Trekking bycicle with shock aboserbers

spupazza

I'm looking to buy a new bicycle and I don't know which model to choose.
My requirements are:
1- Possibly with sleek tyres, no mountain byke tyres. I'd use it to run about 7km per year, mostly to go to the gym (9km to go and 9 to get back) and I'd like it to be as fast as possible.

2- Mudguards and carrier pack: as often the road is wet, I wouldn't like to get too much dirty, as also the carrier pack is needed for when I go to the gym.

3-Shock absorbers: my current city byke suffers too much when I met holes on the road or I get on/off the sidewalks. Just last week I noticed that one wheel's ray was missing and this week the whole wheen detached when I hit a (not too big) hole on the road.
So I thought (but pls, correct me if I'm wrong) that a bicycle with shock absorbers wouldn't suffet all that.


My max budgets is of 500 euro,and my idea was to buy a bicycle of this kind (but if you have a better suggestion pls do not hesitate):


So I'd like to know if anyone has experience with this kind of bicycles, and could lead me to buy a really good model. Something sturdy that hopefully will last. Pls keep in mind that the quality of the shifter is not important to me, because once I get the one right for me, I never change it.

No Pants

Oh dear, that looks heavy, slow and unnecessary.

StompToWork

Apropos of nothing, but being the nerd that I am, I read the thread title as "Trekking bicycle with Spock absorbers"!!

quozl

spupazza wrote: »

I'd like it to be as fast as possible.

spupazza wrote: »

Shock absorbers:

You can't have those two together. A suspension fork is heavy and absorbs your efforts along with bumps in the road.

How wide are the tyres on your current city bike? You might be better off getting something with a stiff front fork but with fatter tyres. Fatter tyres have a larger volume of air to absorb bumps and can be run at a lower pressure. As it's a circular (vaguely) cross-section volume goes up with the square of the tyre's cross section diameter. So there's a huge difference between a 25mm tyre and a 32mm tyre for example.

What pressure were you running your old tyres at? If they were big but you ran them at an un-necessarily high pressure then that would significantly decrease their shock absorbancy. A 35mm or wider tyre at a nice low pressure would make for a great shock-absorber without the weight of a suspension fork. You're absolutely right about getting smooth tyres not knobbly ones by the way.

spupazza

quozl wrote: »

You can't have those two together. A suspension fork is heavy and absorbs your efforts along with bumps in the road.

How wide are the tyres on your current city bike? You might be better off getting something with a stiff front fork but with fatter tyres. Fatter tyres have a larger volume of air to absorb bumps and can be run at a lower pressure. As it's a circular (vaguely) cross-section volume goes up with the square of the tyre's cross section diameter. So there's a huge difference between a 25mm tyre and a 32mm tyre for example.

What pressure were you running your old tyres at? If they were big but you ran them at an un-necessarily high pressure then that would significantly decrease their shock absorbancy. A 35mm or wider tyre at a nice low pressure would make for a great shock-absorber without the weight of a suspension fork. You're absolutely right about getting smooth tyres not knobbly ones by the way.

Hi, thanks for your reply.
Honestly I never measured the width of the tyres of my bicycle.
They seems standard (something like half-way between mountain bike and racing bike, probably half the width of a mountain bike tyre). Wheels are 28".
Same for the pressure, never measured ,but generally I try to keep the tyres hard (so high pressure) , since with low pressure the bicycle gets very slow and hard to run.
My current bicycle is a Lombardo, like this one (it's not the same model, keep in mind that my bicycle is about 6 years old)
http://www.lombardobikes.com/bikes/trekking/item/81-mirafiori-270



I'm not expecting to have a bicycle fast as a racing one. I'm just looking advice for a good compromise between having the comfort and flexibility of full suspensions and speed. And obviously with the best builtin quality that 500 euros can buy.

quozl

I don't think you can get a decent full suspension bike for 500 euro. I also genuinely don't think that a full suspension bike is the way to go if you're travelling on the road. Especially a cheap full suspension bike.

Here's a chart to give you an idea of proper tyre inflation pressure.
http://problemsolversbike.com/files/blog/BQ_berto_inflationgraph_2.jpeg

Note that the weights are per tyre - so half your+bikes weight.

If your tyres are fat and they're 'hard' then they're probably over-inflated which means they won't work well as shock absorbers - which is one of their main jobs. On the other hand, if they're skinny and they're not hard then you're going to get pinch flats from underinflating them. It's worth finding out the width of your tyres and using the correct pressure. It's probably written on them - something like 700x32c, where the 32 part would be the width in mm.

I hope this doesn't seem too off-topic - basically I think that you can't realistically have what you're asking for and I'm trying to give you a good alternative.

[edit] Can you use the bike-to-work scheme. 500 euro through that would get you a much better bike. A decent hard-tail (ie front suspension) probably[/edit]

C3PO

The bike you have shown an image of would be absolutely awful to ride! Much of your energy will go into compressing the suspension and pushing the excess weight! There is never a requirement for suspension on a road bike, it is totally unnecessary! A suitable tyre will give you all the comfort you need. You will get much better quality within your budget!

spupazza

thanks you guys, you have been very helpful. So it seems that it's all about the choice of the tyre.
And since I'm a heavy rider (about 73kg, +back pack + weight of the bike) I have to get wide tyre.

Can you suggest me what kind of tyres I should buy? Even just an example of the features (starting from the width of such tyres)that would be best for me.

Zen0

I wonder are you cycling your current bike properly. Your comment about never changing gears leads me to suspect you are not (most experienced cyclists would be continually changing gear as the road changes). When you approach a pothole do you just sit on the saddle and let your wheels take the full brunt of your bodyweight? You should be taking a lot of the weight on your legs, slightly bent, just before you hit a pothole, using your legs like shock absorbers. To be fair, the low slung saddle and high handlebars on your current bike doesn't lend itself to that sort of dynamic riding. I suspect your riding style may be a big part of the problem. A properly sized bike with a more dynamic position may help, but you may need to think about your riding style also.

C3PO

spupazza wrote: »

And since I'm a heavy rider (about 73kg, +back pack + weight of the bike) I have to get wide tyre.

Ohh to be 73kgs!!

veetwin

spupazza wrote: »

thanks you guys, you have been very helpful. So it seems that it's all about the choice of the tyre.
And since I'm a heavy rider (about 73kg, +back pack + weight of the bike) I have to get wide tyre.

Can you suggest me what kind of tyres I should buy? Even just an example of the features (starting from the width of such tyres)that would be best for me.

Given that I'm well over 90kg and on 700x23 tyres without a problem I don't think your weight should have any major bearing on your tyre choice.

veetwin

Something like this?

http://www.donedeal.ie/bicycles-for-sale/hybrid-bicycle/6410792

Forget suspension. It's unnecessary in every respect on any bike unless it's a high end mountain bike for actual mountains.