Recreational & Family - Can I ask a hybrid question here?

I've been having back pain with my road bike and have tried adjustments ad nauseum. It looks like the old body has just given up after years of reckless abuse. I've been thinking of ditching the drop bars and trying one of the newer "flatbar road bikes". I know I lose some aero-ness but I'm more interested in fitness than quickness anyway. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts between: The Specialized Sirrus series, the Trek 77-7500 FX, or the Kona Dr. Dew??

Originally posted by stohler
Does anyone have any experience or thoughts between: The Specialized Sirrus series, the Trek 77-7500 FX, or the Kona Dr. Dew??

Actually I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on this too. My wife doesn't really like her hardtail MTB. She doesn't want to go MTBing anyways. I had her try out a roadbike but she didn't like the fact that you can't brake from the tops. She doesn't want to ride the hoods or the drops and her last experience with drop-bars was on a "10-speed" with those horrid brake-lever extensions. She also doesn't really want suspension because she doesn't like the feeling of the bike bouncing around so I'm thinking my choices are as follows:

MTB Solution
----------------

[1] Replace her front fork with a rigid fork.

[2] Replace her front fork with one with lockout or an air-fork that you can pump up really high... in the event she would ever want the suspension again, she could reset the pressure or turn off the lockout. This is probably a silly solution.

Additionally I am thinking of also replacing her 2.1" tyres with semi-slicks since she'll be using the bike mostly for roads anyways.


RB Solution
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Buy her the roadbike and swap out the controls and handlebars for flatbars and appropriate brake/shifters... or buy one that's already set up that way. I know Klein makes a bike like this... any others?


Hybrid Solution
-------------------

Get her a hybrid but one without a suspension seatpost or suspension fork.

Anyone have any recommendations?

I feel your pain.

Two quick stupid questions:

1.- Is you handlebar as high as your seat.

2.- Are you doing any back strengthening exercises? Like with weights?

I have only one good spot on my back, and there is a slipped disc there (it just doesn't hurt). And in an effort to not feel the pain I have raised my drop style handle bars higher and higher until the pain went away.
Rivendellbicycles.com has some excellent comments on raising your handlebars

Before I went out and got a new road bike I went down this road.

The 3 I had it narrowed to were:

Jamis Coda - Change the crank to a road triple and this baby is the head of the class

Trek 7500 FX great fitness rig as is.

Fuji Silhouette which comes out of the box as close to a road as you can get witout drops.

My $.02 USD

Originally posted by tourist

Fuji Silhouette which comes out of the box as close to a road as you can get witout drops.


The Silhouette looks perfect. And luckily my FBS (Favourite Bike Shop... they used to be an LBS) just started carrying Fujis this year. I'll ring them up and ask them if they have any Silhouettes. Now... to get my wife in there to try them out. She's afraid of bike shops for two reasons:

[1] She thinks they'll make fun of her because she's a newbie.

[2] She sees the charges on the credit card bill as a result of me just going near one.

The Trek 7700FX is a nice bike. I've had one for several months and had no problems with it.

Get something that you can be comfortable with. If you hurt, you won't ride.

i have a Trek 7600FX that I use mainly for commuting. I didn't do a whole lot of longer riding on it, but I still put more than 2k on it in the last year. I've never had any comfort complaints with it, even over nasty boston roads.

Thanks for your thoughts everyone, especially you D*alex, you're a big help. So basically I'm having the same issues as many of your wives are having.....that's not good. I've been through all the adjustments, etc....it's still painful. Now I see for 2003, you can buy the lower end Trek bies with flat bars!?! I'm not sure I see where they fit in relation to their 77-7500FX series. Hmmmmm. Me thinks it's time for a major road test. Hey,a s long as I'm riding, does it really matter to the road snobs what it is??

Your profile does not say if you are a woman.....You have to tell us about sex...we tend to forget.:rolleyes:

If you are F then you can very possibly be stretched to far on the bike....frame are all made for men, and it can be a b1tch adjusting to fit.

If you had trouble with your back on a drop bar roadie, you'll probably have similar difficulties with a flat bar hybrid. The geometry isn't all that different as you're still shifting your weight forward. There are 3 options:

1. Back and ab strengthening exercises to evenly distribute weight to pedals, bars and center;

2. Riser bars with "comfort" bike stem and geometry to give you a truly upright ride i.e., Trek Navigator. You can always throw some slicks on it and some road pedals with a more functional seat. Or a bike with similar upright geometry with 700cm tires would be great;

3. Recumbant bike.

Whether you get a flat or a riser bar, it's nice to get some bar ends to give your hands comfortable options. Good luck.

I would think, as someone already mentioned, that regardless of bar type, you probably need to raise your bar. If you have a threadless fork you can get risers that allow you to raise the stem up to 3 inches. You may also need a shorter stem. The risers I have seen were 1 1/8". If you have a 1" steerer you can use a shim. Nashbar has an adjustable ATB stem (threadless) that goes from something like -10 to +50 degrees. You might start there.

I have a Trek 7500 FX... and I love it!! I ride it constantly and even join a group of 15 true roadies on the weekend. I can hang in the draft but can't pull at all! I always get comments like "what kind of bike is that?" or " Hey man have you thought about buying a road bike?" I love it! Just got hooked up with some look pedals and some shoes so now I am really lovin' it!

Sporty Hybrid bikes often emulate the position of the drops. Take a tape measure to ensure you get what you want to in terms of position. Some sport hybrids suffer from pedal overlap at the front wheel, and check the clearance for tyres and fenders, there should be plenty of room for a 28 to 32 sized tyre with fenders.
Whilst you are looking at new bikes, dont forget to check out a light touring model. Since you may be looking at the Jamis Coda, check out the Aurora for a good specimen.

I use drops on a light touring bike, but with a short 8cm stem, and set just below the saddle. Its nothing like a racing position, and I find it pretty comfortable.


Khuon
For roadifyling an MTB, you should fit some decent 1.5" slicks. My touring partner split her 2.1" knobbly, so I persuaded her to change, and she was so impressed with the extra speed. We were riding road and trails, carrying a hostelling load, so dont worry about on-trail performance.

Most good bike shops have a couple of ridgid forks lying around from suspension conversions. MTB ridgids (like hybrid forks)can be pretty heavy compared to good steel road forks, but it may be worth trying. The only way to get a quality 26" ridgid fork is to order one from a frame-builder.

A well roadified MTB compared well to a hybrid. There is little reason to go to larger wheels if you fit good tyres. In the UK, many touring riders are converting from 700c to lightweight 26" wheeled touring bikes.

Before buying a new bike I would suggest trying three modifications to the bike you have now:

first - get a stem with a shorter / higher extention.

second - move your saddle as far back as possible. This may require an even shorter stem and will certainly require you to lower the saddle slightly.

third - get 175mm crankarms (if you are tall enough to use them). This will allow you to lower the saddle by 5 mm and open up your body angle a little.

rasie/lower stem, excercise back, stretch hamstrings a lot(sore hamstrings cause back pain) and buy a less stiff fork

If anyone's interested I'm trying to sell my 2001 Specialized Sirrus Sport (Shimano Deore) 700 x 26 wheels. Size: Small.

Bike has about 200 miles on it...it was purchased on May of this year (5 months ago). I absolutely love the bike, but I just love my Fuji Roubaix a little more :p

Price $350 firm.

An 01 or 02 Sirrus Pro is pretty light, has road gearing and the seating postion is not bad. It works well for me but what works for me position-wise may not work for you. Try some out and see what happens.:beer:

I have a Sirrus.
Nimble, pretty bike. No complaints. Ok, one. Hand probs. So I got a stem riser, raised the handlebars and added bar ends. Recently finished a metric. Going for a full English in three weeks.

Got the 2003 model for $475.

I've got a Sirrus Pro, came with 700x23 tires and carbon fork. I bought it for commuting. First thing I did was turn the handlebar stem upside down and swapped the crappy Specialized seat for a Terry Fly, otherwise it is working out great for what I intended. $1100

I found that the seat worked pretty well for me, considering I had close to 20 years of not riding. Hey, everyone's ass is different, right?
:beer:

was having similar problem, went for the Fuji Royale, carbon fork, 105 triple chain, , Ritchey wheels and pedals for under $1,000 and it weighs in at just over 20 pounds

I saw a pretty interesting bike a couple of days ago while at the LBS buying new tyres (could those GP3000s be any more expensive?!?!). It was a Specialized Sequoia (yes, I know it's a recycled name). Anyways, I guess it's considered a performance tourer or drop-handled hybrid... meant to compete with the Cannondale Road Warrior is what the bike shop folks told me. It has traditional drop bars, a geometry between a hybrid and a roadbike and most interesting of all... mountain bike style brake levers wired inline with the brifters. I'm not talking about those goofy lever extensions they used to put on cheapo 10-speeds. These levers actually pulled the same cable (in serial) as the hood mounted levers. Very interesting since I'm still on the lookout for a roadbike for my wife and her real complaint about roadbikes is that she couldn't brake from the tops.

Hey Cadd,

You selling your Sirrus? I just sold mine as well. After buying my Lemond Zurich I never road the Sirrus anymore so I traded it for a 2003 Specialized Stumpjumper.

The flat bar road bikes are great for fitness riding but if someone wants to ride with a group of roadies forget it. I road the Sirrus for about 6 months and it was nice, however when I started riding with a regular group I had a real hard time keeping up.

So if you are looking for comfort and fitness it is the way to go.

How about a Cannondale Bad Boy or a Bad Boy Ultra? The Bad Boy is much more affordable and is a rigid mountain bike, with 26" rims with road slicks mounted on them. The Bad Boy Ultra adds a better frame (CAAD 4), disc brakes and a lockout front shock. And with the Barbeque (matte black) finish they look coooooooool :)

Rob

You may have seen me post pics of my Jamis in other areas of this forum, but I just can't resist. This is one awesome bike for the price. I will step out and say it is probably the best all rounder offered right now, as NOTHING on this bike is cheap for the money spent. I have a little over 700 miles on it since mid-July and have no complaints, though I did change the seat, tires, and add bar ends.