I want that one... oh, er actually that one is quite nice. Then again...

XTC2009

Oh dear. I appear to have created myself a problem. I have sold my MTB for spares. It cost too much to rebuild after a hard winter in the shed, and besides, I hadn't ridden it for a year anyway, due to family commitments. My road bike, too, is up for sale. The idea being that with the funds raised I can get a b'tard child of the two, something with the speed of the road bike and the capability to go off piste when the mood takes me. I ride mostly roads now, and I haven't been to a trail centre for a couple of years. Ok - three years.

Cyclescheme? Possibly the best bet.

Enter the Specialized Diverge. Ticks all the boxes. Bit expensive though. Oh well - it is a good bike, and has some great reviews. Maybe I'll plump for the basic A1. It's quite a lot cheaper than the smartweld version, the most neutral colour, which I like, and I can upgrade it too. Straight away in fact, with a Tiagra 4700 gearset and an 11-34 cassette for climbng, a cobl goblr seatpost for more comfort, and in the near future some cross tyres. That settles it then.

But hang on, look at the 2016 Boardman CX Team! It has everything I would possibly need - and hydraulic discs, and a SRAM Rival 1x11 groupset similar to what I had wanted to upgrade my MTB with before it became too expensive. It's stunning - perfect, almost! Better value than the Diverge. Oh, Halfords don't do cyclescheme. Can I raise that much cash? No. Oh well. Damn.

Ah, but I can afford the 2014 Boardman CX Team now. I've been drooling over that one since it came out, and now it's reduced to clear, making it even better value! Mind you, it does come with Avid mechanical discs, and the TRP Spyre's on the Diverge are supposed to be much better. I could always swap them out if I have any spare cash. Maybe. I've never been sure about the extra brake levers though. They might have to go too. So the 2016 version is a much better bike then. Fiddlesticks! I promised myself I wouldn't accept second best this time. Hmm.

What's this - the 2014 Boardman Team HT 650B is also reduced to clear. It's a good looking bike, it's specced about the same as my old MTB was before it died in the shed. I miss those fat tyres. Most of my best days on a bike were on a MTB, flowing down singletrack, away from traffic, away from it all, heart pumping, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I didn't die, I cleared it! Those Whyte MTB's I saw at my other LBS were tasty too... Hang on. Wasn't I looking for a cross/gravel/adventure bike? A MTB can do all that and more! Sure, it's not as fast on the road, but it's much more fun just about everywhere else...

Aaaargh!

So, my dilemma, simplified, is this:

My head says cross bike - when am I realistically going to get time to go to a trail centre or do a MTB marathon any time soon? I'm not, I've got my hands full with the kids, and I'm lucky if I get an hour or two free for a ride at the weekends until the kids are old enough to join me. So local roads with the opportunity to explore towpaths and bridleways, that's my new scope. Not forever, but for the time being. And low maintenance is key.

My heart says MTB - it's in my DNA, it's the most fun, and one day, maybe just one day soon, I might be able to get a free pass to visit a trail centre again. Just for a day.

If you stuck with me to the end - what would you do? (I can't have both).

cooldad

As you are posting in the MTB section, the obvious answer is MTB. Spec is gererally better as well. CX bikes are expensive.

So a light XC bike.

The Rookie

Indeed XC not CX......Rafal 720 or 740 from Decathlon for example

N0bodyOfTheGoat

You might find something you like at Paul's Cycles or Hargroves, they usually allow old reduced models on Cyclescheme for an extra 11/12% admin fee.

Giraffoto

XTC2009 wrote:

. . . I've got my hands full with the kids, and I'm lucky if I get an hour or two free for a ride at the weekends until the kids are old enough to join me. So local roads with the opportunity to explore towpaths and bridleways, that's my new scope. . .

I fully sympathize - the vast majority of my riding takes place after half past seven when I've put the children to bed, and when I get to go out in the daylight hours at the weekend I have to stick to the tamer, child friendly routes. So if I were doing it all again and choosing just one bike to do it all, I'd be considering a Diverge as well. You won't wreck it going over the rougher trails and you'll be able to get to the rougher trails faster.

XTC2009

Giraffoto wrote:

XTC2009 wrote:

. . . I've got my hands full with the kids, and I'm lucky if I get an hour or two free for a ride at the weekends until the kids are old enough to join me. So local roads with the opportunity to explore towpaths and bridleways, that's my new scope. . .

I fully sympathize - the vast majority of my riding takes place after half past seven when I've put the children to bed, and when I get to go out in the daylight hours at the weekend I have to stick to the tamer, child friendly routes. So if I were doing it all again and choosing just one bike to do it all, I'd be considering a Diverge as well. You won't wreck it going over the rougher trails and you'll be able to get to the rougher trails faster.

Thanks Giraffoto, it's good to hear from someone at a similar stage in their life! The only thing that I am surprised at by the Diverge is the price - it's not cheap for the spec. You have to go all the way to the £1800 Comp Smartweld before you get hydraulic discs, which goes back to what cooldad said. But I guess your paying for the frame and fork, and the brand. It is a gorgeous bike though, in any spec.

cooldad

Mainly paying for the brand I think. Shimano 105 bits on an £1,800 bike?

If I had to go CX,

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/CBVISBRIV22 ... ravel-bike

or full carbon

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/CBTOMVRIV22 ... cross-bike

The Spiderman

Have you considered getting a 29er mtb with a spare pair of slick or fast rolling tyres?

kevinharley

Unless I've missed it, what's your budget? I'm assuming around £1k as you were originally looking at Cyclescheme? But lower down the thread, £1800 ish is being talked about?

If you shopped around carefully, you could get both a CX / MTB bike second-hand for that kind of budget?

However, it sounds as though doing some 'proper' MTB-ing is off the cards for some time to come, and visiting a trail centre a far-off dream?

I'm a fan of my CX bike (a modest 4 year old Saracen Hack) and it really does do a decent job of multi-terrain riding, and in the right circumstances, can be a real 'KOM-weapon' (even in my hands). I use mine for commuting / work visits, the (very occasional) proper road riding I do, and some tamer off-road stuff (canal towpaths, bridleways, bits and pieces of singletrack and woodland trails); you'd be surprised at what it will manage off-road. Its not at its best on rocky / very rooty stuff (but will get you along, in a rattly, sometimes painful fashion, some quite bumpy stuff!), and I tend to avoid anything steeply down, but it works surprisingly well off road. I vary my tyre choices between 28c slicks (for long road rides, and usually most of the time in winter when the offroad trails are really just a bit too mucky for a CX bike), 35c landcruisers (most of the time - a cheap and decent compromise of off-road capability and tarmac rollability) and 40c Nano WTB (currently on, and loving the dry-ish, dusty-ish trails that have started to emerge recently). Some CX bikes will take up to 44c/48c tyres!

If your majority use is road, with a bit of mild-ish off-road thrown in, and there is no foreseeable prospect of some 'proper' MTB, I'd go for a CX/gravel bike. If you get a pass for a trail centre, you could always hire a MTB.

And, if your budget is a significant bit over £1k, I'd be trying to find a way (which in actual fact I am!) of getting one of these:

https://www.alpkit.com/sonder/sonder-camino-ti

You could order it with 700c wheels (clearance for up to 44mm) or 650b wheels (clearance for 48mm rubber). The Ti frame does mean you've only got basic brakes (Avid BB5 mechanical), so that might rule it out if you want hydro, although Sonder are apparently prototype testing alu Camino bikes, due later in the year, which will presumably be cheaper leaving you more wriggle room to spec hydro brakes ...

XTC2009

The Spiderman wrote:

Have you considered getting a 29er mtb with a spare pair of slick or fast rolling tyres?

I have considered this. I saw a gorgeous 29er at Halfords today - the new Boardman Team HT in a stunning blue with a 1x drivetrain. But... I don't know what slick tyres are available for 29ers. And if I do get out to any events these days they're all local charity road rides and sportives. I rode a 100k sportive on my old MTB kitted out with slicks a few years back, and it was fast, but not as fast a road bike and not as comfortable over that distance either. I do like the drops on a road bike for road riding because of the different hand positions on offer. To get over to ride some proper MTB trails I have to drive at least an hour first, and therein lies my problem - time. Look at it this way - if I lived on the doorstep of Cannock Chase I would have a MTB as my only bike, hands down, no brainer. But living where I do it just wouldn't get used at the moment as a MTB.

XTC2009

kevinharley wrote:

Unless I've missed it, what's your budget? I'm assuming around £1k as you were originally looking at Cyclescheme? But lower down the thread, £1800 ish is being talked about?

If you shopped around carefully, you could get both a CX / MTB bike second-hand for that kind of budget?

However, it sounds as though doing some 'proper' MTB-ing is off the cards for some time to come, and visiting a trail centre a far-off dream?

I'm a fan of my CX bike (a modest 4 year old Saracen Hack) and it really does do a decent job of multi-terrain riding, and in the right circumstances, can be a real 'KOM-weapon' (even in my hands).

I was looking at Cyclescheme, so £1000 is my budget. I may be able to stretch a little bit more, but not much, and only then if it is really going to bet me something special.

I can't get two second hand bikes for the best of both worlds unfortunately - it's a one bike show, no n+1 for me. I no longer have the space with the kids new bikes to store too.

Interestingly I was reading a review in Cycling Plus of the latest Saracen Hack 2, and it got best in test going up against some more expensive bikes. It looks nice, but I'd want to change the brakes and possibly the tyres straight away. I'm possibly being too fussy, but with my road bike I got the bottom of the range - against the advice of my LBS - and then spent a heap of time upgrading it to a spec that worked better for me. A spec similar to the next bike up the ladder anyway. So I don't want to make too many compromises this time around. It would be nice to get a bike that is all of everything that I want/need off the peg - maybe I'm asking for too much.

The Rookie

XTC2009 wrote:

The Spiderman wrote:

Have you considered getting a 29er mtb with a spare pair of slick or fast rolling tyres?

I have considered this. I saw a gorgeous 29er at Halfords today - the new Boardman Team HT in a stunning blue with a 1x drivetrain. But... I don't know what slick tyres are available for 29ers.

29ers use the same wheel diameter as 700c, so you can use any road or hybrid tyre of the right width, hundreds to choose from! My nephew has some 32mm road tyres he puts on his 29er rigid for road riding.

XTC2009

Thanks for the advice. In the end I managed to raise the funds for the new Boardman CX Team. It is a beauty! Delivered to my door, assembled by myself, checked over by my LBS. Can't wait to ride it - drowning in overtime at the moment, but I'll find a way! Not sure about the saddle, but I'll give it a go. If it doesn't get on with my posterior I was going to switch back to either my Bontrager Affinity from my old road bike or my Evoke from my MTB... being a cross bike I don't know which would be more suitable (road or MTB?). Or try an Ergon SRX3, or something else. I have time to think about this stuff, which is always dangerous...

The Rookie

Unless it's a whacky road saddle like the tri/TT ones I don't really see much difference between road and MTB as long as the nose doesn't catch your shorts!.