New ladies bike - what to choose?

[Cyclebeginner]

I am looking to buy a new bike, I haven't riden since a child apart from the occasional bike hire on holiday etc. Would be for leisure use - so riding around streets, parks, occasional off roading. I am unfit and weigh 17 stone, so hoping to lose some weight and get fitter!

My budget would be around £300/400 and was thinking of a hybrid bike. Ideally I would like something quite light as will need to carry it up stairs. I would prefer low step for climbing on and off. I was thinking of a Raleigh Pioneer bike but don't really know what to look for. A comfortable saddle will be important.

Advice welcome!

 

[furball]

I don't see any reason why the Raleigh Pioneer wouldn't suit the job but I'm not really in touch with what's on the market just now.
Two things to be aware of.
1. If you haven't cycled for a long time no saddle will be comfortable straight away. You will become very aware of your seat bones until you've been cycling with any consistency. Just stick with what comes with the bike to begin with and after a reasonable time consider if it's right for you or not and if not what is it that's not right and look for something that will address the problem.
2. Once you get going you will need to change your username.

Enjoy.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

My budget would be around £300/400 and was thinking of a hybrid bike. Ideally I would like something quite light as will need to carry it up stairs. I would prefer low step for climbing on and off. I was thinking of a Raleigh Pioneer bike but don't really know what to look for.

Raleigh pioneers are good strong bikes that ride nicely, but buy an old Nottingham-built one on the secondhand market, not a new one. There's loads of used womens frame Pioneers on eBay (far more than mens frames) and they often go for silly low prices. You should have no trouble getting a useable one for under £50, maybe a lot less. Allow for needing a couple of new tyres & tubes, maybe a set of brake blocks etc, but you should end up with a very good reliable bike and still easily have change left out of £100. My main daily ride is a 1995 mens Pioneer, acquired secondhand, and it owes me less than £50 all-in. I would not swap it for anything else, not even for something a lot more expensive and supposedly better on paper.

 

[Cycleops]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

By 'low step' I'm guessing you mean a step through frame like this?;

This is a Pinnacle from Evans;
https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-californium-2-2018-women-s-hybrid-bike-EV275611
This is quoted as 13.5kg so not very light and might be a struggle up stairs. If you have that to cope with you might consider a folder.

This is an alternative from Decathlon;
https://www.decathlon.co.uk/elops-900-step-over-classic-bike-alloy-grey-id_8359415.html

Saddles are always difficult if you haven't ridden in a long time. It does get easier with time and padded shorts might help.
SkipdiverJohn's suggestion if an older Raleigh is good but you will run into the weight problem again.
I'd say go new as you can run into problems with older bikes and you will need help to get the correct size. Try to buy from somewhere near you so you can get any problems sorted quickly and easily.

 

[vickster]

Trek do very good women's hybrid bikes that are not too heavy and quite sporty. I bought my FX six or seven years ago and it's still one of my favourite workhorse bikes. Evans do them - have a look at the FX 2, which is within your price range.

+1 they have a Step through option too
https://www.evanscycles.com/trek-fx-2-2019-womens-hybrid-bike-EV311939

https://www.evanscycles.com/trek-fx-2-stagger-2019-womens-hybrid-bike-EV311940

Saddle wise see how you get on with the one that comes with the bike. Bontrager (Trek) ones actually suit me really well but our behinds are all different

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

View attachment 417191
This is a Pinnacle from Evans;
https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-californium-2-2018-women-s-hybrid-bike-EV275611
This is quoted as 13.5kg so not very light and might be a struggle up stairs.

SkipdiverJohn's suggestion if an older Raleigh is good but you will run into the weight problem again..

A weight of around 30 lbs is the norm for a steel-frame, alloy wheel, multi-gear bike with mudguards and a carrier or basket. If you want a practical bike that can carry things, and can be ridden in the wet without getting drenched by road spray they don't come much lighter unless you spend a lot of money. They vary a little depending on how small or large the frame is, and whether it's plain hi-tensile or butted cro-moly, but 30 lbs is the ball-park and even my Reynolds 531 hybrid is close to that. I doubt the OP will be wanting a stripped-down single speed with weak skinny wheels, narrow tyres and a lack of mudguards. For one thing, any rider weighing 17 stone needs a bike that will withstand the loadings that weight will impose on components like the wheels & tyres.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Do try something like this:

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacl...knIpVq_g5ygD3u8SBNRlKRtM8af2D21MaAnOIEALw_wcB

It will be lighter and much nicer to ride than the step-through designs. Has enough gears to get you most places, and quite fat tyres which will help to cushion the ride and improve comfort.

If you want a step--through frame, Kona do a lovely one at a slightly higher price point, which is lighter and better specified than many others.

ETA
The Kona Coco

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Who on earth decided to call a bike 'Stagger'? I suppose it describes that ugly frame design, where the sloping top tube attaches miles below the seat stays, which is guaranteed to put me off a bike at a glance. But that's just my prejudice.

It's a womens frame, what arrangement of top tube do you expect it to have? I agree it looks ugly, but that's mostly because of the oversized tubing plus being flared out at the head tube joint. If it was a lugged & brazed steel frame with slender diameter tubes it wouldn't look an eyesore.

 

[Cycleops]

It'll be interesting to hear what the OP makes of all this discussion.

 

[User10119]

I bought a lovely shiny Trek Valencia on the C2W scheme - I actually opted for the bloke's frame because I preferred the aesthetics of it and the geometry was the same anyway - and it was a cracking buy that I've had nearly 9 years use out of so far. I'd really recommend test rides if you possibly can. I spent a lot of time visiting all the bike shops in the area and seeing what they had to offer before choosing.

 

[User10119]

Do try something like this:

I like that. I'm not a fan of white bikes or ones in lipstick colours - I tend to be a bit "any colour so long as it's black". As well as the Trek I eventually got, I considered a couple of Ridgebacks which seemed like straightforward decent bikes at that price point - is that still the case now, I wonder?

 

[swansonj]

My several 'women's frame' bikes all have the top tube and seat stays meeting at the same point. It's just an aesthetic thing for me, I think the staggered frame looks ugly.

I don’t think it’s just an aesthetic thing, I think it offends all basic engineering principles to place unnecessary bending stress on a long thin component (the seat tube). I would argue that the reason we think it looks ugly is because we have an innate sense that it is not a good engineering solution, whether we articulate it in those terms or not. I accept that it seems to work and that if you want a really low step-over height (and why shouldn’t anyone want and expect to get whatever they want for whatever reason) there are limited alternative solutions.

OP: apologies for being yet another person to make your choice seem more of a technical thing than it needs be. FWIW, I also commend the Trek FS range: my daughter chose a 5.3 and my wife a 7.3 and are both very happy (my daughter taking hers to university and my wife carrying the lions share of the luggage on a recent tour on hers, showing the versatility) and, although this is a strictly subsidiary bonus, neither offending my engineering sensibilities. In fact I think the 5.3 in particular is a thing of beauty: sleek, purposeful, functional, and decorative without being atall girly.

 

[Mugshot]

She's probably a bit fazed by the stuff about buying second hand and building it herself. That sort of response is very predictable lately, unfortunately, and seems to me a bit like telling a new driver that they should just buy an old chassis and learn to build their own car. As unhelpful and off-putting advice to someone who hasn't ridden a bike much since they were a child goes, that just about takes the chocolate hobnob.

Mmmmmmmm. chocolate hobnobs!
Anyway, I kinda see where you're coming from but why not save yourself a bob or two if you can?
This bike;

Was dumped near my shop a month or so ago. So, thinking of Skippy's suggestion, I went and took a photo of it this morning.
Both wheels are buckled, certainly beyond reasonable repair, but that's an easy swap. The brakes are pretty knackered, but again they can be replaced and you may as well do the whole groupset while you're at it just to be sure (nothing like a nice shiny groupset ) It's an Apollo, so not the best of frames, so it'd probably be a good idea to replace that too. Saddle looks ok but the post is rusty, a bit of brasso may sort that, if not get a new one.
If the OP isn't too familiar or confident working on bikes I'm sure their LBS would be happy to help them out for a small contribution. Hey presto, simply change the wheels, groupset and frame (maybe the saddle and post too) and you've got a perfectly good bike for basically nothing.

 

[jefmcg]

Hey presto, simply change the wheels, groupset and frame (maybe the saddle and post too) and you've got a perfectly good bike for basically nothing.

I've seen advice that you should replace your handlebars every 3 years, so for safety's sake, add a new handlebar to your list, it's only a couple of pounds more.

More seriously

I also commend the Trek FS range: my daughter chose a 5.3 and my wife a 7.3

After several fruitless minutes googling: do you mean FX? They seem to have changed there model names, so they aren't making 5.3 or 7.3 any more.

 

[Mugshot]

I've seen advice that you should replace your handlebars every 3 years, so for safety's sake, add a new handlebar to your list, it's only a couple of pounds more.

It's a fair comment, I was just trying to do it as cheaply as possible, it's what Skippy would want.