Help deciding on bike

KirkSutherland

Looking for some advice...

Currently have a ridgeback hybrid - speed or velocity can't remember. I'm commuting 9 miles each way a day and i'm looking for something comfortable to ride. I find the rigid fork and 700c wheels of the ridgeback give a little bit of a harsh ride.

I recently convinced myself that I was going to buy a mountain bike to soak up the bumps/potholes but i'm a little reluctant to give up too much speed.

I was thinking of getting a 29er with slick tyres and treaded edges for when i'm banking into corners so that I'm able to keep the speed whilst gaining the comfort.

Anybody have any thoughts on this? Anyone bought a mtb only to revert back to hybrid?

The Rookie

Treaded edges will give less grip on Tarmac than slick road tyres.

You could look at a hybrid with short travel suspension forks, or just a bike with a bit more tyre volume.

mr_eddy

I would avoid a MTB especially for commuting, even with slicks on you will find the heavy wheels and geometry not very helpful for commuting. I would also walk away from Hybrids, The fact they are designed to be ok at lots of things means that by definition that are compromised. You say you want to keep up speed so you need a road specific bike.

A 9 mile commute whilst not massive is still enough in my opinion to warrant a tarmac specific bike namely a road bike or touring bike. The harsh ride you refer too I suspect is more down to the setup of the bike and width of the tyres more than the size of the wheels. Also a carbon fork and double wrap bar tape massively improves comfort as does getting a shorter stem (meaning more sit up position).

Many road/touring bikes now come with decent tyre clearance so depending on budget I would go with a cable disc equipped road bike, Something that will happily take 28c tyres. Stick on some mudguards and bingo - A fast and COMFORTABLE commute.

Just a small point about the tyres - Tread in tyres on tarmac does not aid grip - Tread is designed for water/mud clearance or for grip when in mud or sand. On roads you want slicks as they have more rubber contacting the road hence more grip. Grip from tyres is determined by the pressure/contact patch/rubber compound and not by tread pattern. Car tyres have tread because they have larger contact patches and due to the speeds they do can aquaplane (You can't aquaplane on a bike)

mr_eddy

Take a look at this as an example:

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-ar ... e-EV244107

Carbon fork - Check
Wide tyres (will take up to 40c) - Check
Disc brakes - Check
Rack & Guard Mounts - Check

Also in a suitably sensible black colour and at 10kg its a a lot lighter than most 29ers - replace the stock 35c tyres with a more modest 28c gatorskin or something and you would be under 10kg and way faster than most MTB riders.

The Rookie

While my hybrid ticks all those boxes and comes in at under 9kg, I prefer flat bars but they are set low for road riding.

Oh and those heavy 29 wheels are sub 2kg (off a pinnacle as it happens) which is on a par with mid rangish road wheels.

anthdci

I'd agree with EDDY, 28mm slick tyres, carbon fork, carbon seat post and double wrapped bar tape will make a big difference to your comfort level.