Commuter, 'Tourer' and 'Offroader' in One - A worry about wheels

[mykrs]

Ladies and Gents I'm hoping to buy a new bike in the next few weeks - My first toy after starting my first job and an upgrade from my second-hand Apollo bicycle that I've been using for almost 3 years now.

I am looking for one that will do the things I currently use my bike for - commuting to work, and riding bike paths/light offroad. I am also looking to start doing longer distance 'touring' trips (where I can stick on some racks and panniers to look the part too ).

The bikes i'm thinking of are Trek FX 7.3/7.5 or Specialized Sirrus Elite/Comp. (perhaps also Giant CRS). Reviews on the net say both are very good on tarmac, but there is not much on how it performs ofroad on gravel or bumpy packed earth tracks. Anyone have any thoughts on this and which bike they would recommend to fulfill all my needs. Am I even looking at the right bike types/models?

The thing that has annoyed me the most with my current bike is the wheels buckling/'untruing' (not sure if I've used the correct term! - the wheels wobble and touch the brake pads when they spin round). These wheels are fairly wide (35c), though no doubt of dubious quality. With the new bikes I've been looking at I'm a bit wary that these wheels are thinner and will end up buckling as well over time on unpaved cycle routes. Is this something I should be worried about? Should I look for a bike with wider wheels to avoid this?

Thanks for your time!
PS - If I'm talking utter rubbish, tell me. I'm new to the world of cyclingology.

 

[The Jogger]

Good questions , for an all round bike it wouldn't do any harm to look at the carerra subway at halfords . has really good write ups.

 

[summerdays]

Welcome I expect knowing the quality of the one apollo kids' bike we have owned in the past that your problem was just the quality of parts used on your bike. Hopefully you will find your next bike will be miles better.

 

[Ant]

Good questions , for an all round bike it wouldn't do any harm to look at the carerra subway at halfords . has really good write ups.

I bought one a few weeks ago for general purpose use and I'm thoroughly pleased with it. It performs pretty well on the road and is also more than capable of light off road too. Has provision for both mudguards and panniers if needed as well.

Word of warning though, they're assembled by Halfords, so need to be checked over because Halfords can't be trusted to do it properly. My back wheel fell off putting it in the back of the car, I had to readjust the gears myself, and my first test ride on it resulted in the rear reflector falling off.

 

[The Jogger]

Ant, how do you think they would be on 50 milers and over?

 

[palinurus]

Touring bike? It'll work for the commute, take a rack and easily handle light (and even not-so-light) off roading. The wheels should be pretty tough.

 

[palinurus]

And, if you get one that fits properly, it'll be good for 100 miles + comfort wise.

 

[palinurus]

As for wheels: never mind the thickness, feel the quality.

Cyclocross bikes run similar wheels to road bikes (only with fatter tyres). They are very capable offroad.

 

[mykrs]

Thanks for the feedback so far. I'm afraid Halfords is out of the picture as I'm purchasing a bike through my company's bike to work scheme and both Halfords and Evans are not signed up to it for whatever reason.

 

[mykrs]

palinurus what you've said about the bikes seem to tick my requirements. Perhaps 'touring' is the wrong word - I suppose it is the comfort aspect I'm looking for, when it comes to longer distances.

Glad to have some reassurance about the wheels Does that mean the main risk offroad on these type of bikes is tyre puncturing rather than wheel buckling (compared with a similar category of bikes with wider wheels)?

 

[palinurus]

With the right tyres punctures can be reduced to a minimum. I get rather a lot of punctures on my 'cross bike (fat, knobbly mud tyres) but very few on my road bikes (narrow -23 mm- road tyres). The difference is the cross tyres are relatively light folding tyres and the road tyres are relatively thick puncture resistant jobs.

 

[palinurus]

You can, of course, get fatter puncture-resistant tyres. Fatter tyres are more comfortable off-road.

 

[snorri]

Congrats on your first job mykrs
It will not be possible to get one bicycle to fully meet all of your requirements, that's why many of us on here have more than one bike. How many bikes should one have, I hear you say. N+1 where N is the number of bikes you have already.

 

[Ant]

Ant, how do you think they would be on 50 milers and over?

As long as you ensured that it was the right size and fit for you I don't see why not. Some colleagues of mine did the London to Brighton last year on Mountain bikes without problems. I wouldn't have any qualms about riding it that far.....Of course I'd prefer to do that kind of distance on my road bike, but then again I wouldn't take my road bike down a cycle trail.

 

[Sittingduck]

Why not go for the Trek 7.5 or perhaps a Specialized Globe or Sirrus? The stock wheels on "Spesh's" are not all that but if you swap out for some handbuilt Mavic rims you will have a comfortable & stirdy bike that will cope easily with what you want to do on it and last for a few years. Might even be worth going down the 26" wheel route as they may be less susceptable to buckles on rough terrain than the 700's of the hybrids I mentioned.

That's my tuppence worth anyway
Best of luck whatever you decide.

SD