Multi use bike advice

paddyeds

Hi All,

Pretty new to the forum so hello to all,

I must say that I havnt really dipped my feet into cycling since I passed my driving test but now find the pastime nice and refreshing.
I have been out and about cycling on my sons rebuilt MTB and now feel like moving onto something a little lighter and faster.

I live in the hills of mid/north wales where a mountain bike is pretty much ideal but I do however know a group of lads who do the 10k road sprints on a friday evening throughout the summer which I would like to try.

My question is simple, I have visited various bike shops around my area and one bike that has caught my attention is the Dolan Cyclocross bike, now although it has knobbly tyres etc the bike shop advises that it would be a more than capable sprint bike should the tyres be changed to somthing more suitable or perhaps a spare set of wheels with road tyres on for ease of changing.

Can you guys on here advise me on whether this is a good move or do I purely go out and look for a dedicated road bike and save the MTB for the off road stuff??

Also is the Dolan the best choice for around the £700 to£800 mark or can you recommend anything else????

Many thanks

Paddy

itchieritchie

Hey mate,

welcome, I was new myself not so long ago. LOADS of really clued up - and friendly - people on here so don't be afraid to ask. In fact a lot of us are more than willing to throw our tuppence worth at any topic...I know I am...!!

Never owned one myself but from what I understand, Dolan makes great frames. I think that's a given.

But IMO a cyclocross is def one of the most versatile bikes around. I own two bikes. One is my speed machine. Carbon fibre race bike, with tribars etc for triathlons. The other is my everyday friendly bike, a steel framed Genesis Flyer. Single speed, which is great for London. Low maintenance, just needs a clean and an oiling once in a while.

For anything other than tarmac though, neither would cut the mustard. So for your purposes, a cycloX sounds perfect. How about a Spesh Tricross? I hear they're good. Not technically cycloX, but a bit of an all-rounder.

See what you think. Seems just the ticket and fits your price bracket, even if you get it brand new. Only thing is the weight. 10.9 kgs means you're not likely to be leading leading the pack on those sprints you mentioned. Maybe the Dolan is lighter.

http://www.bikemagic.com/bike-reviews/s ... /4603.html

The ideal solution is always to have 2 bikes, each one suited to the purpose for which it's intended. You get a much more rewarding ride that way as you know you have something slick and light for the road and something burly and grippy for the trails. But that depends on how much you can shell out.

Hope that helps. Good luck and be sure to let us know what you end up with.

Cheers!

paddyeds

thanks for the reply, does anyone else have any ideas or opinions???

Just wish my company would pull their fingers out and get c2w scheme sorted out

cheers

skyd0g

I'd say the Dolan Cyclocross could be a good candidate for the situation you describe.

Although possibly if you're keeping hold of the MTB, you could lean to something a little more road specific? Of the Dolan range, maybe the Mythos is one example.

c_fmills

Hi,

Just recently got a Boardman CX. It's £999, about £200 more than your price bracket, but I can't reccomend it enough. I've used it for CX throughout the winter, managing to keep up with MTBers around South Downs Way etc. in Hampshire. I've got a spare set of road wheels I keep for use on road, and once I've swapped those on the bike comes in at around 8.5kg, and still stiff as well thanks to BB30. Overall, it seems perfect, and very little compromise in anything I want to do. IMO, CX is definitely the way to go - you'll also notice a good improvement in your MTB skills after a few rides offroad on a CX bike...

bompington

Depends how off road your off road is. I have an mtb (cheap one) which does me fine for walking the dog & family outings in our local woods, plus occasional more challenging stuff, and a road bike for, err, roads - I have no experience of CX bikes but I find that even dog walking and family outings have a knack of winding up jumping ditches, bouncing off tree roots and belting down eyeball-rattling single track descents - the descents, in particular, were a bit dodgy on my old mtb once its fork seized up, I find it much, much more pleasant on my new one.
Like I said I have no experience of CX bikes at all so the advice of those who do might outweigh that, but I'm certainly happy with the combination I have.

ynyswen24

This is a question that came up when my mates and I were having a coffee stop recently and I had to go with keeping my Planet-X Kaffenback over the other bikes I have, which surprised some (the others are a Planet-X carbon, Bianchi steel, Giant carbon mtb) but it is the most versatile and would do most of the jobs pretty well that the others do specifically.
It's also a great fun bike to ride.
The kaff' isn't a true cyclo-cross frameset being a mix of the geometry from their aluminium race frame and the Uncle John Cyclo-cross so a bit limited on tyre size (up to 32mm tyres only) but thats plenty for the off road stuff I ride. With 23mm tyres on it feels pretty lively.

paddyeds

Many thanks for the advice guys,

the general concensus seems to be keep the mountain bike for general fitness/knocking about on and doing the very limited off road stuff i do eg the odd trail through the woods or canal towpaths and buy a dedicated road bike for the more high speed stuff.

this begs the next question, what road bike for the odd 10k time trial but mostly general fitness riding. my only concern is that my local main roads are really rough after the winter we have had but still they have run the annual triathlon on them today, (Chirk North Wales)
feel sorry for the derriers of those competiitors lol.

anyway, any more advice on the £500 bike or possibly second hand??? would be appreciated or am I better off now looking through other threads on the forum

Many thanks

Paddy

paddyeds

I have been trolling through the internet most of the day and have found a bike that falls into my price range and seems to be a good looking bike,

Does anyone have any experience with the Scott Speedster S50?? it seems to be a nice looking bike with a half decent frame that could possibly last and be a nice canvas for upgrading in the future

any thoughts, I am looking pretty much at bikes that are sold at tweeks cycles as a friend of mine works there and it would make things easier when needing a service etc as he could take it for me as I dont seem to have time during the week to vist any LBS.

They also do felt and genesis but i dont really like the looks of those in my bracket and after all something that looks nice begs to be ridden more IMO

Sudor

Hi Paddy

I decided to but a CX for a winter trainer and the flexibility for occasional light off road with mates who are into MTB. There are some great lightweight alloy frames around at reasonable prices. Put some road tyres on or buy a second set of road wheels and you have yourself a perfectly acceptable road bike. I've kept up with the group on a century ride no problem and enjoyed the ocassional CX race (fantastic conditioning training and fun) . Mind though ,the top end CX frames often don't come with bottle cage brackets due to short race event times.