Re: Looking for a hybrid - Advice needed

[stupot]

Random wrote:
> I've got a budget of 350 to 400 quid and so far the best specced bike I've
> seen is the Trek 7300FX (not the FX S which has suspension) which is £370

Trek do have a nice range of hybrid type machines that I looked at when I
was putting together a hub geared commuter.

> I'm going to avoid Halfords and buying online as I'd like to give my cash to
> a local shop so I can get some decent local service

You get a better setup from the local shop and better advice. I was in Halfords
two days back browsing folders (just because they were near) and the bike man
said but they have small wheels so they are slow. DOH. He then made a comment
about 5 year olds and small wheeled bikes.

 

[davek]

stupot wrote:
> You get a better setup from the local shop and better advice.

Caveat emptor!

My LBS is rubbish - I know more than them about bikes, and I don't know
all that much.

However, there's another bike shop a bit further away but still
local-ish that I have utter faith in, not least since I can go in there
and talk about bike stuff and get the general feeling that they are
really interested. (Compare to the LBS who are very hard to engage in
conversation about anything to do with bikes.)

To put this into more concrete terms, I took a wheel into the LBS about
a 18 months ago to be trued and it came back no better than it went in.
Seriously. It was still rubbing on the brakes.

Several months later, the other bike shop took two wheels in to be
trued, did them in half the time, charged half the price and, /quelle
surprise/ did a much better job too.

Draw your own conclusions.

d.