Cyclists Assemble

Travisthedog

About three years ago I bought kick ass road bike to commute to work. I totally love it, it's fast, light, looks awesome

However last February I came off in a fairly spectacular fashion at about 35mph.

A year later and some £2000 worth of private neurologist consulting and MRI scans it would appear that all the headaches, weird tingling in my face, neck pain is down to tht fact that in the crash I gave myself a pretty spectacular whiplash injury that buggered 2 discs in my cerviacal spine and as a consequence my vertebrae in that region are locked in a straight line instead of a nice steady curve.

I have to see a sports physio who specialises in spinal injury but everyone I've spoken to so far says that the road bike will have to go, because the riding position is going to be exacerbating my neck badly.

I can't use my moutain bike for the commute as its like driving a tractor to work and the gearing is all wrong.

So I'm looking at a hybrid, the half mountain bike/half road bike thing that I see lots of old men using at the moment. In fairness some of them seem well sorted bits of kit and are almost as quick as my road bike.

Does anyone here have a hybrid, what are your thoughts? Did you move from a road to a hybrid? And what was the transition like?

And is there a hybrid that could be converted to something more off road if I wanted to take the kids to the woods for some trails work?

speshul91

I used to race 4x I'd say get a hard tail mtb, get the cassette changed to suit your needs,I used to commute on the 4x bike, 36t chainring 22-11 shimano ultegra cassette did the job for me

Hertz32

Another vote for a Hardtail. Maybe 27.5 or 29in wheels and just set the gears up as appropriate.

chillidoggy

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee189/chillidoggy/Odds/duo_zpscce52b86.jpg

Sambostar

O reckon you'd be able to knock at least 12 cyclists off their bikes with that.

OAP rock n' roll.

Paul_C

Travisthedog

I'm thinking about flogging the road and mtb and getting something like this that will do both

http://m.evanscycles.com/products/trek/84-ds-2015-hybrid-bike-ec072171

Travisthedog

chillidoggy;493176" said:

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee189/chillidoggy/Odds/duo_zpscce52b86.jpg

The Thanet charger - I know Shan said you had a new car but I wasn't expecting it to be that "special"

ROOG

I came from sports hybrid to road bikes because of improved comfort. Variable position on road bike bars improved things greatly for me. 

 Try before you buy if at all possible

BigMonka

The term 'hybrid' is a ridiculously broad term. Given your background I'd suggest you look for a flat bar road bike kind of hybrid, that's the opposite end of the spectrum to a hard tail mtb. But if you've got back problems (sorry to hear about the accident!) then you'll definitely need to try before you buy ad the differences in geometry between bikes is very big - some wouldn't be any different to riding with your hands on the tops of your road bike.

Travisthedog

Agreed MTB geometry sucks on the road for me

There seem to be hybrids that are a little more mtb than road bike

Evilmags

Specialised Syrus was my commute bike in London. Pretty much fits the description of what your after. Worth trying an endurance bike with straight bars as well. The geometry is more back friendly than a racer.

Travisthedog

Evilmags;493351" said:

Specialised Syrus was my commute bike in London. Pretty much fits the description of what your after. Worth trying an endurance bike with straight bars as well. The geometry is more back friendly than a racer.

What's and endurance bike mate??

meltedbuzzbox

use a car and stop getting in the damn way on the road.

And please dont wear lycra, it makes you look like a bellend

Apologies I hate cyclists

xmrchi

Sorry to hear about the accident, it's good to hear you came out of it alive and relatively well (I worked in a and e and a 35moh cycle accident could have been a hell of a lot worse! I have seen it! )

Kona do some fantastic light hybrids, Road gearing, flat bars and road wheels,

I'm currently riding a single speed, that's erm interesting!

Evilmags

An endurance bike is a road bike built for rougher roads and longer distances. Favored by the over 45 lycra crowd as the geometry is less taxing than a racer. They are not as stiff and tend to be a lot more comfortable than racers. Crossmax frames are similar.

Travisthedog;493425" said:

[quote="Evilmags;493351"]

What's and endurance bike mate??

thermionic

Have you looked at so-called Sportive bikes? They have a longer than normal head tube that places the bars higher up (relative to the saddle). A couple of cm of spacers under the stem will help as well. I see some riders on bikes set up like this who look more upright than I am at my desk! I don't think flat bars are necessarily better in this scenario, drop bars would be equally as good (better actually, as you have a much wider choice of hand positions, change around to relieve any stress from being in one position for too long).

underdog

meltedbuzzbox;493441" said:

use a car and stop getting in the damn way on the road.

And please dont wear lycra, it makes you look like a bellend









Apologies I hate cyclists

so you hate a large amount of people on this forum due to how they chose to commute, keep fit or have fun?

stimpsonslostson

OOFT! I've come off a couple of times, but generally at low speeds & thankfully no serious problems.

I currently ride a hub geared hybrid (road bike isn't an option)- due to a combination of Cobbles, my need for a pannier and also the fact that I carry my daughter to nursery on a WeeRide seat. 

It's brilliant, if slow- I've replaced the brake blocks and chain, that's it. Once she's big enough for her own bike, I want a recumbent! 

Anyone ride one of THOSE?! supposedly they're FAST & VERY comfy.

Jalapeno

meltedbuzzbox said:

use a car and stop getting in the damn way on the road.

And please dont wear lycra, it makes you look like a bellend

Please don't wear Lycra as we have to look at your bell-end !

Axe_meister

I've got a Trex mountain bike with two sets of wheels. One set with off road tyres and gearing and another set with road tyres and gearing.