General Cycling Discussion - Its a bird, its a plane, no what is it???

My girlfriend and I enjoy riding 25-30 miles ever other day. We are considering doing some small day trips up and down the coast of California, 40-50 miles at a time.

We are not sure if we should be looking at a cross bike or a road bike or even a touring bike. We want something comfortable to ride, yet is not a tank. We like the more upright position for seeing the sites and being able to keep an eye on traffic. We in Murrieta California. It’s a growing community, so there are diverse riding conditions. Roads can have lots of gravel on them, of they have obstacles. There are areas that have hard packed dirt trails.

We were looking at the Schwinn Sport DBX, the Trek Pilot Flat Bar and the Fuji cross bike. They are all in the 1000.00 price range which is about what we are looking to spend. Maybe less if possible. We dont plan on loading these up like a full on touring bike, we wont be carrying our supplies on any of these trips except for water bottles.

Input and suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!

I like the Cannodale SR500. It is kind of a semi comfortable road bike.

As long as there is not too much gravel, you could run wider tires.

A number of manufactures also build a "trail bike". It's kind of a hybrid I guess. This type of bike will probably be my next bike for riding the local MUPS.

What kind of bikes are you riding now? If you already ride a road bike then a cyclo-cross should be a natural fit for you. If you can find a cross in your budget then I'd go with that over a hybrid.

For the MUPS, I'm happy with my '05 Giand Cypress SX. Giant calls it a comfort road bike, but watch out. The '06 looks a lot more "road", and less "comfort".

At this price point there is a few other flat bar bikes i can think of off the top you could look at.

http://jamisbikes.com/usa/bikes/06_codacomp.html

http://www2.trekbikes.com/bikes/bike.php?bikeid=1343000&f=26

I do comfortable 20-30-50 miles riles on a flat bar. Great bikes, I enjoy them a lot. Feel free to message me with any questions.

My Toy

http://home.pacbell.net/pneil/ti.airborne.jpg

Thank you for the links! I will check these out. I am also looking at the speicalized Sequoia. Anyone have comments on these?

Most (not all) real cyclocross bikes will not have a triple crank and the gearing will not be as low as a touring bike. If you have a hilly ride and you use a triple now, think about the gearing first. A touring bike should have low gearing right from the showroom.

Any kind of bike can have the height of the handlebars changed (rasied) if you like. You can have a drop bar bike with the tops higher than a flat bar bike if you want one. And you still have the option of getting lower in the drops. Straight bars feel more comfortable on a short ride, drop bars feel better on a long ride.
Any of them can be upright, but you may have to pay for that if it's a change. The touring bike will have higher bars to start with.

A touring bike will be less trouble to add on racks, it has all the bolt holes on the frame. But a little heavier than the others. Probably around 26 lb.
Pick your bike by test riding it to get the feel, and finding a shop you like. That's more important than the brand. A road bike is the worst on dirt and gravel. If the roads are not great I would say skip the road bike. There may not be room in the frame on a road bike to put larger tires on it for dirt and gravel. A cross bike will have tires better suited for dirt roads than pavement to start with. This will be a touch slower on the road and a touch better in the dirt.
A touring bike will probably be the most bike for the money (better equipment etc) and possibly below your target price.. It sounds to me like you will be better served with a touring bike. I have all of them, and on a long ride I am most comfortable on my touring bike, as most people are. A real touring bike does have advantages over other bikes if you are doing some touring.