Help me choose a bike.

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cyberknight

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
Location
Land of confusion
sydney said:
It's in my postcode!
I fear the frame may be too big for my little legs but may drop them a message asking if I can take a look.
Click to expand...

sorry too large going by the size guide i found :sad:

1676653332717.png
 
Grant Fondo

Grant Fondo

Guru
Location
Cheshire
sydney said:
Price for the Giant above is £175.

Another eBay possibility:

Cannondale - Hybrid Bike - Medium Size - Black/Blue - EN 14764. Open To Offers

£180

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/13444814...0bqikB4S4C&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Click to expand...

Looks in good nick for the age, and a big improvement on that Apollo that was too big! A good time to haggle at the moment, these bikes were daft money a couple of years ago.
 
Cycleops

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
The Giant looks good. It's really a road bike with flat bars so will feel quick, as opposed to some hybrids now which are MTB lite with fatter tyres and more relaxed geometry. Depends what you like.
 
C

chris667

Guru
Hello. And congratulations! Glad you are enjoying your riding.

Not sure where you are but if you put a wanted ad up here someone might help you. If you are near Derby I have something that would be excellent which you could have for well below eBay price - sometimes I just fix these things because I can but you can have too many bikes.
 
cyberknight

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
Location
Land of confusion
chris667 said:
Hello. And congratulations! Glad you are enjoying your riding.

Not sure where you are but if you put a wanted ad up here someone might help you. If you are near Derby I have something that would be excellent which you could have for well below eBay price - sometimes I just fix these things because I can but you can have too many bikes.
Click to expand...

dont say things like that near me !!!!
 
PaulSB

PaulSB

Squire
Location
Chorley, Lancashire
@sydney can I throw in another option? May not be a popular view on a cycling forum but I feel you would continue to get fit and lose weight quicker by walking rather than cycling.

An inner city 3.5 mile bike ride is just that, it will be stop/start, slow/quicker and unlikely to raise the heart rate. The difficulty is such a short ride doesn't give you any sustained effort.

Walking pace of +3.5 miles will give you almost an hours sustained effort and slightly raised heart rate. Both excellent for weight loss and fitness.

I ride three times a week, 150/170 miles a week. On the days I can't ride I try to walk for one hour at +3mph which I see as a form of recovery exercise from the far greater exertion of riding 70 miles.

You may want to carry more, reduce the time etc. but if fitness and weight loss was my only target I would walk.

Consider investing in a pair of quality walking shoes.
 
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OP
OP
S

sydney

Active Member
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
PaulSB said:
@sydney can I throw in another option? May not be a popular view on a cycling forum but I feel you would continue to get fit and lose weight quicker by walking rather than cycling.

An inner city 3.5 mile bike ride is just that, it will be stop/start, slow/quicker and unlikely to raise the heart rate. The difficulty is such a short ride doesn't give you any sustained effort.

Walking pace of +3.5 miles will give you almost an hours sustained effort and slightly raised heart rate. Both excellent for weight loss and fitness.

I ride three times a week, 150/170 miles a week. On the days I can't ride I try to walk for one hour at +3mph which I see as a form of recovery exercise from the far greater exertion of riding 70 miles.

You may want to carry more, reduce the time etc. but if fitness and weight loss was my only target I would walk.

Consider investing in a pair of quality walking shoes.
Click to expand...

You are almost certainly correct from a fitness point of view. There are two things I've not mentioned which affect this.
1. Time matters as much if not more than fitness. It'll take far less time to ride to work and looking through my strava records my fastest time to work was 17 minutes on a bike but 54 minutes on foot. Return journey is 37 minutes by bike and 58 minutes on foot.
2. I decided to walk Hadrian's wall with a friend this year. We started training in September but when winter hit it all went out the window. I regularly walk 10 - 15 mile hikes once or twice week as well as the walks to work. We're planning to gradually increase the distance up to 26 miles We've decided to put the Hadrian's wall attempt back until next year as we are pretty sure we'd not finish - we're going to have to do it in 4 days due to my friends inability to use his holiday exactly as he'd like. Given this taking up cycling again looked like a good way to add some different training to my routine.
Either way the time saving cycling is worth getting a bike for.
 
PaulSB

PaulSB

Squire
Location
Chorley, Lancashire
@sydney your new comments make a real difference. Enjoy your new bike! 👍
 
OP
OP
S

sydney

Active Member
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
After a later than planned start to the 12 mile hike (that turned into a 15 mile hike) I didn't go looking for a bike on Sunday. What did happen was that I read and reread all the replies in this thread and had a good think about what I need and want. This made me realise a new bike was what I wanted but not what I needed. A road bike was neither what I wanted or needed. I wanted a hybrid that was the right size. I needed it to be cheap so that if I lose interest I've not lost much and if I fall in love with cycling I can sell it for a small loss and get something better. As has been mentioned several times in this thread I wanted a Carrera Subway.

I was lying in bed this morning and did a search on Facebook marketplace for a Carrera Subway. There were loads. I messaged 4 people who had Subways advertised for less than £100. 5 minutes later I'd arranged to go and see one priced at £50, located in Blyth which is about 25 minutes from me by car. I arrived in Blyth at 10am, had a good look at the bike and had a 10 minute test ride. The wheels were true, all the gears selected fine the front brake was good and the rear needs adjusting and it has a slow puncture in the rear wheel. 5 minutes of haggling later and I'm the proud owner of a Carrera Subway for the sum of only £40! If it lasts more than 2 weeks then It's saved me money as it's £20 a week in bus fares once I move to the new office.

I ended up having a good chat with the seller who was clearly a used bike enthusiast as he proceeded to show me the 4 bikes he currently uses! He also recommended his local bike shop if I wanted to get the bike serviced.

I got it home and immediately took it for a quick 20 minute ride and managed to get up the hill to my house without breaking into a sweat. I'm on holiday from work this week but the wife has made lots of plans so my next free time is Sunday morning. I'm going to give it a good clean, change the rear inner tube - it's the same size wheels as my Apollo so I have 3 spare and adjust the rear brake.

Thanks to everyone on the forum for helping me to figure out what I wanted.
 
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