newbie shopping for hybrid

[kerryhb]

I just bought a 2009 Trek...I am loving it so far:

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I agree- Trek and Kona both make excellent hybrids that are well thought out, better made than most Walmart-type bikes, yet still pretty affordable.

[badgercat]

Well... I went to my local Trek store today, and fell in love. I wound up getting the 7.2FX WSD with a 17" frame and the standard top tube. Haven't had much of a chance to ride it yet beyond the many parking-lot-laps I did before I bought it (it's 5pm here and it's still 100F outside...no thanks!), but my boyfriend and I might go for a spin on some roads early tomorrow morning. If we do, I'll let you know how it goes, and maybe take some pictures of my new wheels. My boyfriend just ordered a new Cannondale cyclocross bike, a gift from his lawyer-dad (while SOME of us pay for grad school and bicycles ourselves...). It won't be in until next week, though, so I can hog the "shiny new bicycle" glory for myself for a few days.

THANK YOU to everyone for your opinions and advice and making me feel welcome!

[uforgot]

I agree- Trek and Kona both make excellent hybrids that are well thought out, better made than most Walmart-type bikes, yet still pretty affordable.

Huh? Have you looked at hybrids? These are not just one step above Wal-Mart bikes. The Trek 7.9fx is a carbon bike with Shimano 105 and Ultegra. Costs about $2500. You can get a verrrrrrrry nice hybrid and even the bottom ones start at $500, still outfitted with Shimano. Pretty close to prices on road bikes you can get from Trek and Specialized.

Better made than MOST Wal-Mart bikes???? Wow, that statement is so wrong...

[wackyjacky1]

Congrats on your 7.2FX WSD. That's what I have, and I love it. (Hated the handlebars, though; they killed my wrists. Swapped 'em out for moustache bars.)

[Zen]

(Hated the handlebars, though; they killed my wrists. Swapped 'em out for moustache bars.)

Looks like you hated the dreaded stock Bontrager saddle too
Is that a Brooks?

[wackyjacky1]

Looks like you hated the dreaded stock Bontrager saddle too
Is that a Brooks?

Yup, it's a Brooks (B68). Best bicycle-related investment I've ever made. My tokhes loves that thing!

badgercat, love the pics!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Huh? Have you looked at hybrids? These are not just one step above Wal-Mart bikes. The Trek 7.9fx is a carbon bike with Shimano 105 and Ultegra. Costs about $2500. You can get a verrrrrrrry nice hybrid and even the bottom ones start at $500, still outfitted with Shimano. Pretty close to prices on road bikes you can get from Trek and Specialized.

Better made than MOST Wal-Mart bikes???? Wow, that statement is so wrong...

Put on some soothing music.
The original poster asked if anyone could recommend any hybrids in the $500 range.
So, Trek makes these hybrids, some of which start around $350, I see them in stores, and yes they are definitely an improvement and better made from the typical $300 Walmart bike, which is what I said:
http://www.google.com/products?num=2...num=4&ct=title
http://revolutioncycles.com/itemlist.cfm?pageId=91
I wasn't referring to a top of the line $2500 carbon Trek when I said they were "better made than most Walmart-type bikes, yet still pretty affordable". However I am not thoroughly familiar with all the bikes Walmart might sell, so I wouldn't want to make a sweeping statement condemning all of them sight unseen. The word "most' will suffice.

Badgercat has apparently bought a 7.2FX Trek which retails for I think about $450-500 perhaps?
A smart choice for her riding plans, and I'm sure she'll LOVE this great bike!
BadgerC- we want PICTURES!

P.S. WackyJacky- that Brooks saddle looks beautiful on your bike!

[badgercat]

BleeckerSt_Girl, as far as pics goes, my boyfriend and I are going to do a 20-ish mile ride tomorrow morning on some streets and a bike path by a river, so I'll try to remember to snap a few shots of it in some scenic situations tomorrow. He suggested we go hiking tomorrow since both of his bikes currently have the wheels off, and his preferred bike has a thrown spoke, and I told him I would not stand for buying a bike and then spending the following day hiking, so he could either suck it up or spend the day alone !

wackyjacky, your mods look really nice! The brown saddle especially seems to complement the blue. The handlebars are a little bit of a concern for me too--my old mtb had totally straight across bars and when I was just cruising down the street I would often wind up kind of setting my hands on top of the bars in a more neutral position... not the safest habit, I know. So we'll see how this goes. I may also wind up swapping out the bars in the future. So far my only "mods" have been a bottle cage and a kick-stand (my boyfriend always jokes about not having a kickstand being the ultimate performance enhancement, but I'll take that expense for not knocking over my bike every time I try to open the gate to my apartment complex. ).

And an aside about storage...I live in grad student apartments on campus, and the rules are kind of stringent--including no bikes in the apartments. I figured it'd be safe enough locked to our racks, since they're inside the gated complex that you normally need to swipe an ID and punch in a PIN to get into. Then, I was wandering around this afternoon and saw some rooms labeled "BIKE" and asked at the office... they're locked rooms with a bike rack inside (could probably fit 8 bikes) that any resident can use, but not everyone thinks to ask about since there are so many racks outside, and the first one I checked only had 3 bikes in it! Guess where I put my new baby immediately! Plus it'll be protected from the HOT Arizona sun, and the torrential downpours during monsoon season. I'm so pleased that I can keep her inside... I'm all about sharing, but I hope not TOO many other people figure out the bike room thing, because I'd sure like to keep that spot for the year.

[badgercat]

So, I took my new bike for a 20 mile spin yesterday morning! It wasn't 20 miles all at once by any means--we stopped a few times for bathroom breaks, snacks, and water, so the adventure wound up taking over 3 hours. We mostly were on paved roads and a paved path... though the path did have a significant stretch (probably not a mile, but it felt long enough) that was unpaved, kind of sandy and gravelly, and pretty uneven. I freaked out a bit at that point since this is my first bike with skinny-ish tires, but she performed admirably! I bounced clear off my seat once, but for the most part was able to pretty easily navigate around or gingerly over the bumps and never lost control.

I was drained last night, but I feel pretty good today! A little tense in the upper back/shoulders (though that's really not unusual for me) and my sit-bones aren't feeling toooo bad. I'm actually surprised how well that region is feeling, considering I don't have any bike shorts yet and was just wearing regular ol' cotton panties and light cotton shorts. My right wrist is sore (the only thing that was really bothering me DURING the ride, besides my saddle-parts at the very end, were my arms--soreness in my wrists, and just arm fatigue overall.) I'm not sure if I was gripping too hard, if it's a positioning thing, or what... I guess I'll have to spend some more time riding before I figure that one out.

Anyway, on to the pictures! I have a few...

Here's my bike parked near one of the overpasses over the river, which, as you may have noticed, doesn't have much water in it.


My bike and my boyfriend's mtb that he's had since he was like... 10 years old. Boy, is he excited to get his cyclo-cross bike.


The next 4 don't have my bike in them, they're just for fun!
Many of the bridges along the path had fun little mosaics and such at the ends... here's one featuring a Joni Mitchell quote:


I still get really excited whenever I see a lizard outside... I think it'll take me a while to get that lizards are just what they have here, instead of squirrels and chipmunks like I'm used to in the midwest...


Playing around with the macro settings on my camera in the trees... I really like the effect of the sunlight through the leaves.


Finally, here's a woman who rides... horses! It was fun to see someone out in the riverbed giving her horse some good exercise.


We joked about taking a Chicago hold-up style picture at the end, but I was far too wiped out to think of anything but getting lunch at that point.

So... there ya go!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Fantastic!!!

Oh my, it is obvious that you are going to have WAY too much fun on your new sky-blue bike. Thank you for posting such great pictures.

The tires you think are 'skinny' are actually pretty hefty and sturdy- don't worry about a little gravel and pebbles. That's one of the nice things about hybrids.
(Just avoid glass and sharp metal -no matter what kind of tires you have)

Congratulations!