Bobbin gives good advice both re the 'BSO', avoiding Halfords and supporting your local shop. I'm not personally convinced there's much advantage in alloy frames; nothing's as good as Reynolds 531 steel tube. However at this price point alu is predominant and it's certainly better than the girders of a BSO!!

Learn how to work out the gearing in inches and look for a low under 30 and a top around 80-90. 21 gears (3x7) would actually be ample and indeed contain considerable overlap. However the fasion now is eight or nine cog rear clusters so 24 or 27 is what you get.

We've got three Claud Butlers in the family fleet. Mid range alloy frames, non sus but with 26'' wheels and knobbly tryes as OEM kit so nearer MTB than City. None are current models but all have lasted well and are easy to maintain.

The Dawes Discovery may be fairly similar to the CB Explorer - certainly in same price range. The wheels on these are 700c*32 so very close in diameter to the old 27'' but a slightly wider tread. Road tyres are standard. OK for towpaths and trails but possibltylacking in mud. The Lad has a Disco 201 and loves it, did the London to brighton with me last year on it.

Only other advice I'd offer is get a decent saddle. If you can keep the bike under cover and are prepared to look after it the Brooks B17 is wonderful. Hundred or so miles to break it in but once done it moulds to your sit bones and is comfortable all day.

Oh and either get a helmet or don't; it's your choice!! Plenty of folks will tell you it might save your like but thirty years ago nobody wore one and I don't recall us dying like flies!!

Edited by Bromptonaut on 14/06/2012 at 17:02

It will not. That is merely a bicycle shaped object (BSO). The gears will be poorly aligned, the frame will be very heavy and the handlebar grips will disintegrate very quickly.

I'm talking second hand. You can get a reasonable old 10 speed tourer with a Reynolds 531 frame for £50 or so. They really are very versitile. The friction downtube mounted friction levers are very slick and fast when you get used to them because they don't use Bowden cables. Unlike index shifters, it doesn't matter if (when) the cables stretch. Put a pannier rack on the back andthey fitthe hybrid role perfectly. Toe clips are a great alternative to cleets because, whilst you don't get such a rigid hold, you can use them with ordinary shoes and they're a bit easier to use in town.

You want a 32/14 5 or 6 speeed cassette which will give you enough reduction for hills yet still shift smoothly. Nice, good quality tape on the handlebars, good saddle and away you go!

Just use standard 700C or 27 * 1 1/4" tyres pumped up to 50-60 psi and you won't have problems with punctures. You want little/no tread pattern. This gives lower rollling resistance and less opportunity for thorns to embed themselves into the tyres.

Most of my bike problems went away when I dumped my mountain bike (actually very similar to a modern hybrid) in favour of a 1970's road bike.

I'd like to echo Bromptonaut's praise of the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres. Marathons are good - but pluses are better!

Two years ago, I bought a Specialized Crosstrail bike - very nice, but its tyres were made of papier-mache. In two outings, I got two punctures - a thorn and a piece of flint from the council's winter gritting operations. I replaced them with the Marathon Pluses and haven't had a puncture since.

The cycling enthusiasts will tell you that they are heavy tyres (IIRC approaching half as heavy again as 'straight' Marathons). But I hate repairing punctures - especially in rear wheels - which seems to be where they usually occur :-(