The best hybrid between mountain and normal bike?

[Koorosh]

Hi there,
I have been looking at bikes for some time now, and I have decided that the best bike I could get would be one that balances well between the pace of a good road bike and the ruggedness of a good mountain bike. I predominantly travel on the road, but I tend to go to some fairly off-road places across rugged terrain, where a road bike would want to die.
The kind of things I'm looking for are lock-out suspension, such that I can get more pace on the road and more dampening off-road, with gears suitable for good pace as well. The tires would ideally be somewhere between thick mountain bike tyres and thinner tires designed for the road.
From what I have seen, the specialized crosstrail and GT transeo seem the best choices, but I wonder if anybody knows of any others worth looking at?
I have between 300 and 500 smackers to spend and along with bike advice, would always welcome any information on the cheapest places to buy bikes! Winstanley bikes seems good for clearance etc. Not interested in the year necessarily, as I would rather have a good quality bike at a cheaper price than the prestige of a brand new model.
Thank you very much,
Koorosh

 

[Andrius.B]

This looks nice:

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/81-2011-id_8168695.html

 

[Cyclist33]

Yes, but its rather missed the brief!

Exactly what is the rugged terrain you mentioned?

 

[MattHB]

You'd be amazed at just how rugged a road bike will cope with. You loose a hell of a lot of power with things like front suspension not to mention the HUGE weight cost

 

[david k]

i have a carrera subway 2 and love t, very rugged and quite quick on the road too

they do a gryphon at halfords which ive always though looks good

 

[Stonepark]

sounds like he is looking for a cyclocross bike the crosstrail would fit the bill at that price point, if your paying cash and willing to argue a discount CUBE also do some nice bikes

 

[MrJamie]

I don't think front suspension is half as bad as people on CC tend to make out unless you're in serious competition. It does add weight, but it looks to be more like 1kg, the front sus. bike Andrius linked is the same weight as the Specialized Sirrus flatbar roadbike and the Crosstrail is only 1kg heavier. Its not like riding through custard either... with the preload up it doesnt seem to sap much energy at all on the relative flat and doesnt noticably affect my average speed so i ride unlocked all the time for comfort. It is noticable up difficult hills, but then you have the lockout for fixing that issue. You dont *need* it offroad, but you dont need a rigid fork on road either

Im riding a Giant Roam which is pretty much the same as the Crosstrail. Ive been very happy with it, as has my friend with his Crosstrail. Ideally id like to put more offroad tyres on the hybrid and then get a drop bar bike, probably cyclocross bike for the faster mostly road riding.

 

[MattHB]

sounds like he is looking for a cyclocross bike the crosstrail would fit the bill at that price point, if your paying cash and willing to argue a discount CUBE also do some nice bikes

I've just got rid of a crosstrail. It was enormously heavy and with no front suspension lockout it was sapping on the road. But it was still a good bike for the price.

 

[WobblyBob]

I've just got a Crosstrail Comp & i'm well impressed with it, i don't think the suspension affects the weight greatly & the lock-out feature is great on the move to adapt for anything, the hydraulic disc brakes are fantastic aswell.
I've been riding mainly on the road but have been 'off road' a couple of times & it worked really well.

 

[MattHB]

I've just got a Crosstrail Comp & i'm well impressed with it, i don't think the suspension affects the weight greatly & the lock-out feature is great on the move to adapt for anything, the hydraulic disc brakes are fantastic aswell.
I've been riding mainly on the road but have been 'off road' a couple of times & it worked really well.

The comp would solve the problems ive had, but it's out of the OPs bracket. Anything
Ower than the comp I think looses the lockout

 

[MrJamie]

Can't check properly atm on phone and Specialized change spec between years but the crosstrail sport should be 500 or less and has a lockout and preload adjust. my friend picked up a previous model giant roam 2 similar spec for 300 a few months back so there's discounts if you shop around

 

[Koorosh]

Sorry guys, supposed to get email notifications but they didnt seem to come through! The rough terrain is anywhere from shingles to hills, rough paths and heathland dunes etc. I don't frequent them regularly but I have a tendency to be quite rough with my bike, jumping off small sets of stairs, going up curbs and generally being a bit schoolboy-ish! I don't completely batter it by going up curbs at ridiculous speeds but I certainly don't stick to smooth lines necessarily.
My curremt bike is a dawes acoma with v brakes and standard suspension. I'm guessing this is probably quite a bit lower spec than the above mentioned and likely heavier is it not?
I am 5"6 so I guess 17 or 18 frame is good for me yes?
Thank you for all the help guys, very much appreciated!
Lastly, I have also seen a diamondback contra. It has deor gears and disk breaks with lockout suspension. It seems to be higher spec and very close to my desired build but wondered if any of you have any input?
Thank you guys,
Koorosh :-)

 

[Koorosh]

Scratch that, no lockout suspension :-/