The Raleigh Bikes Women’s Alysa 2 Fitness Hybrid Bike is a great commuter or city bicycle. It’s surprisingly lightweight, efficient, and rugged. If you’d like to know more about it before making the purchase, we highly suggest you keep reading this hybrid bike review.
Table of Contents
Features and Specifications
The Raleigh Bikes Women’s Alysa 2 Fitness Hybrid Bike is probably one of the classiest budget hybrid bikes. It features a sleek gray finish, with light blue and teal accents. To distinguish it from similar-looking bikes, Raleigh put a beautiful and elaborate badge on its head tube.
Now, let’s take a look at its important features and components.
Women-Specific Aluminum Frame
The frame of the Raleigh Alysa 2 has been constructed from aluminum. The tubes are butted to shave off some of the frame’s weight and increase the strength of the ends.
This bike doesn’t come with a water bottle cage. But if you want to install one, there are mounts with screws on the lower part of the down tube and seatpost.
Frame sizes:
- Extra small: 5’0”-5’3”
- Small: 5’3”-5’6”
- Medium: 5’6”-5’9”
- Large: 5’9”-6’0”
Note: This tends to run big, so you might want to pick the next smallest frame size. Ask the seller or Raleigh for assistance just to be sure.
Shimano Altus 8-Speed Shifters
With 24 gear combinations to choose from, the Raleigh Bikes Women’s Alysa 2 Fitness Hybrid Bike is useful for a variety of terrain and purposes, from short-distance commutes on city streets to going up hills. Although you might want to steer clear from gravel roads—if you don’t want to feel every bump in the road.
It comes with the Shimano Altus Rapid Fire 8 speed shifters, which operate by thumb. When it comes to build quality, it’s good. Downshifting is a little awkward, but shifting up is perfectly okay. It has an optical gear display, so it’s easy for you to know which gear you’re in.
Tektro Novela Mechanical Disc Brakes
The mechanical disc brakes fitted to this hybrid bike are unbeatable. They offer great braking power under different riding conditions.
To make your rides more comfortable and safer, the brake levers are equipped with a reach adjustment mechanism. This mechanism allows you to change the distance of the lever from the handlebar grip, so it perfectly fits your hand size and riding style.
700c Wheels and 35c Wide Tires
The Kendra Kwick Tendril tires (35mm wide) roll smoothly on paved roads and offer enough subtle tread pattern for light dirt road cycling. They’re mounted on 700c wheels, which are double walled for strength. The wheels are also equipped with a device called a quick release that allows tool-less tire repair or replacement.
Technical Details
- Shifters: Shimano Altus Rapid Fire 8-speed trigger shifters
- Crankset: SR Suntour XCC-T (208 28/38/48T)
- Front and Rear Derailleurs: Shimano Tourney TX800
- Cassette: Shimano 8-speed (12-32T)/Brakes: Tektro Novela mechanical disc brakes
- Wheels: Weinmann QR17 Double Wall Disc with Formula Hubs
- Tires: Kenda Kwick Tendril 700x35c
- Seat: Raleigh Women-Specific
The Good
Deceptively Light and Speedy
The Raleigh Alysa 2 hybrid bike weighs approximately 26.7 pounds. That’s about 20 pairs of court shoes. Like the Raleigh Bikes Cadent 3 Urban Fitness Bike (the men’s equivalent model), the gearing and low weight of the Raleigh Bikes Women’s Alysa 2 Fitness Hybrid Bike helps it to breeze through flat roads, hills, and occasional off-road driving trails.
Good Quality Components
For the Alysa 2, Raleigh didn’t use components from inferior brands to cut their costs. The drivetrain (e.g., chain and gears) comes from Shimano, which makes well-made and well-priced (usually) bike components. But, one of its most outstanding components is its Tektro Novela mechanical disc brakes, which customers say work extremely well.
Easy to Put Together
If you’ve assembled your own bike before, assembling the Raleigh Bikes Women’s Alysa 2 Fitness Hybrid Bike would be easier and faster for you. You’d probably spend more time unpacking than assembling it. Our estimate is it could take anywhere between 15 minutes and 2 hours to put it together.
Get around your city or explore the great outdoors with the Raleigh Bikes Women’s Alysa 2 Fitness Hybrid Bike. Click here to get more details.
The Bad
Not That Comfortable
Using this for riding on city roads in poor condition, gravel roads, or extremely rough roads is probably not the best decision you’ll ever make. You’ll most likely feel every bump and crack in the road. Changing the grips, pedals, seat, and tires might help make your rides more comfortable.
Will Require Some Adjustments
We suggest you bring your bike to your local bike shop to have a few components adjusted, particularly the gears and brakes, or at least have them check if you assembled or fine-tuned it correctly.
Like most Raleigh hybrid bikes, such as the Raleigh bicycles, like the Raleigh Bikes Alysa 3 Women’s Urban Fitness Bike, the Alysa 2 doesn’t come with fenders, a rear rack, and a kickstand. You might want your local bike shop to install them for you.
Confusing Raleigh Bike Size Guide
We think you already know how important it is to find the right frame size for your height. That’s why we highly suggest you contact Raleigh (or the reseller) to help you find the correct frame size for you.
Who Is It For?
The Raleigh Bikes Women’s Alysa 2 Fitness Hybrid Bike is for people who are ready to trade in their single-speed bike—or any bikes with less gears for that matter—for a more versatile, lightweight, and faster bike.
It’s for people who can’t decide between a road bike and mountain bike. As a hybrid bike, the Alysa 2 is naturally a logical choice.
It’s generally designed for women, but some men find the Alysa 2 just perfect for their size, personal preferences, and the type of riding they plan to do. (Or, you might want to try the Raleigh Bikes Cadent 2 Fitness Hybrid Bike, the counterpart of the Alysa 2 that’s specifically made for men.)
Conclusion
Whether or not you find the price of the Raleigh Bikes Women’s Alysa 2 Fitness Hybrid Bike expensive or reasonable, it will definitely give the best value for your money. It’s surprisingly lightweight, rides smoothly, and has good-quality components, especially its disc brakes. Overall, it would make a fantastic commuter or city bike for a casual female rider.
The Raleigh Bikes Women’s Alysa 2 Fitness Hybrid Bike is a great way to get around big cities. Click here to see if it’s the right bike for you.