Looking for a road bike, that can be used off road??????

Daron9999999999
Daron9999999999 Posts: 20
edited July 2013 in Road buying advice
Hi there! I'm 17 and looking at getting into some more serious cycling. Me and my dad do a fair amount of cycling but never that serious, at the moment I have a slightly above average mountain bike. But I'm now looking for something that I can use to get to work quicker, as well as looking for something i can use after school for rides that is fast! Although I still want to be able to go on off road trails and hill bridle paths with as I enjoy doing that with my dad. He has a sport hybrid which he has added thinner tyres to. He doesn't recommend that I do the same as he hates it on the road but can't afford to replace it yet. He's also not to up to date with bikes at the moment so can't really advise me, so that's why I'm asking here!

I have had a look into it and a cyclocross bike seems to be a better solution than a hybrid, although I'm unsure how well it would do on road in comparison to a full blown road bike. Another bike I've seen is the giant rapid bike's which claim to be decent off road, not sure if to what extent though. Would it be possible to put thicker tyres on a road bike? Or thinner ones on a hybrid ect. Any help would be greatly appreciated, one final thing, I'm looking at the <£600 price bracket.

Daron :D

Comments

  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    Cyclocross bike sounds ideal - you can easily fit narrower road tyres and it'll be as quick on the road as any road bike. Fitting wider, CX tyres on a road bike is more difficult - on most you'll struggle with anything bigger than 28mm and mud will get packed under the brakes if trying to offroad in anything but dry conditions. I simply swap the wheels on my CX bike for road use.

    You could also fit slicks to your MTB but it's likely you'll run out of gears.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • Daron9999999999
    Daron9999999999 Posts: 20
    Cheers, is there any variations in cyclocross bikes, as in some more designed for Tarmac and some for mud, or are they all pretty similar? Well apart from quality differences of course.
  • Daron9999999999
    Daron9999999999 Posts: 20
    Found one I like the look and sound of, it's the revolution cross. Does anyone have any experience of revolution, not heard much of them, or used this bike? Would be greatly appreciated
  • passout
    passout Posts: 4,425
    edited July 2013
    Revolution Cross looks great value. The Genesis cross bikes may interest you too - CDF, Vapour etc. Personally I'd be looking ata Kinesis Tripster - see http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=kin ... ORM=NVPFVR. I know that the Cross & Tripster will take 38mm tyres - maybe even 40mm. For what you want these bikes are ideal. Other cross bikes are more race specific - may not take mudguards, take wider tyres, not quite as felxible or be quite so suitable for messing around in the woods on - great for going fast over cyclo cross course though.
    'Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible' Marcel Proust.
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    If you fit 23/25c slicks to a CX bike it will be almost as fast as a road bike. The only real difference being the tyre clearance.
  • Daron9999999999
    Daron9999999999 Posts: 20
    The tipster looks really nice! The others do as well, just a bit on the pricey side. Thanks both! :D
  • Daron9999999999
    Daron9999999999 Posts: 20
    markhewitt1978 wrote:
    If you fit 23/25c slicks to a CX bike it will be almost as fast as a road bike. The only real difference being the tyre clearance.

    I think I'm going to get the revolution cross. It has 35c tyres on it. Ideally I don't want to be changing tyres constantly, but if there is going to be a massive performance difference for 25c on road and then 35c off road I'm prepared to do so. But would it be out of the question to use 30c tyres? Would they get the best of both worlds or not satisfy either?

    Cheers daron :D
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    Daron9999999999 wrote:
    markhewitt1978 wrote:
    If you fit 23/25c slicks to a CX bike it will be almost as fast as a road bike. The only real difference being the tyre clearance.

    I think I'm going to get the revolution cross. It has 35c tyres on it. Ideally I don't want to be changing tyres constantly, but if there is going to be a massive performance difference for 25c on road and then 35c off road I'm prepared to do so. But would it be out of the question to use 30c tyres? Would they get the best of both worlds or not satisfy either?

    Cheers daron :D

    It's more about the tread on the tyres, if you are riding on road you want no tread, but this will compromise your grip on gravel/mud, likewise tread will slow you down on road.

    I think if I had such a bike I'd want two sets of wheels I can chop and change depending on what I'm doing.

    I do like a bit of gravel path riding myself, a racing bike with 23c slicks deals with it surprisingly well.
  • Daron9999999999
    Daron9999999999 Posts: 20
    Cheers, would it be worth going for a bigger pair of tyres than the 35c then for off road, of will they deal fine?
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    Daron9999999999 wrote:
    Cheers, would it be worth going for a bigger pair of tyres than the 35c then for off road, of will they deal fine?

    Nah they would be spot on :)
  • Daron9999999999
    Daron9999999999 Posts: 20
    Cheers, been great help!
  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    If you change your CX tyres to a semi-slick design i.e. file tread down the centre and knobs at the side, you can roll plenty fast enough on the road IME, but if you hit some loose / soft conditions then the side knobs give you grip. If you want a trail-oriented tyre that rolls well on tarmac, then Swalbe Smart Sams are cheap and durable - I'm using a pair on one of my CX bikes for the summer which sees a combinations of fire roads, singletrack, towpath and a bit of tarmac. I'd avoid any CX race-oriented tyres for general use as they are designed to be flexible/supple for grip and therefore have little puncture protection.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    I've used schwalbe marathon plus tyres on my cross off road just fine. Not too knobbly but plenty of puncture protection. They're fairly heavy on road - but might be worth it if you just have one set of tyres.

    Ideally two wheelsets is what you want - but thats a bit pricey.
  • giant_man
    giant_man Posts: 6,878
    cougie what would your ideal wheelsets for a CX bike be? if you could choose, rims/hubs/tyres combo ...
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    markhewitt1978 wrote:
    I think if I had such a bike I'd want two sets of wheels I can chop and change depending on what I'm doing.
    This is what I do - I've got a CX for wet commutes and general duties - for the road I've got a set of Fulcrum Racing 5's and off road is just the stock wheels (for now). On the road I use a 23-11 cassette (it's a triple - so 30x23 is 34" - which is the same as a 34x26 on a compact double and a bit easier than a 39x26 on a standard double).
    Off the road I use the standard provided 32-11 - but not done anything significant offroad to worry about that being the right/wrong ratio - the "worst" I've done is tow a trailer complete with child - and I used the 30-23 on that (having swapped tyres because it was before I sorted a second wheelset) and it was ok.
    When I first got the CX and rode to work I found the jumps between cogs with the 32-11 were just too uncomfortable - hence the change to a 23-11 - I also found that with the range of the 32-11 I didn't use the inner front ring (30) at all on the road, so was a complete waste - basically I'd wear down the bottom 1/2 of the cassette and the middle/outer chainrings. With a wider range I'll make more use of all the gears available and get a more even wear.

    So - basically - two wheelsets saves swapping tyres + you can put a better cassette ratio on for each activity and even out the wear.
  • Daron9999999999
    Daron9999999999 Posts: 20
    Thanks for the help, taken a look at the schwalbe marathon plus, looks ideal! Would I lose any off road performance going for a lighter 25/28c or is the tread good enough to cope? Or is the weight of the tyre not that influential?
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    The weight of the tyre isn't important except in puncture protection to a degree, and that the heavier the tyre the slower your acceleration.

    As for what width, it depends what sort of riding you are doing, e.g. if you're talking crushed limestone paths which aren't too rocky, then my 700x23c slicks cope very well! Back in the day I rode reasonably rocky railway paths with 700x28c but tbh the ride could have been more comfortable.

    I think for you try a 700x28c with a bit of light tread as a summer tyre, and simply see how you get on.

    I'd also recommend you get a pair of Continental GP4000S in 25mm for when you want to do pure road riding, they are an excellent tyre.
  • Daron9999999999
    Daron9999999999 Posts: 20
    Thanks, think I'm sorted now! Bike and decent tyres! Thanks everyone! :D
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    Daron9999999999 wrote:
    Thanks, think I'm sorted now! Bike and decent tyres! Thanks everyone! :D

    Once you're sorted we will require pictures.
  • Daron9999999999
    Daron9999999999 Posts: 20
    Hahaha, might do. Although it won't be anything special, especially in comparison to all the other stuff up on here and your own bikes I'm sure!!!! Cheers again!

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