Entry level Ladies Hybrid

bbam

Hi folks..
Looking to choose a bike for the bike to work scheme...

My wife is looking to replace a 16-17 year old heavy steel framed mountain bike..

Looked through previous threads and Trek & Giant brands seem to be recommended alot so we looked at both..

At the moment this is the type of bike we've settled on..
http://www.mycycle.ie/Giant-Escape-City-3-Womans-2014-p/gec3w.htm

Specifically choosing the model with the mudgards (maybe that makes us old)

The question I'd have is will this be OK on non tarmac paths. We don't do any serious off road stuff but do visit forest park trails over the summer, the likes of Gossford near Armagh is what I'm thinking of.. Don't want to be tortured with puntures, and the fuss associated !!

Please feel free to recommend similar/better bikes for ~€500
Particularly something light as possible...

Thanks..

rollingscone

bbam wrote: »

Hi folks..
Looking to choose a bike for the bike to work scheme...

My wife is looking to replace a 16-17 year old heavy steel framed mountain bike..

Looked through previous threads and Trek & Giant brands seem to be recommended alot so we looked at both..

At the moment this is the type of bike we've settled on..
http://www.mycycle.ie/Giant-Escape-City-3-Womans-2014-p/gec3w.htm

Specifically choosing the model with the mudgards (maybe that makes us old)

The question I'd have is will this be OK on non tarmac paths. We don't do any serious off road stuff but do visit forest park trails over the summer, the likes of Gossford near Armagh is what I'm thinking of.. Don't want to be tortured with puntures, and the fuss associated !!

Please feel free to recommend similar/better bikes for ~€500
Particularly something light as possible...

Thanks..

1. Pick up a second hand aluminium hybrid. Use that.

2. Use her bike to work to buy something better after she figures out what she wants to do.

The Escape is a great little bike but there are tonnes of them knocking around second hand for around €200-250.

Really it's not a bike to blow your btw on even if your wife never gets into any form of sports cycling, she's likely to learn about better shinier things once she starts using her aluminium hybrid and experience what's known as 'btw regret syndrome' it may be for a road bike, it may be for a mountain bike, it may just be for a guccier city/leisure bike, but it will come.

And an escape should be grand on those non technical paths with decent tyres.

bbam

rollingscone wrote: »

1. Pick up a second hand aluminium hybrid. Use that.

2. Use her bike to work to buy something better after she figures out what she wants to do.

The Escape is a great little bike but there are tonnes of them knocking around second hand for around €200-250.

Really it's not a bike to blow your btw on even if your wife never gets into any form of sports cycling, she's likely to learn about better shinier things once she starts using her aluminium hybrid and experience what's known as 'btw regret syndrome' it may be for a road bike, it may be for a mountain bike, it may just be for a guccier city/leisure bike, but it will come.

And an escape should be grand on those non technical paths with decent tyres.

In fairness she knows what she wants..
The mountain bike is too heavy and not really needed as we don't do any hard off road paths...
We cycle with kids 90% of the time so speed isnt a requirment..
€500 is the limit we decided for the BTW scheme...

Thanks for the input..
We were just wondering if it would be prone to punctures on basic forest type trails..

rollingscone

Again, that'd be more to do with the tyres, you can always change them out, but generally as long as you're keeping the pressure in them ok, you're unlikely to have problems.

If your wife doesn't mind the slightly more sluggish handling you can also put a substance called Slime into the tubes which helps reduce the risk of punctures (Basically it gets pushed into any leaks in the tube and seals them).

bbam

Thanks..
we'll be visiting the bike shop for a snoop around and I'll talk to the lads about tyres then and if upgrading them is a good idea then I'll go with that..

Is there anywhere online to see the weights of a bike like that, their website skirts around it which worries me a bit..

rollingscone

Some reviews might mention it, but my wife finds my escape 2 (which is probably a bit heavier than from the shop due to racks, mudguards, heavier seatpost etc) plenty light for her purposes.

Compared to a nearly 20year old Steel MTB I can't see anyone having issues with the weight on an Escape.

smacl

bbam wrote: »

Thanks for the input..
We were just wondering if it would be prone to punctures on basic forest type trails..

My wife picked up a previous version of the Giant Escape about four years ago, and it has been a reliable bike, working well on Coilte tracks on holidays. From memory we paid about €370 from CSS at the time for a basic 24 speed version. The standard tyres are heavy but quite robust.

fits

I have a trek fx and it is the same sort of bike. It is very light and handy. Have cycled a bit on light gravel but nothing rougher than that.

bbam

fits wrote: »

I have a trek fx and it is the same sort of bike. It is very light and handy. Have cycled a bit on light gravel but nothing rougher than that.

I poped into a local dealer yesterday, they don't carry the Giant range any more but I looked at a Trek7 and it seemed nice, really light bike. The dealer said that in that price range (€500) that the Trek was about as light and reliable as could be got... €475 + 25 for mudgards + €20 for a stand.
Said punctures on "light" off road paths would be fine as long as we werent bouncing over rocks and stuff..

fits

bbam wrote: »

I poped into a local dealer yesterday, they don't carry the Giant range any more but I looked at a Trek7 and it seemed nice, really light bike. The dealer said that in that price range (€500) that the Trek was about as light and reliable as could be got... €475 + 25 for mudgards + €20 for a stand.
Said punctures on "light" off road paths would be fine as long as we werent bouncing over rocks and stuff..

Which model is it? Is it 2013 or 2014?

rollingscone

Do you really need a stand?

They're generally only used for city riding (I'd question how often they're used in that context nowadays when everyone has to lock their bike to something. From the type of use you've described it sounds like excess weight/cost for little or no benefit.

fits

I wouldn't be without a stand. But then using the wheel lock is sufficient on a free standing bike where I live (and covered by insurance)

Ironlungs

My wife cycles a trek 7, as do I. Lovely bikes for your purposes. It is nice and light, components are good. I cycled mine for the first year with no issues, building fitness and grew my average speed from 21 kph to 24 kph on 20-60km runs. I then swapped out the tires (bontragers, 32 mm - good tires that never punctured) for gatorskins in 28mm. Speed jumped by 2 kph to 26kph, and with another 6 months of training, I'm up to around 27kph. Ride is nippier, more agile and more responsive with skinnier slicks, and still no punctures.

But yeah, nice bike, my wife likes it although she does think that a variety of hand positions (ie, drops) would be nice sometimes. Great for cruising around and family cycles etc.