Suggested bike for sedate off-road riding

[murraypaul]

I haven't cycled since I was a kid (now not quite 40), and am looking at
getting back into again.

It would be primarily for fitness and pleasure riding, not for commuting or
racing. I'm currently a hobby walker, doing 3-5 hour walks around National
Trust or common land, and would be looking to cover similar sorts of ground,
but on a bike.

It would be almost entirely off-road, but mainly gravelled or reasonable
quality grass/dirt bridleways, nothing too extreme.
As I get fitter I would look to ride for longer, and then on steeper slopes,
rather than looking to ride faster. Speed really isn't a goal.

I might be able to ride to/from work, but again that would mainly be
bridleways, with a minimum of roads.

Want I *don't* want to do:
- Ride on roads, except to the bare minimum required to cross from one
bridleway to another
- Serious mountain-biking/downhill riding, with jumps and whatnot
- Spend hours tinkering with things to make them work just right (or at all!)

As I'm going to hopefully be out and about for quite a while (as I build up
fitness), I'm going to want to be able to carry food and drink, coat for
worse weather, maps, camera and similar junk, so some sort of bag mounting
system seems required. I want to be able to enjoy the views, so I think a
more upright riding position would be better?

I'm probably going to be driving to an NT car park somewhere, riding around,
then driving back again, so I don't want to end up so filthy I couldn't get
back in the car again, which suggests mudguards?

I'm going to want to be able to ride in the evenings on a nearby bridleway,
and cycle a little bit of road to get there, so I'm going to need lights.

From the reading I've done so far, this seems to suggest some sort of German-
syle trekking bike?
Something like:
http://www.cube.eu/uk/bikes/tour/travel/travel-pro-rf-men-blue-white/
http://www.cube.eu/uk/bikes/tour/touring/touring-pro-rf-men-anthrazit-black-green/
http://dawescycles.com/product/tanami-gents/
http://dawescycles.com/product/karakum-gents/
These seem very difficult to find in actual shops though, and I think I
really would benefit from buying in person and having the bike set up correctly.
Or go for a fitness/recreation type bike and add on mudguards/rack/lights:
http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/town/recreation/fx/7_4_fx_disc/#
http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bike/x3#details

Alternatively, should I be looking for something in the hybrid/trail line?
(Of which there is a bewildering variety)

Initial budget thoughts are something around £500, but that can be flexible.
I may get it on the cycle to work scheme, which pushes the budget up.

Where there are higher-performance/lower-maintenance tradeoffs, I would choose
lower-maintenance. Hub gears don't seem to be generally available on trekking
bikes, otherwise I would be inclined to go for them.

Of all the various technical specifications thrown around for bikes, which
actually matter to me, and which can I ignore?
Do I need to be worried about size and width of tyres?
What sort of gear ranges should I be looking for?

 

[2pies]

The style of that Trek bike you linked to is probably the most suitable, though there are cheaper alternatives, the 7.2 FX in the same range would be fine. Plenty of other similarly featured and priced bikes of course, depends what your local shop sells if you want a bit of help (always a good idea).

Those sort of hybrid bikes are still fairly sporty but without the weight of suspension forks, found on Mountain Bikes. 32 or 35mm tyres would probably be best for you. They will have 7, 8, 9 or 10 speed cassettes based on the quality of the gearing components. Any of them will be fine as they typically come with triple rings. Disc brakes are a bonus for off road. I'd expect you can attach panniers to it as well, but do check. Same for mudguards.

 

[MikeW-71]

For that use, any Hybrid or Trekking bike would do fine, preferrably MTB based with fatter tyres. Suspension would not really be required.

Alternatively any entry level hardtail MTB will be more than adequate. Most will have the rack mountings, but for off-road I prefer to carry stuff in a backpack.

 

[Cubist]

If you like the bridle way stuff then I would suggest a trekking based MTB hardtail. Cubes comp series, Attention or Acid would be fine. You're sort of describing bike rambling, which sees these come into their own. Also look at Merida, Or Decathlon Hardtails. Cycle to work may lead you towards Halfords, and their Boardman Hardtails are perfect for your requirements.

You can get bolt on mudguards, or fenders, but some of us get used to taking an old bath mat to stand on in the car park and stripping off under a poncho after a blashy ride......

 

[murraypaul]

Just to say thank you for the responses so far, I'm in the process of testing a few bikes at the moment.
Where I'm getting a little stuck on is that it is easy to find out information like Bike A has Shimano Acera kit and Bike B has Shimano Deore, and that Deore is better than Acera, but what is harder to know is whether than would actually really make a difference for me when I was riding.
A had a try on a Trek 8.4 hardtail, and to be honest didn't see a whole lot of difference with the suspension locked or open, given that most of the time I'm riding in a sitting rather than standing position, so the bumps are coming right up the back wheel to my bum anyway! Is the front suspension really designed for standing riding, such as mountain bike descending?

PS: I like the term 'bike rambling', that seems to sum it up quite well.

 

[vickster]

Personally, I didn't like the Deore I had on a Sirrus in the past. Very clunky