My first thought would be why a hybrid? Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I think you could find a decent road bike, even a used one, that may serve the purpose of competition better.

In fact, Trek and Giant both have road models in the price range of $600-$700. Have you looked at those?

Looking at the bikes, I'd say the Trek. But that's just me. I think Shimano has a longer-standing reputation, especially with trigger shifters. I think the Bontrager components are excellent and ride Bontrager wheels myself and am very happy with them.

And at $100 less than the Giant, it gives you more room in the budget for aerobars, upgrades, clothes, etc.

Just some thoughts.

Jamie

I understand the reasons for the purchase. My thought would be to try the raod bikes as you're test riding the hybrids. The road bike will offer the benefit of multiple hand positions that the hyrbid cannot. The road bike will be more comfortable if you choose to mount aerobars. The rolling resistance for the road bike is much less, which will reduce the effort needed to ride it, whatever the purpose.

Like I say, nothing against hybrids. I just think you really need to consider the road bikes. This is a large purchase and you don't want to look at it in a year and wish you had done something differently.

As far as being a 230 pound, not so gentle rider, I'm not sure that would be too much of an issue. I certainly have seen plenty of people over 200 pounds (I used to be one of them) riding regular road bikes without issue. And I've only seen two Trek frames fail. One was a hardcore mountian biker who cracked a down tube, and was still able to ride home. And Trek replaced the frame, no questions asked, Trek is good that way. The other failure involved a roof rack and a garage. You do the math.

In the end don't worry about the rantings of a former shop employee. Who sold both Trek and Giants by the way, and have favorable opinions of both. Buy what you're comforatble on and comfortable with. Because if you're comfortable on it, you'll be happy with it and you'll ride it more.

And that's what it's all about.

Jamie

the trek and giant above look to be pretty comparable...

except that the fork on the giant is composite - that is going to help soak up the bumps on the road better than an aluminum fork. That will help with longer rides (15+mi.)

But Im with Jamie - look at the road bikes... (plenty of people commute on them)

The only other difference is in the gearing - the Giant will have a faster top end speed (52-12) than the trek (48-11). This means that at 90rpm pedal speed you will go 31mph on the giant VS. 28mph on the trek.

I know - this stuff gets complicated quickly doesn't it...

Good Luck

rr

There's a formula to determine distance the bike will travel in one pedal revolution for any gearing combination. I'm not 100% sure what it is, but once you have the distance per rev and know RPM, then you just multiply out to get MPH.

And I'm sure Redding is right about the gears, but I challenge anyone to get to 31, or even 28 MPH, on a hybrid.

The two bikes are fairly similar in specing with a slight edge to the Giant. I would NOT discount the bike due to SRAM components. In fact, I've had so many headaches with my shimano MTB stuff, my next bike wont have ANY shimano on it.

But, yeah, try a road bike out. The end of teh model year is upon us, so ya should be able to find something good on sale. Just keep your wheels trued, thats really the only problem for big guys is the wheels.

I've seen people buy the hybrid bikes and be quite dissapointed 6 months after purchase. Not because of the bike quality, but because they found that there bike wan't a real Mtn bike that they could go offroad on it, or a road bike that they could really but heaps of road hours onto. The hybrid bikes never really performed well enough for anything but communting on.

My recommendation: if you want to do long rides on the weekends and start racing in tris, buy a road bike. Bottom of the range Giant or Trek will be fine (even for heavey people like you and i - i'm 220 lbs). These bikes come with a good quality frame and all the components can be upgraded later when you know more about what sort of riding you want to do (e.g. aero bars, clipless pedals, carbon this and that).

A road bike is more than suitable for commuting. My advice would be to leave the hybrid for people who only want to commute and never want to ride long distances on the weekends or enter a race and get yourself a road bike - longterm i think you'll be happier.

Hope this helps :o

JoseM...I have to agree with some of the folks here and say go for the road bike...however, since you are a big guy and say you are rough on stuff...try a steel frame.There are a number of folks who do steel bikes.Some of your local "bikie" shops may be able to hook you up. Cro-moly steel is super durable and light.
I get spanked at races all the time(not that hard to do really) by guys on old steel bikes...
I have owned steel bike for years..still have one...and it is lighter than my Cervelo Duel!

Well, I ran the most EVER today...I did 8 miles and was proud of myself (was whipped afterwards) and then I went to the bike shop and did some test driving.

My buddy first game me the year (or two) old Specialized Hybrid Fitness bike. The cost was right ($350)! I took it for a spin and I liked the gear shifter. It showed which gear you were in. I took it for about a mile round trip spin...and I noticed first and formost that the seat hurt my butt! I know that can be changed out. My fraternity brother just told me that my butt would grow more accustomed to it. It did have knobby tires though. I liked it.

Next, I tried Giant's OCR3 (Giant's entry level road bike). Luckily my buddy told me ahead of time that the grip most people use is to have your hands just above the drop downs...and not knuckles facing forward like mountain bikes. So I never put my hands that way. I took it for the same spin and I wish I had a speed odometer because I could feel myself moving faster (just had no idea how much). I did NOT like the shifter though. When my hands were just on top of the breaks, It worked just fine. But when my hands were in the loops, I couldn't downship (or upshift, I forget which one). So if I had to change speeds in one direction, I would have to move my hands back to being on top of the shifter. The seat however was TONS better! I didn't notice it until I got back and when I got off the bike I realized my butt didn't hurt....my butt hurt immediately when I took the Specialized hybrid out!

Bottom line is that...I LOVED the OCR3 compared to the hybrid. And my buddy said that he knew of people that were very dissappointed with a hybrid within a short time of usage, because they'd want to trade up.

I then started to look at the OCR2, and it had a shifter that I liked better...where I could shift in both directions with my hands in the loop position. The tires were a bit better but my buddy said that I probably wouldn't go any faster with these other tires....the pedals were also clipped pedals instead of the toe-strap pedals of the OCR3. I asked to look at the Specialized equivalent of the OCR3 and it was just as expensive as the OCR2 BUT it had the same shifter as the entry level OCR3 (which I didn't like). And since trading out the shifter would cost ~$200, it would be better to start with the OCR2 if I can afford it. I'm going to see if my buddy can get me the OCR2 for $700....which is a $100 off the MSRP.

As a side note, my buddy told me that I would probably be much more comfortable with the hybrid bike because it was more of an upright position, that the road bike was going to be harder on my back. I guess those hours on a stationary bike has made me already accustomed to more of the "aero" positon though. The road bike was TONS more comfortable!

Well, that was my day. Thanks for all the help (mainly for people being adamant about me trying a road bike!).

Now, I just have to wait until Xmas to get it....gonna be a long few months:D

Tamara, thanks for the suggestion...but I physically don't think it's possible to adjust the shifter. To shift in one way, you move the break inward...to shift the other way, there's a small knobby that you press down. I don't see how in the world this knobby could be adjusted (it was integrated into the mechanism) so that you could adjust it with your hands in the down position.

Yup, that sounds like what was on the OCR3. The OCR2 is $200 more expensive and my buddy said the new shifter would be a $200 expense in itself, (plus the extra upgrades to get it in shape). So I think I'm going with the OCR2. I should actually be able to get this mid-November, so I'll have a few months of riding before it gets REAL cold! I think I'm going to invest in some under armour - winter clothes for my commute anyway:D

Ub, thanks for the advice. I think I may just do that....there's a shopping center near my house (several actually)...I think I may spend some time looking like a dummy by stopping and starting in a parking lot (MUCH better than looking like a dummy that just fell over at a stop light because he didn't know how to put his foot on the pavement!)

If you don't like the Sora shifters, won't your bike shop just upgrade them at purchase? You know, walk in and say, "I'd like to buy the bike, but let's take those off and put on Tiagra [or whatever] instead." They'll just charge you the difference.

Jose,

Here is the calculator I used for the top end speed comparisons I gave you above:
(you just fill in the number of teeth on the cog and the chainring and your pedal rpm-cadence)
http://www.panix.com/~jbarrm/cycal/cycal.30f.html
(you can find all the range of gear combinations if you fill in all your cogs and chainrings)
PRETTY NEAT HUH?

Also - I know what you mean on the Sora(level of shimano shifter) shifting. My wife tried out both the Giant OCR3 & OCR2 - We ended up getting her the OCR2 and she loves it.

She is more comfortable in the hood position (top of the shifters) than in the drop position (knuckles out like you said) so she actually likes the Sora thumb doo-hickie better (even after I explained why the other one was better) BOTTOM LINE - She is used to the Tiagra(level of shimano shifter) shifters now and everything is great!

Good luck with your bike - If you can wait until January or so - you will probably be able to get a discount on the 2005 models still in stock !! Did your buddy tell you that?

HAVE FUN

rr

Yes...but I don't think I can wait until next year. If I get it in November (birthday present + early Xmas) then I get two+ months of cold weather riding. If I get it next year, then I get COLD COLD COLD weather riding. So I definately want to get it before the year end so I can play with my new toy in conditions a bit better than January/February weather.

It is like cars (Kinda)

But one thing is sure - the 2006 models will not hit the stores until sometime in JAN - FEB and that is if the LBS has some pull. Basically the BikeStore will try to put the models on sale any time after about *now* in order to have lower stock (2005 models) going into the next season. Their wish is to have all the 2005 models sold prior to the first 2006 being shipped to them. When the 06's get in - no one will want to buy the 05's unless they are discounted heavily (they are trying to avoid having more than about 5-10% of 2005 models in their inventory when the 2006's are delivered)

And you will see advertisements (Like QR's) pushing the new models a LONG TIME BEFORE you will actually be able to go into a store and buy one... they are simply trying to create a buzz around their new models

The sorry Sora shifters are 8 speed... requiring a rear derailleur and cassette swap as well. The $200 increase to the OCR is justified. For commuting, I used MTB shoes and Pedals. Since it sounds like you bike came with ShimaNO pedals, lighten up the spring tension (little hex screw on the pedal) as much as you can. Release and entry sucks still, but is better than the factory setting.

you would think so...

but almost all the new models will be delayed until after january..

?! doesnt make sense to me either ?!

Is that how it is in the U.S.? Three weeks ago tomorrow, my friend and I walked into a bike shop and bought the 2006 Cervelo P2-SL. There were already two '06 P3 Carbons there... both had already been sold.

How come you guys don't get the new models in until winter? Way Past Fast starts running them before the '05 season is even over!