Bikingfree

I have been biking on a specialized aerial hybrid for the last seven years, and overall I've loved the bike, but I have a chronic neck injury that makes it hard for me to stay on it for long, so I usually only end up biking five to ten miles a day,five to six days a week. I'm looking to buy a more comfort style hybrid bike with higher handlebars, but I don't want some kind of girly beach cruiser and would like to be doing aggressively paced longer bike rides ( 50+ miles)(I am a long distance runner turned biker). Don't plan to do any racing, the wind resistance would kill me haha. Price range between $400 and $900. Any suggestions? and thank you so much for your advice!

freeranger

Doesn't sound like a whole new bike is needed. Maybe just a change of handlebars-some with more rise and sweep might suffice. Or even a stem riser. Or both. Have you discussed your wishes with your local bike shop-perhaps they can make some suggestions. Of course, selling a complete bike would be more in their interest. If there is a local bike club, you might find help there also. There was another post on this site where a rider bought these for his bike, and stated it made a lot of difference in comfort: https://www.amazon.com/UPANBIKE-Urba...s%2C212&sr=8-2 The Aerial is listed as a bike designed for women, so if you are female, the bars might be wide, but bars can be cut down if that would be the case.

Bikingfree

Thank you, I never even thought of simply replacing the handlebars or extending the stem. Great idea and thank you for your thoughts

hokiefyd 

I agree with the advice from freeranger . If you otherwise like the bike (components, color, general frame fit, etc.), a different handlebar and/or stem can make a real difference in comfort. You may or may not have to lengthen some of the cables in doing this (brake and shift cables), but that's a relatively straight-forward thing to do, and a bike shop shouldn't charge too much for this if you ask them to do it. If you do it yourself, you can completely re-cable the bike for about $20-30's worth in parts (which is a reasonable cost to return everything to new condition).

winston63 

Another good reason to try to modify your current bike first is the simple fact that most bike shops are completely out of inventory when it comes to "affordable" bikes. The pandemic has resulted in massive global demand for bikes and I'm hearing that at least locally, we're many months away from getting anything new in stock. Of course that may not apply to your locale, but if you can make what you've got work it's going to be quite a bit cheaper than buying a new one.