Commuting bike advice needed please.

[mooki]

Our company has just opened a new cycle to work scheme so I am planning to get a new bike but I'm a bit clueless as I've been riding the raleigh that I got for my 16th birthday for the last 17 years... does anyone know anything about bikes?

My journey is 4 miles each way in Cambridge, mostly on roads and cycle lanes. DD (2.5) rides in a hamax seat-post mounted back carrier for half of the journey. We're not a speedy combination.

My old bike was a 'hybrid' so I had a leaning forward position like a mountain bike but with slimmer tyres. I preferred this riding position to the traditional city upright bikes, but hoiking my leg over the cross bar was a pain in the bum (literally in later pregnancy)and I lost a good few pairs of trousers to the guardless chain.
If I wanted to get a new similar kind of hybrid bike, what brands should I be looking out for and what should I be looking to pay please? I was kind of thining about 350 in my head but most of the bikes reviewed in cycle commuter magazine are a) blokes' models and b)£600+

Are there things to look for especially - like what the frame is made from or disc brakes (I don't know what these are really.) This is almost as a big a deal as buying a new car - I don't want to be stuck with a crappy bike, especially as my last one served me so well.

thank you

Hi, I'm also in Cambridge. Try Station Cycles - either the branch at Cambridge station or the one under the grand arcade. Both of them have helpful staff. The station branch has a bigger display of bikes. The new Raleigh bikes are not as good as the old ones as they are all now made in the far east and when I tried them they were really heavy. I got a Claude Butler bike, a hybrid which has 7 gears and is plenty for getting around Cambridge. Including the hamax seat on the back, lights and basket on the front etc I think it came to about £450. I actually got my bike from the shop on Burleigh Street that sells pine furniture but now also sells bikes (can't remember the name), it's almost opposite the party shop. Townsends on Chesterton Road are helpful too.

Thanks CBmum. DId you get a 'women's' bike especially or just a women's size frame? How have you found the claude butler?

I did try station cycles on friday but they were quite busy and I had DD with me so it was hard to concentrate. I'll have to try again without her I think.