Mountain bike on road?

As I am also new to this place. I have rode a mountain bike w/ full suspension also on the road. I put 1500 + miles on my mountain bike last year and now I've decided to leave in the dirt where it belongs. Although the ride was really smooth, obviously. I lost way to much power trying to get the effin' moving 'puff, puff'😠 . So now I've got me a Devinci Millenium coming next week just in time for spring here in Atlanta 🙂 . It's gonna be good year!

Da Count

Count Dz said:

As I am also new to this place. I have rode a mountain bike w/ full suspension also on the road. I put 1500 + miles on my mountain bike last year and now I've decided to leave in the dirt where it belongs. Although the ride was really smooth, obviously. I lost way to much power trying to get the effin' moving 'puff, puff'😠 . So now I've got me a Devinci Millenium coming next week just in time for spring here in Atlanta 🙂 . It's gonna be good year!

Da Count

I'm pretty new to all this and I don't want to buy two separate bikes. I want to ride in the street but I want to go to the mountains... what should I do?

hangulmalmotayo said:

I'm pretty new to all this and I don't want to buy two separate bikes. I want to ride in the street but I want to go to the mountains... what should I do?

Well if your gonna be doing alot of riding on both the street and mountains then a hardtail is definately the way to go. Although, I did have a rear Rock shock a few years ago that had a lock out on it so all I had to do was flip a switch and it was a hardtail. I loved that damn shock but it wouldn't fit my new frame 🙁. As long as your realize that there is also a significant weight difference 10-15 lbs. that you'll be pushing with you on a mountain bike. They also do make hybrids these days also but I won't pretend to have knowledge about them. Cause I don't, but I think the name kinda spells it out. I've just never ridden one. It's something to check out. BTW, what's your price range?

Been looking at hybrids here. Most specifically a gary fisher montare, trek 7700 fx and specialized sirrus pro disc. I have to go back a few years to my old panasonic road bike and recently a marin road bike(forget what model it was) to make a comparison but I can say all 3 of these bikes ride similar in performance to both road bikes. The fisher has a suspended front fork while the other 2 have carbon forks and stays. Of the 3, I'm most likely going to go with the fisher, little more weight but road much better and for about $6-700 cheaper I couldn't see much if any sacrifice in quality. Plus the way the fisher is setup, you can ride it down smoother trails if you want. You will most likely not find one setup like I rode though. Out of factory they have a mix of xt and lx drive parts. The shop I'm working through had a montare with xt throughout plus had a retail price 200 under msrp. Basically it all comes down to your own comparisons though. Best thing you can do is narrow it down to a couple you like and give them a spin.

hangulmalmotayo said:

I'm new to cycling and I'm interested in mountain biking, but can I still use that bike on the road to travel and stuff? I'm looking into hardtail bikes. Any suggestions?

Josh

If your budget will allow it, maybe consider a 2nd set of matching wheels with some road slicks. There are some decent road tires made for mtb wheels. The cassette will only take a few seconds to switch over.

Greg

Fendercrazy said:

If your budget will allow it, maybe consider a 2nd set of matching wheels with some road slicks. There are some decent road tires made for mtb wheels. The cassette will only take a few seconds to switch over.

Greg

If your budget doesn't allow Greg's suggestion, you could just buy the road slick tires. Of course it will take a little longer to change tires than to switch wheelsets, but it's a lot cheaper.

Also maybe your local shop can recommend a tire that works well for both road and trails.

Fendercrazy said:

Also maybe your local shop can recommend a tire that works well for both road and trails.

If you are looking at a hardtail anyway, a great compromise is to buy a Cyclocross bike. Typically they have near road bike geometry and drop bars with 700c wheels that take larger knobbies. check out the Bianchi models, as well as the Lemond Poprad, Trek XO-1, and Cannondale models.

Using a mountain bike on the road is no problem Just go to your LBS (Local Bike Shop) and get another set of tires. There are mountain bike tires (26inch is the main size) that you can get that are smooth, made just for the road. If you dont know what to get, someone at the shop will love to help.

I work at a bike shop; I know tons about bikes. If you need any further information about mountain, road, hybrid or comfort bikes... let me know. I would love to help.

Thanks for all the responses. I'm thinking about spending about $1000. I've read some good stuff about the Giant XtC. So I'm going to check that out. What are some other good hardtail bikes in that price range?

[font=Arial]Here are just a few... Specialized and Giant... two good brands. These links are from the shop I work at... Bike Works in Orlando.

Specialized Hardrock Pro Disk 699.99
bikeworks.comitemdetails.cfmOpen ↗

Specialized Rockhopper Comp Disc 899.99
bikeworks.comitemdetails.cfmOpen ↗

Specialized P.2 $899.99
bikeworks.comitemdetails.cfmOpen ↗

Giant XTC2 $999.99
bikeworks.comitemdetails.cfmOpen ↗

Giant XTC $999.99
[/font]bikeworks.comitemdetails.cfmOpen ↗

tricycling311 said:

[font=Arial]Here are just a few... Specialized and Giant... two good brands. These links are from the shop I work at... Bike Works in Orlando.[/font][font=Arial]

Specialized Hardrock Pro Disk 699.99
bikeworks.comitemdetails.cfmOpen ↗

Specialized Rockhopper Comp Disc 899.99
bikeworks.comitemdetails.cfmOpen ↗

Specialized P.2 $899.99
bikeworks.comitemdetails.cfmOpen ↗

Giant XTC2 $999.99
bikeworks.comitemdetails.cfmOpen ↗

Giant XTC $999.99
[/font]bikeworks.comitemdetails.cfmOpen ↗

Hmm... what's the difference between the XTC and XTC 2?

Last year I bought a mountain bike for singletrack and noticed that when the weather was foul I wasn't riding enough (I'm a sissy with mud). So I bought a 2nd pair of rims for my hardtail and put slicks on them. Now I easily (2 minutes) swap the rims out to ride road or singletrack. It's more convenient than changing tires each time and 2 rims means I'm spreading the wear over time.

Good luck!

hey a hardtail should do u fine just make sure the front suspention is stiff enough, but for the ultimate(and expensive) ride maybe look at a light fully w/ lockout then you have the best of both worlds.

freeride_er said:

hey a hardtail should do u fine just make sure the front suspention is stiff enough, but for the ultimate(and expensive) ride maybe look at a light fully w/ lockout then you have the best of both worlds.

What's a "light fully w/ lockout?

a lightweight full suspension w/ lockouts on the suspension? That's my interpretation of it. Not a cheap option. Light and FS arent cheap, neither is FS w/ lockouts.

noonievut said:

What's a "light fully w/ lockout?

hangulmalmotayo said:

I'm new to cycling and I'm interested in mountain biking, but can I still use that bike on the road to travel and stuff? I'm looking into hardtail bikes. Any suggestions?

Josh

What is the problem with MTB on the road? I own both HT and FS and ride then both on roads and I even don't change knobby tires to slicks. I don't like to change tires at all. That's why I have racing and training wheelsets 🙂
I can do rolling metric century in 3 hrs on HT with 2.1" knobbies. I prefer knobbies because they are more flat proof on local roadsides full of broken glass and other flat-making garbage.