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A bike for all occasions

gillybocgillyboc Posts: 71
edited July 2009 in MTB general
I recently bought a rockhopper but since then Ive been doing a lot more road miles and commuting, should I get another bike or bikes, my wish list would be to own a Orange 5 pro for off road and a nice road/ racer but not sure about the commute bike should I put different tyres on the rockhopper or sell it to fund the others, what do other people use or would like to own.
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  • passoutpassout Posts: 4,425
    If you are doing a lot of road riding it makes sense to have a road bike and off road bike. Depends exactly what you are doing though.

    Personally I have 3: a road bike (racer), an MTB (FS) and a commuter/winter trainer road bike/cross bike/ take the kids out bike/ S/S. The last one gets used most!

    I'd keep the rockhopper either as a purely off road machine (save up for the Orange) or convert it to for road purpose (new tyres mainly).
    'Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible' Marcel Proust.
  • tjwoodtjwood Posts: 328
    I only just have storage space for one bike, so I ride my Rockhopper to work as well as off road.

    Commuting on an MTB is kind of like commuting in a Range Rover, but without any of the destroying-the-planet negativity. And who wouldn't want to get to work like that? ;-) (Maybe it's a little slower than a road bike, but it's still fun, and good exercise, so who cares?)
  • andy46andy46 Posts: 1,666
    i just use my hardrock for commuting but i would love a proper road bike, its only a 16 mile round trip so it's not worth it for me, plus i can go anywhere on my bike :)
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  • RaymondavalonRaymondavalon Posts: 5,346
    tjwood wrote:
    Commuting on an MTB is kind of like commuting in a Range Rover, but without any of the destroying-the-planet negativity.

    You always get a few..... the ignorant.. :shock:

    Back on topic

    My commuter is a hardtail with rigid forks and oversized Schwalbe Big Apple tyres, It makes a great commuter and still has the mountain bike appeal. I chose this over a true road bike as it gives me the option to hop pavements and take the occasional shortcut.

    I do have another two bikes but I'd never use them for commuting due to the theft risk and the wasted energy when pedaling a full susser and killing good MTB tyres on asphalt.

    I say put some slicks on the Rockhopper and use it to commute. Keep the forthcoming Orange 5 for it's intended purposes - off road use!
    If you ever need to use the 'hopper offroad, then it's out with the tyre levers and a 15 minute job to make it "off roadworthy" again
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  • NorthwindNorthwind Posts: 14,675
    tjwood wrote:
    Commuting on an MTB is kind of like commuting in a Range Rover, but without any of the destroying-the-planet negativity. And who wouldn't want to get to work like that? ;-) (Maybe it's a little slower than a road bike, but it's still fun, and good exercise, so who cares?)

    The reason I have a road bike- a s**t road bike- is mainly wear and tear... I don't want to be squandering expensive rubber, chains, cassettes, pads etc on tarmac. Also theftproofing, either of my wheels on the mtb are worth about twice as much as the whole road bike! So that's a bit of peace of mind. Storage space is a bummer though... You can't stack? If the bike sits in the hall or similiar, another can generally go above.
    Uncompromising extremist
  • tjwoodtjwood Posts: 328
    Yeah at the moment the only reason I have space to store a bike at all is because it hangs from the garage roof above my car bonnet. No space for a second one. (And no, there is nowhere else to park the car other than in the garage...).

    Thankfully theft isn't really a concern at work as I work on a secure site.

    I can't see why I'd want to ride a crappy bike to work every day when I had a good bike sitting unsued at home. That to me is a bigger waste than having a bit of extra wear and tear. If I had the storage space and the money I might get a slightly more commute-friendly bike, but it would have to be something decent or I wouldn't want to ride it.

    I guess I really need to get a job and live somewhere that can be reached by a series of nice off-road tracks ;-)
  • NorthwindNorthwind Posts: 14,675
    tjwood wrote:
    I can't see why I'd want to ride a crappy bike to work every day when I had a good bike sitting unsued at home. That to me is a bigger waste than having a bit of extra wear and tear. If I had the storage space and the money I might get a slightly more commute-friendly bike, but it would have to be something decent or I wouldn't want to ride it.

    My rubbish road bike is better on the road than my Soul, though, even with both on the same tyres (naturally the roadie has slicks).
    Uncompromising extremist
  • tjwoodtjwood Posts: 328
    Northwind wrote:
    My rubbish road bike is better on the road than my Soul, though

    Well I suppose my point (if indeed I had one!) was that it mostly depends on your definintion of "better". Which is very much a personal thing.

    If I wanted to get to work in the shortest time possible, with the minimum of physical effort, I would get in my car and drive. :)
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