Hybrid bike with a budget of £300

[AdamUK]

Hello everyone, this is my first post on here. I appreciate you'll get a lot of these 'which bike' topics posted so I'll keep it short and simple. I'm looking to get cycling again and would appreciate some advice on which hybrid bike to get with a budget of around £300. It won't get me anything ground-breaking I know but it is all I can afford at the moment. The sort of terrain I would be covering is roads, forest tracks, towpaths, commutes to work, and I would love to do a bicycle tour sometime this year, or at the very least some weekends in the Lake District, so it would also have to take panniers. I've looked at these on offer at my local bike shop:

Trek 2010 7.0 FX Hybrid

it may seem like a simple point but I would like to have the mudguards, so what about this?

Trek T10

I would greatly appreciate some advice from the more wise.

Thank you.

 

[AdamUK]

Okay I've done some more research on the internet and I have narrowed it down to either Dawes Mojave or the Revolution Trailfinder. Does anyone have any advice on them? Are they suitable for the kind of terrain I will be covering as mentioned in my first post, and the longer journeys?

EDIT - Although the Trek T10 still looks tempting. Isn't a steel frame more resilient?

 

[HLaB]

They all look good VfM bikes Adam. Steel is heavier and may be prone to rust if not looked after but I do like the look of that T10 too; on the plus side a steel frame usually gives a smoother ride than aluminium. The best thing to do is try before you buy. None of them will be speed machines but I can't see why they wouldn't be up to the job

 

[mcshroom]

There are a lot of bikes like the Treks and the Mojave that do the Coast2Coast every summer and they seem to be set up well enough. I would personally go for the ones with Easy Fire shifters rather than Revo shifters as I find them more comfortable.

The Revolution is only available in 22" so unless you would need to be quite tall (they advise over 6 feet) for it to be the right size.

If I had the choice I would probably go for the Dawes Mojave (as it has all the gear), or the Trek 7.0 FX from your 4. They will both be reliably built and, although not massively fast, they will get you around on pretty much any surface ok.

I rode the Hadrian's Cycleway on a Claud Butler Classic last year which had a similar spec and the terrain didn't cause it any problems, including the bumpy, sandy, singletrack like section around Sellafield.

 

[revolutionjonny]

Hi, Adam, I'm new to the forum, too, and have only recently started cycling again.

I had the same budget as you last Summer, when I bought my bike, and after careful consideration opted for a Carrera Subway Ltd edition.

I know Halfords has a funny kind of reputation amongst those 'in the know', but I'm very happy with my bike.

I ride the same kind of tracks, roads, etc, and am planning on doing the Coast and Castles in May.

I find gears and brakes, and other important stuff to be decent quality for the money, and the bike is nice to ride. I've tweaked bits and pieces myself since I bought it, lights, pedals, etc, and am thinking of changing the handle bars, but all in all I am happy with it.

If you can overcome prejudices regarding Halfords, it's a decent bike for the £300 budget I had.............

 

[mcshroom]

Most of the Carrera bikes are good bikes. Other than the Trax and Apollo ranges, the bikes in Halfords are a decent spec and decent Value for Money. Unfortunately the knowledge levels of their staff can be found wanting far too often.

If you are happy to set a bike up yourself then the bikes can be very good.

 

[revolutionjonny]

I did set the bike up myself, but only because I didn't want to wait 3 days for them to do it, and TBH, I had more faith in my own handy work than theirs!

It was the first time I had had any dealings with Halfords, but my first impressions were that they were under staffed. The two lads that were on just seemed stressed to hell, with not enough time to give me their attention. I just basically went in, handed over my cash when I got the opportunity, and took the bike home 'flat pack.'