SteveC1980

Hi all,
So a bit stuck with choosing between a Trek FX 3, Sirrus X 3.0 and Cube SL Road Pro. Think I spent too long looking at specs and got a bit bogged down in the detail.
Anyone that has insight into these bikes, I'd be grateful for your opinions.
Use will be family cycling round parks / disused railway lines etc with a few short weekend tours.
C
TIA.

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interungulate

I have less of a specific recommendation and more of a series of decision point thoughts.

First of all, I’m looking at the Trek FX 3 non-disc (the 2019 model). If you’re looking at the FX 3 Disc, some of the below won’t apply.

The Trek is the only one of these that runs linear-pull brakes instead of disc. If you haven’t ridden disc brakes before, they’ll be a little more responsive than you’re used to. That’s better for terrain where you have to stop quickly and especially better for muddy paths (mud gets stuck into linear-pull brakes much more easily). But disc also requires more upkeep, I think. Maybe that’s less true now than it was a few years ago.

If you’re buying new, it’s also worth looking at whether you can buy these through your local bike shop. They’ll often have a much more generous service package included than if you buy completely online.

Gearing would be my other major dividing factor. The Trek runs a 3x (3 gears in the front), Specialised and Whyte are 1x, and Cube is 2x. Without going too far into the weeds, typically you’ll have more options on the extreme ends of your gearing with a 2x (or 3x) system than a 1x at the same price point. That being said, I run a 1x on my road bike and love the ease of maintenance and not having to worry about mechanical failure on the front derailleur.

If you’re concerned about climbing, the Trek has the easiest gearing available and the Whyte is a close second. If you want to not spin out going downhill, the Trek and the Cube are solid options. I would avoid the Specialised because they don’t list the spec on their website and I find that kind of shady, but to each their own.

Like you said, there’s definitely many more differences, but these are the ones that I think would matter most to your immediate satisfaction with the bike. A lot of the little things can also be changed out very easily, I wouldn’t recommend choosing one over the other just because the stock tire width is two centimeters larger or something like that.

SteveC1980

Thanks very much, some really good points there, especially with the gearing.
All the bikes I was looking at are hydraulic disc brakes so I'd be confident in all of them being able to stop.
Strange times when you can't go and check them out in the shop first!

interungulate

That being said, I'd personally go for the Trek.

The gearing range is important to me in a hybrid, given how versatile a hybrid is. If you /are/ looking at the non-disc option, the only situation in which that would be a major downside is in wet/muddy conditions. And the price of the Trek versus the other models means you'd have a bit of your budget left over for tools and things that would impact the ride feel (like panniers or a bike bag for those short weekend tours).

badger1

[QUOTE=interungulate;21859235
I would avoid the Specialised because they don’t list the spec on their website and I find that kind of shady, but to each their own.[/QUOTE]

Not a major point, but to be fair: gearing on the Sirrus X 3.0 is 40t chainring, 11-42 cassette ("1x10 Shimano Deore drivetrain with a 11-42t cassette"). Should the latter show up on the component list? Yes; however, it is stated in the intro. description.

interungulate

Oh! You're so right, I didn't spot that. Thanks for the correction! I've just spent a while recently looking at specs on different websites and became irritated at the amount of companies that leave what I consider to be crucial information out of their specs boxes, so this was overflow irritation from that Glad to see this particular thing was more an oversight on my part.