Beginners questions
 

Hi Everyone, new here.
I have some novice bike questions.
My husband and I want to do some light bike riding together, lots of paved trails where we live and maybe a dirt path occasionally.
We don't know what kind of bike to get, I read that hybrids would be good for this kind of riding but when we went to a shop they suggested for us Giant Roam and Rove. My understanding is these have front suspension as opposed to none that you would lock it out on pavement and unlock for mild terrain. Some of the threads I read were talking about the extra weight and people suggested the suspension was mediocre/unecessary for light dirt paths, grass, etc. and that upkeep was more.
Can I get some thoughts on this? Should we consider a regular hybrid without the suspension?
Our price range is at the entry level, we are comfortable in the $400 range (each)
Thanks
Edit: maybe I am confused, the Rove 3 it says LIV? Is that the same as Giant?

Hybrid may be a good choice. Sounds like the riding you both will be doing you wont need a front shock. Or if the bike you like has a shock on it see if it has a lock out lever.

They do have the lock out. I'm wondering do we need the front shock at all? My husband will definitely do some trails, so I guess at least he will want one?
We do like the bikes. Of course my last bike was a huffy and I was 10....lol

For mainly paved roads, I think for Giant, I would look at an Escape 2 or 3 or maybe a Sedona. You could also look at Trek FX Stagger or Verve. If you're not going to be doing any or very little off-road, there's no need for suspension. Visit a few local shops and test ride what they have to get a feel for what you might like. Try a few different brands on for size.

Just adds weight and something else you will have to maintain or repair. Id skip on the shock on lower end bikes. You get what you pay for on a shock.

It's kind of a matter of preference. Do you want to use tires/upper body strength for suspension and have a faster more agile bike.. or be more comfortable over bumps in arm/ shoulders ? Still gonna feel bumps in tail of bike anyways. I personally avoid suspension on my bikes because I do t ride crazy trails and I like a fast lively ride

I see very little point in sus forks on hybrids. Hybrids aren't expected to be ridden hard, so they tend to get rather poor forks with short travel. They don't work for hard riding and they're not needed for casual riding.
IMO only time they add noticeable comfort is on tightly spaced, fairly small ruts and bumps.
I've commuted some on a sus fork hybrid, and the only time I unlocked the fork was on rutted ice. Yesterday's snow with footprints and bike tire tracks in it that had frozen solid over night.
Anything bigger, it's beyond the travel of the fork and you need to soak up the hit with your body anyhow.
And that's the thing really.
There's a reason why it's called RIDING a bike.
You can't sit there like cargo like you do in a car. You have to be active.
So what if the fork compresses an inch or two? You're on hardtails. A fraction of a second later the rear wheel will hit the same bump, and try to buck you out of the saddle.
Spend effort on anticipating the ride, and learning to "go light" instead of spending money and weight on suspension.
Tinker with tire width and pressure.

I tend to agree that on a lower-end bike, a shock hurts more than helps. A shock is pretty expensive, which means on a low-cost bike, everything else has to be as cheap as possible to keep the price down.

Also, as dabac notes, you will still be hitting all the bumps, and if you like to just sit on the bike every one of those bumps will be a solid spanking. Your body will always be the best shock absorber.

For really relaxed riding on mostly smooth trails, suspension won't do much, and for harder riding on bumpy trails (lots of roots, ruts, rocks) cheap suspension won't do much.

If your husband is planning to ride "some trails," he needs to decide if her really plans to ht the mountain bike trails (which tend to be studded with obstacles) or just ride some fire roads and jeep trails.

If he plans to ride jeep trail, a "gravel" bike or a Giant Anyroad or something with even fatter tires would work best.

If he plans to actually try to go fast on MTB trails, he needs to double his budget.

Personally for not very quick rides on mostly paved and always well-groomed dirt trails, I would want a bike which could fit wider, higher-volume tires-something in the 32-38 mm range(inch and 3/4, inch and an eighth.) I'd pump the tires up hard for pavement and let a third of the air out for unpaved paths.

All this advice is for people who plan to do what dabac above calls "RIDING a bike."

There is another kind of "bike riding" which involves sitting planted on the saddle like you are sitting in a car. This is what I see older couples, or married couples with young kids, doing----going slowly, barley above a walking pace, through the neighborhood or down the rails-to-trails chatting and enjoying being outside. Great stuff---way better than watching TV.

If that is the sort of thing you have in mind, then get a bike with a wide saddle, even a suspended saddle (saddle with springs) ---and again forget the shock.

As mentioned, the suspension fork on sub $1000 is pretty much just added weight and they need to use cheaper components elsewhere to pay for the fork. A fork on a sub $500 bike is not going to be a good one anyways, so it's a lose-lose... extra weight and not a "plush" ride.
Concentrate your $$ on a comfortable bike that shifts well. To me, probably nothing discourages riders more than a bike that won't shift properly.

My advice is to shop for a bike shop first. You don't have to patronize the first one that you see and there are more differences among bike shops than there are among bike brands. Since you are looking for superior knowledge and advice, interview the bike shops in your area until you find the one you like best. Once you do that, buy a brand that they carry at a cost point that you can afford and you'll never go wrong.

That said, put me on the list of those who feel that, if you have budget restrictions, spending part of that budget for a suspension fork that really isn't going to do much for you doesn't make very good sense.

+1

I own 3 bikes, all of them are Treks. I bought my first one in 1999 from that shop and have gone there ever since for new bikes, service, advice, etc.

I am surprised the unanimity of advice on this thread, but pretty much agree. The best I can say about them is, they don't suck as badly as they did years ago. Suspension forks are heavy, and don't really add much in the way of performance when when riding on paved surfaces. For broken pavement, rough surfaces, the tires should absorb the excess vibration. For potholes, a suspension fork won't do much anyway, and for other obstructions, just focus on riding around or over them rather than rely on suspension. In a nutshell, you don't need a suspension fork for casual riding, and for more aggressive single track, you would not be going with a $400 retail hybrid. So, if your budget is $400, skip the suspension fork and go with a model with a solid fork. For the same money, you will get a lighter, more responsive bike.

I live by this advice. Out of my family's stable of bikes, only one has a suspension fork, and that is my son's mountain bike which is used exclusively for cross country and single track. If I believed I needed a suspension fork for general riding, I am sure at least a couple of my bikes would have them by now.

Strange I gave advice against a shock when I ride a bike with one. As a truck driver I bought a full size folder for space limitations. Montague X70. My Thunderbolt Grease Slapper do all bke. I keep locked out. May replace with solid fork someday. Maybe replace dang hydraulic brakes first. Always hard to find a bike set up the way you want it.

I'd recommend against suspension for "light bike riding together, lots of paved trails where we live and maybe a dirt path occasionally".

I've installed very ordinary & inexpensive vinyl seats w/coil steel springs on all my city/hybrid upright bikes. The only place I've been able to find them is on line merchants like Niagra & ebay. They usually cost around $15. Don't let the low cost fool you. These are the best seats ever. They soak up all the harsh bumps & vibrations & allow me to ride for hours without being uncomfortable.

Another vote against suspension for your intended riding. Completely unnecessary. It's just dragging extra weight around for no real benefit.

Once you've adjusted the bike to fit you well (very important) it's all about the saddle and tires. A saddle that is right for your bottom and high quality tires will allow you to pedal all day with a smile on your face.

I can't argue with most of the advice here, but I will say that I have a Giant Roam 2 (with suspension fork) and I have really enjoyed it with no problems whatsoever. Yes, it's heavier with the suspension fork, and I mostly keep it locked out with the type of riding I do on paved greenways. But, the times I've really needed it, it was invaluable and I was glad I had it.

So is it worth having? Depends on where you ride and what your personal preferences are. Comes down to, are you willing to put up with the extra weight all the time, for the rare times you will benefit from it, some of the times. I am, because the extra weight doesn't bother me for the type of riding I do (most of the time).

Different strokes for different folks.

I guess I'm the only one who fights the good fight for suspension...

I have a 2002 Giant Sedona LX that has what some of the naysayers here call a "budget" suspension fork; and an 2015 Giant Roam 1 that has the same current-gen Suntour NEX that almost all hybrids with suspension have.

The Sedona is 14 years old with somewhere between 7500 and 10000 km on it. The fork still works like new and has never required service, other than normal cleaning when I wash my bike. It has been completely trouble free, and works *great* for riding rough roads and moderate trails.

The Roam's fork is just as good, probably better in terms of robustness and reliablilty as it has benefited from 14 years of technology advancement, and it also works fantastic for the same kind of riding.

Neither of these bob up and down like "pogo sticks" when not wanted as some will try to have you believe. They don't move at all unless you hit a bump or pavement defect - I posted several videos a while back that prove that point, and it pretty much ended the debate on this point. Frankly, I never lock the front fork, even though the option is there. For the kind of riding that I do which is similar to what you describe, I find no dis-benefit at all in having the suspension on all the time, but rather do enjoy the benefit of dampening the hard jars of potholes and bad pavement joints, as well as washboard and roots on gravel paths that cause shooting pain in my wrists and neck.

As far as added weight goes, it's not significant - the suspension fork weighs about 2kg's, which is only a 1 kg premium or 2lb over any standard fork. You won't really notice that difference, it's only a 1-1.5% premium on total weight of the bike+rider. That is not noticeable for recreational riders.

The suspension forks on these bikes simply work, and work very well for the intended purpose, with very little *real* downside. Most of the negatives mentioned over and over on this board are based largely on myth and opinion.

What it comes down to is personal preference. Do you want a suspension fork or not? No one can answer the question do you need one.

Cheers
TRJB

PS: Liv is Giant's brand for their women's-specific design bikes. Roam and Rove are essentially the same bike but with the Rove having geometry specifically targeted at Women, mostly with lower-entry (easier to step over) top tubes. They are both Giant brands.

+1 on the general advice about not needing shocks for your use. Be aware that shops will sell you what they have. So try some other bike shops.
You can go with wide lower pressure tires and probably get the same effect as a cheap shock with little of the added weight or maintenance. Also, padded bike gloves and a sprung seat or brooks work well if you ride bumpy paths. The advantage in using tires/gloves/seat to address any vibration or bumps in your case, is that it is easily replaced or removed after you have some experience with that bike.

Here's the myth-dispelling videos once again that prove how well these forks work for their intend purpose:


Zero bobbing from the rider's pedal strokes when he is on smooth pavement. Zero - you can see his pedal strokes in the shadows about 1/2 way through the video and there is no unwanted movement.

And this one in particular, watch at about 1m 06s when he goes from the rough trail to the smooth pavement - the fork doesn't bob a single mm on the smooth stuff, but I sure as heck wouldn't want to ride those trails without a suspension fork!


Cheers
TRJB

Real world weight, stock. Hard to say on the Giant, since they don't post bike weights. But take Trek. The FX 2, which retails for about $500 weighs about 25.5 pounds. The entry level dual sport with suspension weighs over 30 lbs. so almost 5 lbs difference. So no, the difference isn't 2 lbs, but closer to 5.

My opinion about suspension forks is mostly from riding them, not just repeating myth. Now, I give you this. Maybe if I owned one of these bikes instead of just renting them, maybe I could set the suspension fork up more to my liking.

Those are two totally different bikes, you can't attribute the whole 5lb difference to the shock... Please use some realistic logic here at least!

Cheers
TRJB

Yes, two different bikes, just like OP is considering. What I am saying is, stock, bike X with suspension fork weighs 4 to 5 pounds more than bike Y without. Can OP swap out crank sets, wheels, tires, and derailleurs to get the weight difference down to 2 lbs? Maybe, but now we are talking about increasing her budget.

I'd say ... whichever bike the OP chooses, if she and her husband ride as described, they will be fine. In fact, I might recommend shocks and padded seats.

If the OP and wife ever really push their bikes ... they will want to upgrade ... but I don't get the feeling that that is what they plan.

I don't recommend suspension for anyone not riding singletrack ... as a rule ... bit there are a Lot of ways and reasons to ride a bike.

If people didn't buy hybrids no one would sell them. Yet ... they are still offered. Someone must like them.

Maybe this couple fall into that class.

Even though we're both fighting the good fight here, I'll have to disagree with you there. In my experience, being locked out (suspension frozen) when climbing is essential. I can tell a big difference in efficiency when it's not. As many hills as I encounter here in Tennessee, I would constantly be switching it back and forth. So, it's better for me to leave it off until absolutely necessary to have it on.