what is my bike capable of..........

chrisrandall1984

I have a Boardman Hybrid Pro (along with a Defy) and I was wondering just how much it would stand up to?

Its running the stock Ritchey Pro rims and 28c tyres. For those that don't know it has a carbon forks.

Just wondered how safe I would be hopping on and off kerbs, or with a tyre change perhaps a little bit of very light off road stuff?? I mean it is a hybrid after all?

Thanks in advance

Chris

dowtcha

According to Martyn Aston you just need to spray your bike with WD40.

Balaclavas

You can ride pretty much anything on any bike, just it may not be an entirely pleasant experience for you. The bike will more than likely be fine. You might get rattled to death if you try any propper mountainbike trails, and the handling might be a bit interesting. You can get some bigger volume tyres, 31c maybe, which will soften the ride. If you mean towpath, smooth off-road paths and such, then that's nothing I wouldn't do on my race bike.

chrisrandall1984

Balaclavas wrote:

You can ride pretty much anything on any bike, just it may not be an entirely pleasant experience for you. The bike will more than likely be fine. You might get rattled to death if you try any propper mountainbike trails, and the handling might be a bit interesting. You can get some bigger volume tyres, 31c maybe, which will soften the ride. If you mean towpath, smooth off-road paths and such, then that's nothing I wouldn't do on my race bike.

Thanks for the reply.

MichaelW

I used to do lots of off-road cycling on my light touring bike with 28mm tyres. It makes a trail more of a technical challenge and you cant do the aggressive big-air stunts or high speed descents. There are some 'rock gardens" that will defeat 28mm but most tracks and trails are fair game.
32mm used to be a std touring tyre in the days when many roads lacked surfacing.

Monty Dog

You've probably got enough room to fit some 32mm cyclocross tyres - don't suggest you go hucking-off ramps down the skate part, but the likely limitations to your off-roading capabilites are more likely to be the fitness of the rider and your range of gears. I ride my CX bike on the local singletrack - apart from the occassional rooty, rocky descents I can cover the ground as quick as most MTBs - the rigid forks will give you a good upper-body workout too.

Anonymous

As has been said, you can do loads of stuff on it. You will be the limiting factor before the bike probably.
What I mean by that is that you will find it to uncomfortable to do stuff that the bike will not like.

The amount of people that unnecessarily buy mountain bikes (or hybrids with suspension) makes me want to scream.
Some people genuinely think you need a suspension fork to ride a hybrid on the road :shock:

chrisrandall1984

thanks for the info chaps. To be honest I thought as much, but was being a little precious about it all lol!!!

Initialised

Touring tyres (28mm-42mm slick/semi slick) are fine until you go proper off road. It's not nice having to walk back four miles to a bike shop after your pump got rattled off your frame a few miles back and you got a snakebite in a rocky stretch. At least when it happened to me the sun was out.

Even on red grade descents fear and ability is more of a limiting factor than tyre choice and whether you have suspension or not.