Not even sure where to start
 

So here it goes, I've been cycling as an adult for about 13 years. In that time I've owned about 5 bikes, including a hard tail mtb, a fuji ace, a raleigh hybrid and a RANS recumbent. Right now I own zero bikes, I sold my recumbent a few months ago after not having ridden it in a few months. I used to ride bikes a lot 150 to 200 miles a week at my peak. My favorites out of the bikes I have owned were the hybrid, fuji and the recumbent. I am thinking about another hybrid or a flat bar road bike. The hybrid was comfortable ride but built like a tank weighing in at almost 30 lbs, the fuji was reasonably comfortable except for when I pinched a nerve in my hand hitting a bump too hard, and finally the recumbent was fast, comfortable but not very nimble or easy to store or transport.

So I think what I am looking for is something between a hybrid and a road bike. Something I can throw a pair of shorts on and ride around the nieghborhood for a bit, or take out on the local paved rail trail, or get all geared up for a multi hour randoneering sort of ride. I'd like something fairly light say under 25 lbs, that can take a fatter softer tire say something in the range of 23-26 mm and a max pressure of 80-100 psi, and finally something not so expensive that I'd worry about scratching the paint of if I stuffed it in the trunk of my Honda Civic.

Oh and the reason I am looking for new bike is I thought I could control my weight with diet alone, I was wrong, I am not a clydesdale, but not a lightweight either, I am 40 y/o, 5'6" 175 lbs or so, pretty much the heaviest I have ever been. So I need to lose a fair amount of weight, at my peak I was 143-145 or about 5 lbs heavier than when I graduated high school. If I could get down to 150 I'd be happy.

check out the Specialized Sirrus, or the Trek FX series, they are just about what you describe. The base line sirrus is pretty much typical low end hybrid, but the Elite and Comp are nicely equipped with light weight parts and medium-skinny wheels and stuff. They have disk brake models, but I personally think disk brakes on a road bike are silly (and if you ever get sand in them, omg, they are noisy and hard to clean).

You consider 23-26mm tires "fatter"?? Sheesh...

Back on topic- you're obviously not a noob, so you already know the best advice to follow is test ride any and all that catches your eye. You'll undoubtedly want to focus on 'fitness bikes' or 'performance hybrids'. I'm not going to recommend any particular brand/model, as I don't know what is available in your local market. It's up to you to decide that sweet spot between how much the bike weighs on the scale and how much you are willing to pay.

Good luck in your search.

(agreeing with no1mad...) yeah, 23mm and 25mm is pretty much road racing bike territory. even the Tour De France riders were on 28mm for some of the rougher and longer stages this last year.

I personally wouldn't go skinnier than a 28mm on a hybrid street bike, and right now I'm pretty happy on 35mm as they let me ride on dirt roads without feeling like I'm gonna get tossed sideways if I clip a small rock.

Check out the Jamis Coda line. They are very nice and learn more towards road riding. I just got a Coda Sport a few months ago and I'm really enjoying it.

LOL no certainly not a newbie, yeah I know test ride some bikes just wondering what was out there since I bought my last bike 5 years ago. About fatter tires, my Raleigh had 32's on it and I thought those were pretty fat, my fuji road bike I used to run 18-20's inflated to 110 to 120 psi, and I used to break spokes all the time on that bike. Well yeah the raleigh like I said weighed it at about 30 lbs, the fuji about 22 or 23 and the recumbent was about 32 lbs, so 24 or 25 would be a good weight I guess it just boils down to if a bike that weight is in my price range.

I know I wasn't going to mention brands/models, but what the heck...

-Jamis Coda or Allegro lines
-Specialized Sirrus
-Raleigh Cadent
-Giant Rapid or the new Escape RX line
-Cannondale Quick

um, 21mm is about as skinny a tire as anyone runs on the street, and thats for like Criterium racing. a 23mm with a 180 lb rider should have 110-120 PSI, I can't imagine what a 20 or smaller would need.

my ~ $500 aluminum framed 'large' size hybrid, with 700x35 tires is 28 lbs the way it came from the factory. thats before I added a speedo, water bottle cage, kryptonite, headlights, etc etc, its about 30 lbs now.

every pound below that, you're talking increasingly serious $$$s. to get to or below 20 lbs, thats almost certainly a full carbon fiber bike, with very light racing wheels. I wanna lose 20 lbs from ME before I start worrying about bicycle weight :)

It's called a Sirrus Elite and you should love it. However, like others said, test as many as you can!

That looks just about right to me, the only mod I could see doing to it would be a set of trekking bars.

Sounds like Cyclocross...

Nah, cyclocross if for a fair to elite athlete, I'm not an athlete.

.

They also tend to make great commuters. I'd at least test a few.

I've test ridden a number of bikes mentioned here, and the Raleigh Cadent series is probably my favorite. The Giant Escapes and Rapids are great deals if money is a concern.

If drop bars are ok, buy a Kona Jake, put 28s (or maybe 25s) on it, and be very, very happy. The Jake is my personal choice, but the point is that a cyclocross bike seems ideal for your needs.

If drop bars are not ok, the Cannondale, Trek, Giant, and Specialized hybrids would all work, as would others. Plenty of good suggestions here.

I'd buy a Jake :)

Yeah I don't really know if drop bars would be ok, the last time I rode my fuji road bike with drops I really hammered a nerve in my hand, by the end of the ride I could barely close my hand from the pain, the next morning it had traveled all the way up my arm into my shoulder. I sold that bike a couple of months later. I still get some occasional pain in that hand. Of course some nice riding gloves might help avoid those kind of injuries as would paying attention for sneak attacks by potholes.

if you DO have drop bars and find yourself always riding on the tops, then get a taller stem so the bottoms are not as far a reach....

As I recall one of the first major mods I did to the Raleigh hybrid was change out the suspension fork for a rigid steel one and changed the stem to a ritchey that had a very large range of adjustment and put a set of flat bars on there to replace the riser bars, I think over all after the mods it was pretty close to the way most flat bar road bikes are set up, maybe the bars were just a bit higher, but pretty close. One thing I really did like about the fuji raod bike with the drops was the 3 or 4 positions I could have my hands on. As I remember I usually road on the brake hoods or by stem. I very rarely rode in the drops as I remember. Which is one reason I was thinking af a bike with trekking bars.

I'm finding a flat bar with the ergon gp3 provides me with 2 distinct positions, standard flat bar, and the ends. I had to trim about 25mm from each end of the flatbar to make the 'ends' position comfortable. I have large hands and almost wish I got the bigger GP4 grips.

I'll note that I tried aftermarket bolt-on end bars on a mountain bike and hated them, but it was because they were too wide. OTOH, I wouldn't want to narrow the bar on a mtn bike as you want that wide grip for control and leverage on the rough stuff, but its fine on a mostly-street hybrid.

Hopefully you can find the right bars/ends/grips combo for you. I'm surprised no one has recommended trekking bars yet (unless I missed it). They are an interesting option that some really like.

As far as drop bars go, I ride mine almost exclusively on the hoods. The drop bars just allow me to move my hands around for more positions on longer rides, and to get in the drops for headwinds, or the occasional descent. Of course, brifter hoods vary too.

I'm not sure Shimano mountain 3x9 front derailleurs and cranksets are compatible with the road shifters ('brifters') that you would need with drop bars, I think the SiS stepping is different. 3x8 systems were compatible, but all the road stuff has moved to x9 or x10

I have the trekking bars and bar ends shown below. I feel these provide multiple options and positions. The trekking bars allow me to tuck in like a road bike and ride faster when needed. As it's carbon, it's still a very light bar.

By the way, the bike weights around 20.5 lbs, I put in 100 PSI and the tire is 25mm. The ride is firm, but much more pleasant than my Cervelo road bike.

http://i50.tinypic.com/2czc1fo.jpg

http://i45.tinypic.com/121emgm.jpg

Well, I went to a local bike shop and test rode a couple of bikes, two road bike to be more precise. Yeah I know I was talking about hybrids here, but I've also ridden road bikes in the past, perhaps road bikes that were too large for me, the very nice young woman that was help me first put me on a Jamis of some sort and that was an okay kind of ride, more comfortable than my last fuji road bike, but I had to cut the test ride short because the front tire was loosing air fast, then she put me on a Giant Defy 2, which felt a bit more upright and maybe even a bit more comfortable than the Jamis and definately more comfortable than my fuji. So it looks like a properly sized road bike might be a possibility for my new ride.