Use a MB on a road ok for general use?

MrMister111 · June 2019

Haven't rode in ages, C2W scheme come up and thought nay get a bike.

Originally I thought to get a hybrid as want to use the bike on normal roads and also coastline hill/gravel tracks, nothing in forests or serious mountain biking.

Popped to local Halfords today and looked at Boardman hybrid MTX but was actually drawn more to the MHT mountain bike range. I know hybrid tyres will be thinner but just thought they looked more for all road rather than light off road use?

So can you use mountain bike on road for general use, with a lockout front suspension? I know the tyres are more for off road but won't be going miles and miles anyway.

Also looking at getting around £700-800 C2W voucher, also halfords have 15% trade in currently so would work out even cheaper for me. So looking for recommendations from there please.

Thanks

cougie · June 2019

Just look around. Loads of people using MTB on the road so yes.

They're not as efficient as road or hybrid bikes with slicks on the road. It's harder pedalling with less grip.

MrMister111 · June 2019

Thanks. I do see people riding, they have to really to get from A to B a lot of the time anyway.

But I was wondering as my use will be split, and only light tracks on coastline was wondering if ok.

Also looking at some Boardman say, the gears on the MHT are o ly 10 or 11 speed. Is this enough for road work?

thistle_ · June 2019

MrMister111 wrote:

Thanks. I do see people riding, they have to really to get from A to B a lot of the time anyway.

But I was wondering as my use will be split, and only light tracks on coastline was wondering if ok.

Also looking at some Boardman say, the gears on the MHT are o ly 10 or 11 speed. Is this enough for road work?

Number of gears if fine, it's the range that matters. MTB should have some slightly lower gears which might help for big hills (and off road) but then you might spin out when riding on tarmac.

MrMister111 · June 2019

Ah ok thanks, I've no expert, but just thought 10 or 11 maybe not enough? Is there some way of checking and comparing against a hybrid bike for range of gears for a quick comparison maybe?

Thanks

andy9964 · June 2019

If you're not going off road on it, consider some Schwalbe Big Apple tyres, or similar. I have 29x2.35 on my Longitude. Much better for commuting than the 27.5x 2.8 that it came with.

The Rookie · June 2019

MrMister111 wrote:

Is there some way of checking and comparing against a hybrid bike for range of gears for a quick comparison maybe?

Maths.... divide chainring size by sprocket size and you get the gear ratio, do that for the highest and lowest gear on two bikes your comparing.

The number of individual gears is meaningless, for example when you add a chainring at the front you will only normally add 2 or 3 extra gears, the rest are just an overlap of ratios with the ones available in the existing chainrings, a wider range cassette also widens the gear range at the expence of maybe not having the 'just right' gear available under a specific circumstance. A 1x11 with a wide range cassette has a wider gear range than a 2x10 with a Hybrid style cassette.

larkim · June 2019

Have a look at https://www.bikecalc.com/speed_at_cadence if you're concerned about top end speed on a 10spd or 11spd bike.

The MHT 8.9 has a 32T chainring and a cassette range 11-46. So in the fastest gear at a healthy pedaling cadence of about 80 you'd be powering yourself along a flat road at about 19mph which would be more than enough for road use on a day to day basis. Where you'd notice spinning out (i.e. you want more gears) would be on a downhill road where you might reasonably expect to get up to 25-30mph.

Ultimately if you find a 10spd or 11spd MTB lacks to end speed on the road, it's a fairly easy switch to swap the front chainring for a larger one - the compromise being that pedaling uphill off road would get harder.

bartimaeus · June 2019

If you are going to use an MTB regularly on the road as well as for off road then I would get a second set of wheels and put some commuter slicks on them. I have an old 26" MTB with https://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-essen ... road-tyre/ and they are much quicker than MTB tyres. For 650b there are now lots of 'adventure' tyres which are pretty good (e.g. my wife has a set of wheels with WTB Horizon 47mm for her e-MTB for road commuting).

Any 3x or 2x MTB will have a high enough gear to go pretty quick, but if you are on a 1x set-up you will spin out earlier as they tend not to have the higher gears... I ride 9 miles to work on my Vitus Sentier (1x11 NX) once a week so I can coach MTB after work... and it's hard to go much above 16mph where I'd be doing 20mph on my road bike.

loudog · June 2019

I use my whyte 905 mtb for my 11 mile commute to work most days. If I want to be quick I can just lock the forks out and bomb along the roads. If I want to prat about on the way I can either go across fields, drop stairs, wheel along. Absolutely love it. Tried a road bike and thought "christ this is boring as hell"....

Currently using Schwalbe Rockrazors which seem to be great for commuting. (the way I do anyway)

billycool · June 2019

I have a 26" hardtail that is a sort of hybrid for local tracks and roads. Old school 3x9 gears. Just lock out the front forks and go. I use Panaracer Fire XC Pro tyres (26 x 2.1). You can pump them up to 60psi so they run nice and fast on the road but also very grippy off-road.

Use a MB on a road ok for general use?

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