adebalko25

Hi everyone! My name is Andy and I’ve been looking at buying a hybrid style bicycle. Most of the miles put on the bike will be on gravel/dirt bike paths, with the occasional ride on pavement. Although I haven’t test rode every bike, I have looked at Trek Dual Sport, Cannondale Quick CX, Giant Roam, Specialized Cross Trail, Kona Splice and even a Bianchi. Everything keeps taking me back to the Giant Roam. I’m not sure I love the external cable setup on the bike, where the cables run under the down tube and then are hidden. It’s seems like all of the bikes I have looked at have comparable components at the specific price range. Any information you can give to help me make a final decision would be great. Thanks so much!

hokiefyd 

Hi, Andy. I would open by saying that bike fit and comfort should be your first priority. You can change a lot of things about a bike, but the basic fit and feel (frame geometry, etc) can be more difficult to modify. I have a 2018 Roam 2 and really enjoy it. Being a DIYer, I actually like the external cable routing and how Giant have done it, under that downtube protector. You get nice paint protection from it, and you also have nice cable management. The cables are easy to replace and you'll never have issues with cables rattling inside the frame. That downtube protector is actually two pieces -- the "winged" splash shield and the main channel. I removed the wings from my bike, and use only the main channel. It uses three internal hex head machine screws to fasten to the frame. You can just zip the screws out and the whole thing drops down, and you can remove and replace cables conveniently. There are no penetrations into the frame except for the threaded bosses for the machine screws. I think it's a pretty nice system, and unique in the industry, at least compared with its peers at this price point.

I had a warranty replacement for the freehub on my bike. My local bike shop acknowledged the issue (dirty/dry freehub body) and said that there's a good chance that Giant would just warranty a complete wheel replacement, and that's what they did (rather than pay the labor to swap the freehub body). That was completed at no cost to me and it was done in a few days' time.

I enjoy mine and would buy another Giant.