Which quick flat-bar bike? Also, wisdom of 650b/47 tyres?

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SuperHans123

Formerly known as snertos999
Ugly looking frame with those dropped seatstays. Doesn't look very rack-friendly either.
Much easier to commuterise something with a conventional frame design so long as it has clearance and mounts.
I think its looks great.
The hybrid market is so stale, nice to see something slightly different. (I have had about 8 different ones in the last 6-7 years)
The next model up has a basket on the front and full cover mudguards.
This also has a sensor on the front wheel linked to a Cannondale app which tracks performance stats and gives reminders on service intervals etc (Developed with Garmin, so probably half tidy) and has a SP mobile phone mount built into the stem.
One other thing I noticed when I looked at one in my LBS the other day is they are light for a hybrid, around 25lbs for this one.
Also, it has Maxxis DTR-1, 650b x 47c (Developed specifically for this model) and just the one chainwheel to cut down on faff. (9 Speed)
Strips on the frame stop little scratches and dents when leaning also.

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SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
The next model up has a basket on the front and full cover mudguards.
This also has a sensor on the front wheel linked to a Cannondale app which tracks performance stats and gives reminders on service intervals etc (Developed with Garmin, so probably half tidy) and has a SP mobile phone mount built into the stem.

Why would anyone want to log performance stats on a Hybrid?? To tell you how quickly you got to the shops and back on it? I can just about understand the rationale for a bike used for serious fitness training - but a hybrid?? They can't be serious! Nothing but a marketing gimmick to keep gadget junkies happy for a short while until the novelty wears off and they get bored and go looking for something else. As for maintenance, that should be an ongoing regime driven by common sense about how much the bike is used, and under what sort of riding conditions. Again, you don't need an app for this. :wacko:
 

vickster

Legendary Member
Many 'hybrids' (nonsense description) are more like flatbar road bikes so are used for speed
 

SuperHans123

Formerly known as snertos999
Why would anyone want to log performance stats on a Hybrid?? To tell you how quickly you got to the shops and back on it? I can just about understand the rationale for a bike used for serious fitness training - but a hybrid?? They can't be serious! Nothing but a marketing gimmick to keep gadget junkies happy for a short while until the novelty wears off and they get bored and go looking for something else. As for maintenance, that should be an ongoing regime driven by common sense about how much the bike is used, and under what sort of riding conditions. Again, you don't need an app for this. :wacko:
Ok, putting aside those 'obviously aimed at millennials' marketing gimmicks, what struck me more than anything was when I lifted it up and how light it was in comparison to all the hybrids I had owned previously. (Boardman, Kona, Cannondale, Specialized to name a few)
Felt like something that would feel nice and flighty as opposed to the normal lumpen experience of riding a hybrid on anything other than dead flat surfaces.
If you want a properly light hybrid, I found you need to spend £1500 on a carbon fibre one...all £1000 and less models are heavy lunkers....apart from this one it seemed, and I have picked up a lot of them over the years!
 
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SuperHans123

Formerly known as snertos999
Many 'hybrids' (nonsense description) are more like flatbar road bikes so are used for speed
Hybrid is the generic term and is hard to get away from when trying to describe a particularly type of bike, just easier to accept it for the purpose of conversation flow online and in person.
I had a Boardman £1000 hybrid about 5 yrs ago, the black and red one with carbon forks that was marketed as a flat bar road bike.
It wasn't.
In comparison to my friends' bog standard Specialized road bike, it was heavier, clumsier and bigger.
Flat bar road bike is more of a misnomer than hybrid.
 

SuperHans123

Formerly known as snertos999
Why would anyone want to log performance stats on a Hybrid?? To tell you how quickly you got to the shops and back on it?
I have only ridden hybrid bikes since I got back into cycling around 6 years ago (51 now)
The furthest distance I have ridden is around 55 miles and my regular outings are between 15-30 miles.
I have tracked all my activities on my little Garmin cycle computer and they always make for interesting reading and can be quite motivational.
I think it is inaccurate to pigeonhole people who ride hybrids as individuals who only go to the local Spar and back.
I ride mine to work and back and regular go for leisure rides. clocking up thousands of miles every year.
Not everyone wants to stare at one inch of tyre and try and beat their Strava sectionals whilst looking like a highlighter pen!
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
I have only ridden hybrid bikes since I got back into cycling around 6 years ago (51 now)
The furthest distance I have ridden is around 55 miles and my regular outings are between 15-30 miles.
I have tracked all my activities on my little Garmin cycle computer and they always make for interesting reading and can be quite motivational.
I think it is inaccurate to pigeonhole people who ride hybrids as individuals who only go to the local Spar and back.
I ride mine to work and back and regular go for leisure rides. clocking up thousands of miles every year.
Not everyone wants to stare at one inch of tyre and try and beat their Strava sectionals whilst looking like a highlighter pen!

We probably aren't that much different in riding style, although I haven't commuted to work by bike for over 25 years due to distance and the need to carry heavy stuff.
I too, do a fair bit of leisure mileage on 1990's vintage Raleigh hybrids, and tend to ride similar distances to you. Shock, horror I have got ultra-basic Cateye wired computers fitted on several bikes. I just use these to keep a running total of annual miles ridden though, rather than guesstimating. I keep well away from anything made by Garmin as I find their products temperamental.
What really bothers me about things like having sensors built into the Cannondale, is it ties you in to using their stuff and their app. That's OK for now while it's still fresh, although I still regard it as gimmicky, but what about long term? If your sensor malfunctions years down the line, are you going to be able to easily and cheaply replace it? Will the bits even be available? Will the app be updated to run properly on future models of smartphone? Supporting tech costs money, and once that bike model goes out of production, the manufacturer has very little incentive to keep updating the app. I simply don't see any need to integrate tech into a machine as simple as a bicycle.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
The technolgy may have been developed for one bike, but is there anything stopping them using the same technology in further models in later years.

There's a saying that's quite popular, or was at one time, "Buy cheap, buy twice". Most folk looking at buying a new bike, will tend to follow that piece and buy the best they can afford. Presumably in the expectation they'll get to like cycling. Which might be why advice is being sought from more than one person.

We all ride what we want to, and should be able to offer advice, based on what we've ridden, without being told our choice of cycle is not what someone else should be riding/using. I've a frame built in November-December '86, a one-off. Used for touring and general riding since then.

Riding a cycle should be fun for the person doing it, and that "fun" can be enhanced by a bike they like to use.
 

tom73

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
@classic33 bang on it's your bike , your ride , your fun.
so often on here when people worry about how they ride and are told just go out and ride.
Yet when they ask about which bike you get no end of only buy this. :whistle:
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
, "Buy cheap, buy twice". Most folk looking at buying a new bike, will tend to follow that piece and buy the best they can afford. Presumably in the expectation they'll get to like cycling. Which might be why advice is being sought from more than one person.

If you read a lot of the posts on here, that isn't what happens at all. People tend to buy bikes to a set price point, because something/someone has convinced them that anything below that price must be junk, and anything above it must be just extravagance. There's also the C2W factor; someone gets hold of a voucher for X value, so they go and spend that amount, because they have to use it up. There is absolutely no rational logic for a large number of purchase decisions beyond " I need to spend this voucher" or "someone told me I need to spend this much to get a decent bike"
 

classic33

Leg End Member
And a fair few will have a set amount that they can spend, on a new bike. In order to get a wider range of opinions as possible, they may ask on places such as this forum.

A few good suggestions were made by both Vickster and SuperHans123, earlier in this thread. With a few minor negative points about suitability being made by them at the same time.

This can help narrow it down for the OP, who sought the advice of others, before parting with cash. Always a good thing to do, my opinion only.

For myself, I saw the bike I wanted then saw the price. That set my limit, not price then what can I get for that. I've not rubbished someone else's advice/opinion simply because I didn't like buying new or technology on the bike.

@aynjrz, in the end it'll be your money that buys the bike you'll be riding, consider the bikes suggested on here, all arre being recomended by people who may well have ridden the bike they've suggested. Hope you get what you want and that you enjoy using it.
 
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