I want a new bike but need your help!

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Looks like this question has been asked before but here goes again. I am in Yorkshire and I ride my mountain bike about 80 miles every week split into 3 shorter rides and one long ride. I am getting fitter and leaner. I have a 13 year old rigid frame Raleigh which is now showing it’s age and creaking like an old man, each time I replace parts the last less time so it is time to change. I wan to buy a new bike for the stuff I am doing I think a hard tail is the right chose, that is the easy bit done! Which hard tail? I have a decent budget but cannot imagine spending more than £800.

Who gets my money? I am planning on entering some long distance rides next year and would like some thing that I can ride on the coast-to-coast or Isle of Man end-to-end 70 plus km events.

I feel completely overawed by the bikes out there, can some one share with me their experiences of riding bikes between the £500 and £800 (I am willing to by last years bargain reduced model) prices so that I may be able to narrow down the choice a bit.

I do not mind tinkering and am quite competent now, but I want a bike that will not need rebuilding each and every week.



You advice is most gratefully welcomed



Kind regards



Nick

Take a look at these bikes, the geometry is very good for touring but the price is very resonable.
http://www.trekbike.co.uk/2006/?sec=range&MainCatID=3&SubCatID=9&RangeID=15
Cheers

Looks like this question has been asked before but here goes again. I am in Yorkshire and I ride my mountain bike about 80 miles every week split into 3 shorter rides and one long ride. I am getting fitter and leaner. I have a 13 year old rigid frame Raleigh which is now showing it’s age and creaking like an old man, each time I replace parts the last less time so it is time to change. I wan to buy a new bike for the stuff I am doing I think a hard tail is the right chose, that is the easy bit done! Which hard tail? I have a decent budget but cannot imagine spending more than £800.

Who gets my money? I am planning on entering some long distance rides next year and would like some thing that I can ride on the coast-to-coast or Isle of Man end-to-end 70 plus km events.

I feel completely overawed by the bikes out there, can some one share with me their experiences of riding bikes between the £500 and £800 (I am willing to by last years bargain reduced model) prices so that I may be able to narrow down the choice a bit.

I do not mind tinkering and am quite competent now, but I want a bike that will not need rebuilding each and every week.



Some things to look out for when choosing your bike:

Touring demands a degree of comfort so make sure that there are mudgurad eyes on the fram and forks of the bike.

Make sure that there are rack mounting points on the frame. If you insist on am MTB with suspension then the choice of racks and fitting are restricted to a few expensive models of rack.

Have you considered a touring bike like a Dawes Galaxy? I have four different bikes a hybrid, a road bike, a tourer and an MTB. I have found that the best all rounder to be the Galaxy. This year I have done three coast to coast rides and a Lands End to John O'Groats ride fully laden with camping gear and it coped admirable. It coped well with the disused rail tracks of the C2C and W2W routes and some of the loose surfaces encountered on the four Audax rides done at 100, 150 and 200km without luggage.

It is generally the first bike that I pick for a ride on the roads because of its comfort and relaxed stable handling. Narrow tyres (25mm) reduced the pedalling effort too.

My hybrid is second choice. it's a discontinued Ridgeback with a chrome moly frame. Nice and light and fast too.

If your rides are predominantly road then a touring bike ought to be close to the top of your list. You can still use the Raleigh for the off road stuff and as it will be doing a vastly reduced mileage, should last a tad longer.

There are some end of season bargains to be had out there. Theres certainly some Galaxies on Ebay at the moment.

Another thought....if you are realtively lightweight and you are doing light touring i.e. b&b then an Audax specific bike might fit the bill. Thy are hal way between a tourer and a road bike. Faster and lighter than a tourer, slower and more robust than a racing bike.

Woodrups in Leeds does a nice own brand Audax bike at around £800 as does Dawes.

HTH
Vernon