Cannondale t800 and bush tracks

nick4320

Hello
I'm going to buy a bike for touring and am thinking of the t800. Do you think I could uses this bike on the odd bush track(forest track)? Or would I be better off buying a mtb and fitting it up for touring?

Thanks
Nick

philso

i'd say that as long as you're not planning on jumping stumps and hopping boulders, it'll be plenty robust enough for unpaved roads and trails. the tires are fat and there are 36 spokes. with the aluminum frame and without shocks, the ride won't be too comfortable, but it's a reasonable trade-off for the better and faster ride you'll get on the road.

Cyclesafe

Agreed. You can always fit the T800 with wider tires and run them at the manufacturer's lower recommended inflation pressure. However, if you are planning to spend more than a hour at a time on the type of roads that are recommended for four wheel drive vehicles, you might be better off with a MTB. Only you know what sort of conditions you will be experiencing.

geoffs

As the others have said you should be fine unless you are trying something silly. I have had the experience though of over doing the kettle valley rail trail in BC which at the time was thick gravel. I was traveling with a couple on mtb's and they were fine with their wide tires where as I became bogged a couple of times. The rest of the time though, I was much faster on the 32c tires that I was using.

Cheers

Geoff

philso

one more thing that you may or may not be aware of: there are volumes of threads that you may want to peruse on the longevity of aluminum vs. steel. the long and short of it revolves round the fact that steel will only fail when there is a very large force applied, whereas aluminum will eventually fail due to accumulated stress fatigue. unless you happen to be a mechanical engineer, the evidence on both sides sounds convincing. the debate rages and there are people in both camps who are literally foaming at the mouth

after researching some of these threads, you may want to consider a steel bike for the more comfortable ride and for longevity. just a heads up on this if you plan on "occaionally" riding off-road for many years, and would like to still be riding it 10,15, or 20 years down the road.