My sister is after a new bike and top end of the budget is £400. She is keen to start mountain biking but wants to use the bike to commute as well.

I don’t know much about hybrids so wonder if anyone can shed some light? Are they suitable at all for mountain biking?

Would she be better off spending the money on a MTB and slogging a bit more on the commute to enjoy a bit more fun in the hills?

I realise second hand will get much better bike at this price so I’m just having a quick nosey in the classifieds.

If I’d £400 to spend on a bike I’d go for the Islabikes Beinn 29, see here. I had a loan one for 2 months and really enjoyed riding it, it went round the Wyre Forest several times, I did a duathalon on it and it worked well on the road.

I imagine she won’t be doing anything serious offroad, so a hybrid should be fine, but she could get a rigid MTB (I suggest rigid because they are less stealable and a lot lighter/simpler/faster for commuting plus she can still get offroad. A hybrid with 35c semi slick tyres and disc brakes would be my suggestion, make sure she can put proper full mudguards on it.

proper off road – a hybrid won’t cut it.

Go for second hand, you’ll get more for your/her money.

For road use just get some slicks/city tyres.

Thanks for the replies. I guess I’ll just keep an eye on the classifieds and try to interrogate a bit further and work out what it really is she wants to ride with it. As you’ve guessed it won’t be anything too serious just the odd ride around Marple.

My wife has just picked up a specialized Myka, we’ll swap the tyres over for trails v commuting.

There are some good end of season sales at the moment so the entry and mid level HT’s can be picked up for that budget.

Also I expect a reasonable resale value and demand if she loses interest.

the odd ride around marple can be pretty full on after all the rain, even the tow paths along the canal would be very interesting without nobblies.

I’d take the hit and get a mountain bike, once she learns about n+1 it’ll all be academic anyway 😉

Most “slow” hybrids aren’t far evolved from old rigid mountain bikes. Carrera Subway’s a good value one, and really is just a road-ised mtb.

(fast hybrids tend to be much the same but with roadie dna not mtb)