giant hybrid
 

quick post does anyone have giant hybrid just like your thoughs on them.;)

I just took my Sedona to the bike shop to be put on Ebay. It served its purpose for three years. The wheels are cheap they needed truing often. The seat post clamp assembly is ummm very cheap. The strong point about this bike were the shifters. They stayed spot on year after year. If had to do it over again I probably would have went with an entry level Specialized stumpjumper.

Which hybrid do you mean? Giant doesn't sell anything that they call a hybrid. There's the FCR series, which are basically flat bar road bikes. There's the Cypress, which is a comfort bike with 700c wheels, and the Sedona, another comfort bike with 26 inch wheels. Any of these three could be called a hybrid, I guess.

I have a Cypress.... just purchased it in January. I like it, but then again I am 49 yrs old, getting back into cycling after a 20 yr layoff... I do not plan on doing any mountain biking so it suits my needs. I was looking for a comfortable bike. I "inherited" a Cannondale M500 but it is too big for me and very uncomfortable... too tall and I was bent over way too much causing back pain. The Cypress is truly a comfort bike for an old guy like myself!

I have a 2003 Rainier that I bought new and hybridized it. Trekking bars, larger chainrings, smaller cassette, rigid forks and new saddle (although the stock saddle was adequate). It's worth spending a little extra dough to get better components, then make it your own by customizing it. Love the Giant (and the Raleigh!)

My roommates have the FCR3 and they love them. I have ridden them a number of times and they are very comfortable and efficient commuters. In fact, they were what inspired me to upgrade in bikes from my Specialized Hardrock to a Surly Cross-Check. I would say that the FCR3 is a very good choice in the hybrid bicycle world.

I have an '03 Giant Cypress DX which I commute 11 miles a day on. I like it, and I only have had to true the wheels once.

Until January when it was stolen from the locked storage area of my basement, I had an '06 Cypress DX. It was my first bike after 35 years. It served me well for 3,800 miles of mainly commuting.

It was clearly not intended as a four-seasons bike, nor for even the wet weather. No fender mounts. I made due with the strap-on ones from Planet Bike. That did nothing for the wheels though. The hoops were a fairly soft aluminum which ground away from braking in the wet and snow. After its first winter, the braking surface was distinctly concave and the wheels made me nervous. Rather than replace the wheels I bought a different bike for commuting.

As a fair weather bike, it's just fine. When there's rain or snow in the forecast, leave it home. (Which explains why it was in my storage locker.)

I haven't owned any of the more current Giants, but I have two that date from the late '80s early '90s. To me Giant bikes have always been a good value for the money. YMMV and I am sure there are others brands out there too.

Aaron:)

Doesn't a comfort bike with 700c wheels = a hybrid?

I've currently got 13,500 miles on a Giant Cypress.

The major issue was that the wheels are cheap. I started breaking spokes on the rear at about 500 miles and I broke and replaced nearly 20 before giving up and building a new rear wheel. That cost me about $45 for a new rim and DT butted spokes, and that wheel has now run about 12000 miles with no problems.
The front ran fine up to about 12000 miles. Then I built a new wheel to do disc brakes. The front is just as cheap but didn't get beat up as bad. However, it was within a couple thousand miles of dying anyway due to the rim brakes eating it away.

I ride 8 miles a day on quite rough gravel, so someone riding smooth pavement may not have these issues. However, every spoke break was at the elbow, so it seemed like it was unloading stress due to a bad build, not impact stress.

I've replaced the cranks/chainrings, but that's because I stripped the pedal threads. I replaced the rear derailler at about 10000 miles, the wheels were worn down to no teeth (due to all the sand and dirt I get in the chain on all those gravel roads no doubt). I go through chains pretty quickly for the same reason. I've been through two freewheels due to not changing the chain in time.

I just put a Brooks saddle on it; the cheapo saddle it came with did 13000 miles. I could still ride it I think, just the outer fabric has started to peel back, but I wanted to get a Brooks anyway.

I did have trouble keeping the seat post up where I wanted; it wouldn't stay out over the washboarded gravel. Eventually I got it tight enough and it's stayed put.

I'm still riding it and don't have any real plans to replace it. Apart from the rear wheel, I've not had any trouble that I would attribute to the bike not being what I paid for.

If I had to do it over I wouldn't get anything with front suspension. I'm not a weight weenie, but that's unnecessary even for me on rough gravel, IMHO.

Bought a Cypress about a year (and 3000 miles) ago and I'm beating the cr*p out of it -- poor quality roads and about 25-33% on dirt roads/trails. Oh, and it's not unusual that I've got panniers/rack trunk/handlebar bag full of stuff.

I don't know if Giant has changed names or designations, but it was sold as a "hybrid" when I bought it.

My suspicion is that the wheels are (as always has been the case) better or worse able to stay in true depending on how stringent the vendor's prep is. When I was wrenching, we would never send wheels out of the shop "as is" from the factory. Prestressed, re-trued, stressed again, then trued again. My wheels are still running within my comfort/tolerance level after being ridden loaded on poor surfaces.

Also, don't know what may have changed with models, but mine's got rack/fender mounts brazed on.

It use it like a pick-up truck (it weighs about 45 pounds before I put library books or groceries or what ever on it). . . so my expectations of it are pretty modest for "performance" on the typical roadie dimensions.

Shortest answer, I think, is: if it got stolen, it was cheap enough I wouldn't be despondent (unlike my late '70s-era steel roadie -- custom built, Chris Pauley) and I'd go out and buy another pretty much right away. It's a really good daily jump-on and ride-off sort of a bike.

There's fender mounts on my Cypress- I'm currently using SKS fenders- work great. My Giant has held up well against the lovely pot-holed roads here in MN.

I had a Cypress with only about 2,000 miles on it. The wheels are not great, they needed truing every couple weeks. I'm pretty small (113 lbs.) , so if I'm banging wheels up that badly I can't imagine what a nightmare they would be for someone heavier than me. I rode it for short commutes with fenders, lights, rack. It was a great city bike, and could carry heavy loads well without getting all squirrelly.

I scrapped the frame after winter salt and nasty weather made a hole in the chainstay big enough to make it unrideable. (That was a result of my neglect and poor maintenance, not the bike's fault.) I'm currently using the wheels and crank on an old Raleigh mixte that I built up and hybridized as a winter beater. Since I've been using them on that bike, they haven't needed truing once. I can't explain it.

Hybrid is a poorly defined term.

As I understood it, a hybrid was originally supposed to combine some features of a mountain bike (brakes, flat bars and somewhat more upright posture) with other features of a road bike (light weight, skinny tires,).

But nowadays the definition seems to have stretched a lot. People also call certain bikes with 26" wheels a hybrid, and also bikes like the Giant FCR and the Specialized Sirrus, which might be better described as flatbar road bikes.

I had a Giant Sedona, and I can back up the cheap wheels discussion. Separately, the geometry just Did Not Work for me; a bike thief stole it, and it ended up being a really positive experience.

I have a Giant Suede 7 speed that I ride as often as I can through dirt, gravel, but mostly pavement. It has a very relaxed geometry like a cruiser. I tried the Sedona but it felt too cramped up for some reason. I love to ride it everywhere. Have put a rack on it and find it suits my terrain, slightly hilly in places but usually flat. It feels solid compared to some other brands I tried. Weighs about 32 pounds.

giant hybrids
 

thanks everone for all your replies.tsl great information,i have a giant crs 3.0 hybrid.I went to a bike shop and rushed my purchase a little bit.What i should have done and hope anyone else does is go to a few shops and think adout want you really want.The other bike shops i went to told me that maybe i should have spent a bit more and upgraded to a crs 2.5 or higher.The wheels and gears are stronger:eek:and more robust.I plan to cycle to work every day(round trip of 15 miles) done it a few times.weather bad bad at the moment.On a brighter note this is my first bike in oops 20 years.I find the lightness and gear changes a delight,and hills even big hills ok conpared to my old racing steel bike.Or mayby it was such a long time ago i can not remember correctly.I hope that i will not have problems with the weels getting out off place and not regret spending more money.If i had to up grade the wheels is it a big job,expencive or would i be better off selling and buying a new bike.Once again thanks for everyones advice:)

Yup. The frame's noodly, the components are crap, but the CroMo frame takes the sort of abuse that can land you in the hands of protective services in some states. It's also about 15 years old, so probably not really relevant to your current search. ;)

But if you see one from that vintage on Craigs, grab it for $50 and treat it like crap. ;)

If you like the bike as much as you say you do, it will probably be worth it to replace the wheels when or if you ever have to. But they are kind of pricey.

Glad you're having so much fun. It's a great way to travel! :)

Depends. If you build your own, it's cheap. I only had to do the rear wheel, and it took only about 3 hours (it was my first wheel build, I went by Sheldon Brown's instructions) and cost about $45 for the rim and spokes (I reused the hub).
I've never bought a wheel so I don't know what it would cost. I would expect that a good, carefully hand built wheel would probably cost more than $100. Maybe if you find someone at an LBS who likes building wheels and you're not in a hurry, you could get them to do the build for you for $50 or so, I don't know.

I've got a Giant Tran Send LX, which has been pretty good so far. I commute only about 4 miles each way to work, and have only owned the bike for about a month. The rack on the back is great, I have an Ortlieb office bag that I hook onto it to carry my laptop, lunch, etc. So far I haven't had any major problems; the chain broke once, but I think that was my fault. The bike was just a hair over $500, and is my first bike since I was a kid. Overall, I've been quite happy with it.

My Nutra's pushing 20,000 miles. I replaced the wheels at about 12,000 when I got the Xtracycle on.

I had a Giant Sedona for a few years. Sure, it's not the greatest bike out there, but it held up to a lot abuse. A good bike to start off with I think. Not too expensive, so you won't be discouraged from tinkering and learning some bike mechanics. I griped and complained about it all the time, but after I got a new bike, the Giant became my beater and that's when I started to love the thing. I didn't care at all about it and that gave me the freedom to ride anywhere at anytime. When I got my folder I had to make room and donated the Giant to Goodwill. Someone bought it because I see it on the roads once in a while.

I have a 2003 Giant Rincon SE, which is actually a mountain bike - low-end for sure, but it has been surprisingly reliable. I did replace the crap SR suspension fork with steel forks from Nashbar, and put a set of Performance FasTrak kevlar-belted tires on it, and swapped out the bars for a mustache bar, but nothing has ever broken or bent, despite being relatively cheap. I commute 20 miles/day, 8 of which are on gravel/dirt and it's still holding up well.