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Old September 19th 06, 11:20 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling
Simon Brooke
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Posts: 4,493
Default road bike / race bike / hybrid / touring / fitness bike - which one

in message , Maurice
Wibblington ('pimple@arse/met') wrote:

Chums

Further to a previous post about upgrading from my initial cheap intro
to cycling with a sub £100 'mountain bike' (this a deliberate
decision), I'm popping into townat the weekend to do a bit of window
shopping - there are four cycle shops in Colchester :-)

I'm clear that what I want is to

- go faster on the country roads in north Essex (a few occasional
uphill bits, but its probably as flat as anywhere in England) and
never want to go off road on it

- no need for mudguards, panniers or any of that palaver

-but-

I'm not too sure about assuming a bent over body position on the drop
handlebars for long periods. (In my 40s and never had a racer before).

A 'fitness bike' as described on CTC seems to be the thing I should be
looking at - a sort of racer with straight handlebars, or a 'lite'
hybrid

http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3793


OK, let's be clear about one thing. Most bikes are built by mixing and
matching fairly standard components. If you buy a 'fitness bike' or
a 'flat bar racer', the only difference between that and a race bike from
the same maker will be the handlebars and shifters. This means two things:

(i) to switch from straight bar to drop bar or vice versa, all you need to
change is the bars themselves and the control levers (although these are
quite pricey these days) - so whichever you decide to buy, you aren't
locking yourself in forever; and

(ii) the default riding position is identical, but the racer has lots more
hand positions so you can relieve pressure on your hands by changing
position regularly.

People look at racers with their drop bars and hard cutaway saddles and
think 'oooh, that looks uncomfortable'. But a racer has evolved to look
like a racer does because people have to be able to ride them six hours a
day for three weeks in any of the major stage races. If they weren't
supremely comfortable, people simply couldn't complete the races.

Flat bars are desperately hard on your wrists, because you can't change
positions. Soft saddles are desperately hard on your plumbing. Look at the
bikes which people who do a lot of riding ride, and think about why they
are put together the way they are.

So what kind of bike should I be looking at? What shoulds I be looking
at in terms of

- type of bike


If you don't want to carry luggage, you don't want a tourer. You're looking
for either a conventional race bike or a 'flat bar racer', and I really
would advise the race bike.

- type of gears?


If you're wanting to exercise on the road, given that you're in a
relatively but not absolutely flat part of the country, a singlespeed
(such as the Specialized Langster, which seems to me very good value for
money just now) would be a serious option. For people who commute
regularly in bad weather I recommend hub gears, which are low maintenance;
but that doesn't seem to apply to you so if you do go for gears a
derailleur setup is more efficient.

- 2 or 3 front chainrings?


In Essex, one is enough; two is overkill, and three is ridiculous.

- very narrow wheels?


Depends what you call very narrow. I used to ride 700Cx20, which is very
narrow; they look very elegant and were perfectly comfortable but
vulnerable to pinch flats on poor road surfaces. I now ride 700Cx23, which
is only very slightly wider buy a lot more robust.

- dropped handlebars a must?


No, not a must, just more comfortable.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; not so much a refugee from reality, more a bogus
;; asylum seeker

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