops. Still that means I get to buy a shiny new bike this month and can now sound posh and say I have a 'Sunday best bike'!

I'd advise you to try a couple of drop bar bikes at your LBS, try and do a few miles if you can on the tests, if you don't get on with them, buy a flat bar bike.


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## Norm (12 Apr 2012)

DirtGambit said:


> I havent been on a racer for years and I never felt comfortable on them when i did own one, obviously things have moved on a bit from then, just wish I could maybe take one out for a good cycle and see what its like before parting with money...


That depends where you live. My LBS is happy to give test rides of over an hour, and the last bike I got from them I took out for a test ride on a Saturday afternoon and didn't return until Monday afternoon with a cheque in my hands. 

Halfords, however, don't do test rides and that is one of the reasons that I don't use them.


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## MisterStan (12 Apr 2012)

Norm said:


> That depends where you live. My LBS is happy to give test rides of over an hour, and the last bike I got from them I took out for a test ride on a Saturday afternoon and didn't return until Monday afternoon with a cheque in my hands.
> 
> Halfords, however, don't do test rides and that is one of the reasons that I don't use them.



I was in Halfords last week with my brother and sister in law, they wouldn't even let her take the bike she was after around the car park! I asked how they could expect her to spend £250 without being able to try it and the answer was 'Why do you need to test it? A bike's a bike'!

My bro and sis will be returning to the LBS we visited to try out matching specialized hybrids very soon.


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## CopperCyclist (12 Apr 2012)

DirtGambit said:


> Which was the point of getting a bike anyway until i found lap times



Screw lap times, have you found Strava.com and the relevant (and free) phone app?

You can thank me (or hate me for making you obsessive!) later


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## User16625 (12 Apr 2012)

Banjo said:


> Your mountainbike wont be wasted.Good to have for any canal path or dirt trail rides or even just going to the pub or whatever.
> 
> A decent lightweight hybrid will fly by comparison.
> 
> ...


 
What? Thats a new one to me as Ive always ridden with my hands on the drops. Do most people ride road bikes with their hands on the brake hoods? Wouldnt that make braking awkward?


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## Norm (12 Apr 2012)

RideLikeTheStig said:


> What? Thats a new one to me as Ive always ridden with my hands on the drops. Do most people ride road bikes with their hands on the brake hoods? Wouldnt that make braking awkward?


Hoods for me, I guess I'm on the drops for about 5% of the time. And I have cross-top levers so I can brake on the hoods and tops easier than on the drops.


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## Kiwiavenger (13 Apr 2012)

im on the hoods all the time and only hit the drops into a headwind or a fast descent. i have long fingers though so can reach the levers nicely! lol


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## youngoldbloke (13 Apr 2012)

RideLikeTheStig said:


> What? Thats a new one to me as Ive always ridden with my hands on the drops. Do most people ride road bikes with their hands on the brake hoods? Wouldnt that make braking awkward?


IME most people most of the time. It is easy to cover the brakes with your fingers if you have the bars and levers set up right, as in -


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## HLaB (13 Apr 2012)

Likewise I'm on the hoods most of the time and I feel I brake better from there.


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## Nebulous (14 Apr 2012)

CopperCyclist said:


> Screw lap times, have you found Strava.com and the relevant (and free) phone app?
> 
> You can thank me (or hate me for making you obsessive!) later


 
Well, fortunately or unfortunately I cannot blame you - but I registered a few days ago and think there is a real likelihood I will become obsessive! I'm already altering my route to take in additional segments.


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## Philk (14 Apr 2012)

be aware that not all racing bikes are comfortable, so try and test ride some first....I had an allez elite (aluminium frame), it was ok but after 20 miles or so I was in agony, switched to a trek madone (carbon frame) pain issues gone, which then starts the conversation , which frame material is best?


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## Nebulous (15 Apr 2012)

Why were you in agony? Did the allez fit? Were they both the same size?

I have an allez elite and absolutely love it - but then again I don't really know much else. I'm unlikely to be going carbon any time soon, but would probably go for the tarmac, which is pretty much the very same frame in carbon.


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