Dual Sport/Hybrid bikes

[saber5]

Im currently riding 10yr old Schwinn MTB. want to upgrade. My riding is half and half. Pa hwy's. and dirt/back roads. also ride some field roads and trails etc. Nothing extreme either way...has anyone put one of the new trek 8 series or giant roam etc through its paces on and off road..was leaning toward the trek 8.4 but everyone i know is either hardcore MTB or Road/race.
any reviews and help would be great..thanks

 

[kdelong]

From my experience with PA's highways, you would be better off with a pack mule. I'm only partially kidding. Anyway, in my opinion, the Trek 8.4 beats the Giant Roam hands down. The component mix used on the Trek 8.4 is well thought out with each component complimenting the others. I'm sure that the Giant Roam is a good bike but the component mix doesn't make sense to me, especially the way that they use a Sram RD and Shifters, but they use a Shimano FD.

 

[saber5]

Any Feedback on the tire size(width) of these bikes. never riden one. used to ride a road bike loved the handling speed. and now have mtb. of course the bigger aggressive tires are deffinitely a drawback for leisure or long rides. will these 700 x 38mm tires hold up on dirt trails/fields are they too thin to take light off road. and do they feel thin enough to enjoy 10-20 miles on the road in a weekend. Maybe i just need two bikes---my wife is going to love that...thanks

 

[kdelong]

Well, two bikes would be ideal, but I understand that you need to keep the wife happy. If Mom's not happy, no one is happy.

About the tires, the Trek comes with 700X38C. 38mm is approximately 1.5 inches thick. That is the same as a thinner MTB tire. They will be just fine for light off road, even some rougher dry trails would not be out of the question. The Bontrager LT3 has tread that is aggressive enough for light trail use but they are not going to be great for road riding. What you might want is two sets of tires, one set for off road and one set of slicks for road riding. It is a pain to have to change tires when you want to change terrain, so you might also look into picking up a set of rims and have a set of road wheels and a set of off road wheels.

Then again, you could fix up your Schwinn for off roading and just get a dedicated road bike for your road riding.