Morning, and thank you for letting me join. I'm getting on a bit, and looking at getting a comfortable hybrid bike, capable of 60 mile rides a day, speed not too important, as my rides tend to be an all day job. I've been looking at the Boardman HYB 8.9 at 1k in cost and the Trek FX Sport Carbon 4 at 1.75k. Yes I realise there's a big cost difference, but up to 2k is within budget.
Now I've read all the reviews, Halfords build quality may not be that good etc, ( though Stockton seems to have a good reputation from reviews), the snobbery about them not being proper bikes and so on. The one thing they do have though is availability. Stores are local, you can go in and sit on one to get an idea of size and so on.
This is almost impossible with any other brand bike. Try finding the Trek bike in the North East and you're stumped. Same with any other known alternatives, I tried Cube also. Spending that sort of money, I don't want it to be almost right, I want it to be near enough perfect. There's the question of size to start with. I'm 5ft 8ins, which according to Trek is medium, until you come to my inside leg measurement of 29 inches, which makes it possibly small. There are some really good bike stores around, but the chance of them having what you want or even being able to get it is pretty small if you ask me.
I started this exercise of course by reading any articles on best hybrid bikes 2021 but it all seems a bit pointless when most of them, even when you click on the suggested link, don't actually have any stock.
I know Bike shops can't stock everything, but it would be really nice to check one out somewhere and the nearest place seems to be Keswick.
What does anyone else do in these situations, it's not important, I'm not in a hurry, I have a cheap Trek which works fine, but one day soon I'd like to upgrade, and I don't just want to choose the Boardman on availability.
Now I've read all the reviews, Halfords build quality may not be that good etc, ( though Stockton seems to have a good reputation from reviews), the snobbery about them not being proper bikes and so on. The one thing they do have though is availability. Stores are local, you can go in and sit on one to get an idea of size and so on.
This is almost impossible with any other brand bike. Try finding the Trek bike in the North East and you're stumped. Same with any other known alternatives, I tried Cube also. Spending that sort of money, I don't want it to be almost right, I want it to be near enough perfect. There's the question of size to start with. I'm 5ft 8ins, which according to Trek is medium, until you come to my inside leg measurement of 29 inches, which makes it possibly small. There are some really good bike stores around, but the chance of them having what you want or even being able to get it is pretty small if you ask me.
I started this exercise of course by reading any articles on best hybrid bikes 2021 but it all seems a bit pointless when most of them, even when you click on the suggested link, don't actually have any stock.
I know Bike shops can't stock everything, but it would be really nice to check one out somewhere and the nearest place seems to be Keswick.
What does anyone else do in these situations, it's not important, I'm not in a hurry, I have a cheap Trek which works fine, but one day soon I'd like to upgrade, and I don't just want to choose the Boardman on availability.
to the forum.
At 5'8 you'll need a medium in the R7 range 
