[Herbert]

I've convinced myself that the time has come to acquire a bike. Since making the decision, and partly due to climbing being restricted by injury, my plans have escalated from looking in skips for something I could ride to the pub to getting something I could ride to work on, go out for a blast on in the evening and perhaps do some longer overnight trips on.

A Dawes Vantage seems to fit the bill but info on whether it is any good is hard to come by...does anyone have any advice on whether going down the 'tourer' route is a good idea for what I want to do or would a decentish hybrid or even a road bike be a better bet?

[webbo]

Trying to buy one bike to do everything will leave you compromised alot of the time.If you are going to mainly do cycle touring buy a touring bike.However if you are just going to do day trips get a road bike.

[fatdoc]

 

[flyguy]

I personnaly went down the hybrid route, which is more like a road bike than anything else and this has worked fine on some touring holidays and has the advantage of being really light and quick for the commute to work. think what is the most use it will be getting, not worth buying a touring bike if you are mainly going to be using it for commuting and the odd long ride at the weekend.

[tomtom]

Last time I was in decathlon, they had some 'hydrids' that were really road bikes with straight bars and regular pedals on them.. Ie with much smaller closures around the wheels at the frame/fork tops like a road bike than MTB.. Skinnier wheels/tyres than a hybrid but slightly fatter/beefier than a roaddie. one even had carbon front forks.. they were about £350 IIRC..

[ianv]

Boardman bikes from Halfords are also worth a look. Good value either in Road or Hybrid variants. 450 buys you a pretty sorted bike.

[Herbert]

Thanks for the advice all