£150-£250 bike needed

[pappa lurve]

Decided after a weekend in Amsterdamn to buy myself a bike and thought it would be a good way to get a bit fitter. So off I went with my Argos vouchers and picked up a horribly cheap dual suspension about a month ago - bad idea! Its a bit of fun in the local woods but on road it is not good at all

Want to pick up a bike for mainly road use, maybe the odd path etc so I am guessing I want a hybrid.

I want to spend as little as I can get away with and i I keep it up, I will buy something much more decent in a few months. Happy to look at new or used but have no real idea what I should buy. Recommendations, links to ebay etc. I live in N London.

any help and advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers!

[pappa lurve]

Thanks POD - any suggestions as to which one or what key things I should be looking for. Planning to go down to evens cycles tomorrow and see what they can tell me as I don't really know where else to go!

[pappa lurve]

Thanks Busta. Probably not a great idea as last time I rode one of those back pedal ones I hit a parked car. I was only about 11 and I seem to recall hitting a Corvette so even at that age I had an eye for interesting cars!

Went out on Saturday down to Evans and ended up coming home with a Ridgeack Cyclone. 250, lights, seems pretty sturday and has 24 gears which is nice! Rde about 12 miles, or roughloy double what I had done on my previous bike with relative ease and although the dual suspension on my old bike makes things a lot more comfortable I am well happy with the Ridgeback. Still don't know if it was the best thing I could buy but the chap at Evans let me ride a few and that was the one that seemed to fit the bill best. Very impressed with Evans, helpful, knowledgeable and after a brief phone round, their prices seemed to be very good.

So anyone thought of doing a PH bike hoon?!

[pappa lurve]

marcellus said:

Pappalurve - if you want to do a Hoon there are a couple I can suggest.

But you'd best get a few more than 12 miles under your belt before you do!!!

Edited by marcellus on Tuesday 29th August 20:45

Want to stick mainly to roads / decent paths if possible. What kind of distance do I need to be doing to make it worth finding a hoon? Decided I might try and be realy good and see if I can get myself in shape to ride 50 miles before the end of the year. Sad really, when you consider I once used to run 14k every day, and that was before 2-3 hours of rowing, weight training or circuit training. ok - now I am depressed again!

On the plus side, just went out for a ride for an hour and feel so much better for it.