Gary Fisher (Trek) Montare 2011

dmorton

Has anyone got one? I'm considering getting one this year for riding to work on. It's mainly roads to work but I can got offroad down some forest firetracks and tracks on the way. It's got higher gearing to help out on roads but is definitely more mountain bike than a 'hybrid' I think.

http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/bike_path/fisher_dual_sport/montare/

Thoughts/others to consider appreciated

cooldad

Seems expensive

Down the Road

It is perfect for what you describe.

If my wife would let me go off road again ( along story involving broken bones and her being pregnant) I would trade my district for another Montare.
Takes a Conti 2.1 tyre for the weekend run off piste as well.

Only upgrade might be to the weekday tyres and think of something like Marathon Plus or similar

dmorton

cooldad wrote:

Seems expensive

I've seen it for close to £700 online, what makes it look expensive. Seen similar for less?

By the way my commute is Sandhurst to Church Crookham, in your area by the look of your location

dmorton

Down the Road wrote:

It is perfect for what you describe.

If my wife would let me go off road again ( along story involving broken bones and her being pregnant) I would trade my district for another Montare.
Takes a Conti 2.1 tyre for the weekend run off piste as well.

Only upgrade might be to the weekday tyres and think of something like Marathon Plus or similar

I'd posted about a bike for this before and you'd advised then, thanks. i made this post with Montare in the title to see if I could get some direct feedback on it.

dmorton

I've wondered about a fork upgrade to the Montare in the future:

- Would the frame take a 100mm fork without messing up the handling?
- Fisher uses a custom crown offset on forks, how easy is it to get hold of forks with this on to preserve the handling?

The other option is to get a Trek Cobia, put skinny tyres and higher gearing on I suppose....

Down the Road

No real need to alter the gearing on a Cobia as 44 x 11 with a 29er tyre is quite large. if you fitted a standard rd tyre ( too thin but just for example) this gives a 108" gear which is good for about 40mph

dmorton

I've got some answers from Trek:

dmorton wrote:

I've wondered about a fork upgrade to the Montare in the future:

- Would the frame take a 100mm fork without messing up the handling?

This would apparently put extra strain on the top tube (which the frame is not designed for) and void the warranty

dmorton wrote:

- Fisher uses a custom crown offset on forks, how easy is it to get hold of forks with this on to preserve the handling?

Only the hardtail mountain bikes (such as the Cobia) use the G2 offset not the dual sport range. So that's got me a bit further.

Weight is the next issue, I'd imagine the Montare to be lighter than the Cobia?

dmorton

What I'm trying to work out is what would make the Montare offer better on-road performance than the Cobia with the same or similar tyres as the Montare ships with

Down the Road

Montare Geometry will lead to better ON-road performance than the ATB Cobia.

If you want to improve the off road capability of the Montare get the Cobia The weight will make NO difference to the Road Performance of either bike.

You could stick any 100mm fork into the montare without doing it any real harm

dmorton

OK, would a Cobia with road tyres/slicks be a lot better on the road than my 2010 Orange Crush with road tyres/slicks? There's no point me getting another bike that is just going to be similar to what I already have.

Down the Road

In a word Yes

dmorton

Another question

I'm pretty settled on a proper 29er now, which is better value, the Trek Cobia or the cheaper Mamba? (I think I prefer the colour scheme on the Mamba). The GF range of 29ers shares the same frame so worth upgrading

Any other good 29ers in the £600-£800 range?

Down the Road

GET THE COBIA.

See this review for the truth on Mamba

MAMBA REVIEW

dmorton

That doesn't sound good at all for the Mamba!

Wheel are in motion now to get hold of a Cobia, just out of interest is there a rigid fork out there for that will work with the G2 geometry? I thinking of the crown offset that the fisher's have. Maybe putting on a fork like the On One carbon might work ok, just making the handling less sharp, which on the road wouldn't be much of an issue.

Shaggy_Dog

dmorton wrote:

That doesn't sound good at all for the Mamba!

Wheel are in motion now to get hold of a Cobia, just out of interest is there a rigid fork out there for that will work with the G2 geometry? I thinking of the crown offset that the fisher's have. Maybe putting on a fork like the On One carbon might work ok, just making the handling less sharp, which on the road wouldn't be much of an issue.

The offset is there to improve the responsiveness of the steering, fitting a rigid fork (providing it's not suspension corrected) will steepen the head angle, giving the same result.

One small point on the Mamba/Cobia models, they won't take a rack. If that's something you think you might want to do, go for a dualsport, you can always fit larger tyres to it later and if you're considering putting a rigid fork on it you don't need to worry about the better fork on the Cobia.

dmorton

I found the eXotic forks, they seem very reasonable for the price although appear to be "suspension corrected" http://www.carboncycles.cc/?s=0&t=2&c=43&p=197&


A rack isn't high on the priority list at all, although aren't there ways round not having the correct holes in your frame? Mudguards would be good, the Montare appears to have bosses under the down tube but the Cobia appears to lack these, at least in the pics, not that that is really a problem though.