Girlydoll

I had a brand new Mens GIANT Cypress hybrid (antracite/Orange) and I loved it. Sadly it was stolen, so now I am having to buy a new bike less than two months later.

I used my bike to get to and from work (mostly roads) and it was a decent ride, almost clear across the city.

I have been looking around, sadly as it is end of season the picking are slimer but the deals are huge. My local bike stores have GIANT, TREK and SPECIALIZED. Since insurance is covering this, I have approximatly $600 to $800 for my new bike before I replace the accessories that were on it as well (rack, paniers, spedometer etc etc. If it wasn't for the gawd awful colours left I probably would have chosen by now too (Im a girl)

Anyways, so the GIANTS that they have are lesser frames that they can "Modify" to help get me a bike closer to what I had, but I will be loosing my front shocks, and I could loose my seat post shock or my raised handlebar depending on the frame I choose.

The other store isnt a giant retailer and has a SPECIALIZED one that has disc breaks, and front shocks, but its a retro brown (WTF??) and I don't know anything about this brand.

What would be closer to what I had in way of extras (raised bars, shocks etc), and give me added performance, I might as well try for something better since my insurance will be going up because of this!!. FYI GIANT Cypress are sold out in my area, so its not an option.

ColinL

Giant, Trek and Specialized are 3 of the 4 largest dealers in North America. Cannondale is the fourth. So everything you are considering is very mainstream from a reputable major manufacturer.

Despite the great deals, the #1 criteria for buying is that you get a bike that fits you properly. Close behind is that you like the bike.

Besides what is in stores, there are some 2011 still in distributor warehouses. If someone has already looked in the computer and doesn't see the Cypress in your size available at the warehouses then yes they're sold out. If they only considered their own local inventory, however, the story may not be over yet.

Also, how was your bike stolen? I would certainly make changes as necessary to try to prevent that from happening again. Use at least a half-inch / 12mm thick cable that is long enough to go through both wheels, the frame and around a pole, bike rack or other neigh-immovable object.

Girlydoll

Yeah, bottom line, don't think that someone will not hacksaw through your cable in the middle of a busy mall parking lot in front of the store you were in for less than 10 minutes. Impressive, but I will still kick the person to a pulp if I ever find them.

My next bike will have an alarm and a GPS unit on top of at least three top of the line locks each time I walk away from it.

I will get a bike that is right for me, i just want to know what brand is the better of the brands as I never looked outside of Giant before and maybe now is the perfect time to see if I should jump brands.