Dem bicicletas, doe

[ChrisoftheNorth]

The biggest difference IMO is the riding position between the two bikes. Road bikes are more leaned forward and down, while MTB bikes are a bit more back and relaxed. Makes it feel more stable when bombing offroad over rocks/roots/etc. The forward position of a roadbike off-road would make me feel like I'm super susceptible to going over the bars, and I think you are to an extent. On the flip, the rearward, slightly more upright position of an MTB feels/is slower on the road.

I still think just buying a cheap used MTB on CL or FB Marketplace or wherever is you best bet. An older 26" hard tail for under $500 should be easy to find and sell again for minimal loss if you don't like it. MTBs are just fine on the road for your purposes (since the road is your last focus), but way better off-road and on trails and whatnot.

[coogles]

You want a monstercross bike, honestly. It'll have sharp enough handling to ride on the road, but still be slack enough to take on the trail, you'd have some cush from the fatter tires when you air them down, and you could air them up for riding the gravel rail trails. You literally would have the one bike to do it all, and you'd be quite comfy on it. You just might have to have two sets of wheels to really go fast on the road.



You don't want a hybrid - nobody wants a hybrid except old people who just want a bike to hang on the wall of their garage to tell their neighbors, "Yeah, Nance and I ride." They're not made for doing more than 10 MPH on a bike path. And you don't want anything with an upright position and flat bars if you're going to be riding on the road either, because you're just going to hate life being tortured by any semblance of a breeze in your face.

I'll disagree with that piece. # of times I went into the drops on my CAAD10 other than to just fuck around? 0. I was on the hoods or the straight bar 100% of the time, and now I ride my old 26er MTB around with flat bars NFG. I'm not racing anyone, I couldn't care less about some wind in my face on the way to the park or out to dinner with my wife on her (gulp) hybrid. Feels good.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

[/b]

I'll disagree with that piece. # of times I went into the drops on my CAAD10 other than to just fuck around? 0. I was on the hoods or the straight bar 100% of the time, and now I ride my old 26er MTB around with flat bars NFG. I'm not racing anyone, I couldn't care less about some wind in my face on the way to the park or out to dinner with my wife on her (gulp) hybrid. Feels good.

See, I know Troy. Troy wants to go fast. Troy only knows fast. Troy does not do 5/10ths.

He's also never experienced fast on a road bike...which is good. "Fast" on a MTB on the street might be fast enough.

BUT

Riding a road bike fast on the road will spoil you. I can't ride my MTB on the street anymore either.

[troyguitar]

I'll disagree with that piece. # of times I went into the drops on my CAAD10 other than to just fuck around? 0. I was on the hoods or the straight bar 100% of the time, and now I ride my old 26er MTB around with flat bars NFG. I'm not racing anyone, I couldn't care less about some wind in my face on the way to the park or out to dinner with my wife on her (gulp) hybrid. Feels good.

See, I know Troy. Troy wants to go fast. Troy only knows fast. Troy does not do 5/10ths.

I'm legit whether I want to go fast vs just as fast as I can on something versatile... because bicycles are never actually fast unless you dedicate your whole life to them and are going down a steep hill.

I was wondering about it this morning - Does riding on the road get safer if you are going faster? Being closer to the speed of traffic might make it less crazy, but how close can you really get without a motor? 20 vs 15 in a 35-55 zone doesn't seem much different, either way people are coming up on you quickly.

[Johnny_P]

You want a monstercross bike, honestly. It'll have sharp enough handling to ride on the road, but still be slack enough to take on the trail, you'd have some cush from the fatter tires when you air them down, and you could air them up for riding the gravel rail trails. You literally would have the one bike to do it all, and you'd be quite comfy on it. You just might have to have two sets of wheels to really go fast on the road.



You don't want a hybrid - nobody wants a hybrid except old people who just want a bike to hang on the wall of their garage to tell their neighbors, "Yeah, Nance and I ride." They're not made for doing more than 10 MPH on a bike path. And you don't want anything with an upright position and flat bars if you're going to be riding on the road either, because you're just going to hate life being tortured by any semblance of a breeze in your face.

I'll disagree with that piece. # of times I went into the drops on my CAAD10 other than to just fuck around? 0. I was on the hoods or the straight bar 100% of the time, and now I ride my old 26er MTB around with flat bars NFG. I'm not racing anyone, I couldn't care less about some wind in my face on the way to the park or out to dinner with my wife on her (gulp) hybrid. Feels good.

I like hybrid bikes. I like all bikes. I genuinely enjoy riding the bike share tanks.

Road shifters are great for the road. Hand positioning is excellent for pong distances. Drops are awesome for off road bombing for more brake leverage and to keep your hands from flying off the bike. It’s hard to grip brake hoods when you’re bombing a rocky descent.

Monster cross would be great for Troy. But he’s also not riding a huge distance to trails so a mountain bike would work fine.

[Johnny_P]

See, I know Troy. Troy wants to go fast. Troy only knows fast. Troy does not do 5/10ths.

I'm legit whether I want to go fast vs just as fast as I can on something versatile... because bicycles are never actually fast unless you dedicate your whole life to them and are going down a steep hill.

I was wondering about it this morning - Does riding on the road get safer if you are going faster? Being closer to the speed of traffic might make it less crazy, but how close can you really get without a motor? 20 vs 15 in a 35-55 zone doesn't seem much different, either way people are coming up on you quickly.

Inner city streets yeah you can keep up with traffic. Back roads not really. You lower the speed difference but a car will still fly up on you.

[troyguitar]

My goals are twofold:

80% focus is on getting my ass in shape, that means riding roads for up to an hour door to door several days a week.

20% focus is on trying out the actual fun things that people do on bikes - trails and

The only reason I'm even thinking about buying anything else already is that I'm too weak to push the heavy Schinn and its 39/28 gear up the hills around here and can't organize rides to end on a downhill since I live at the top of a hill.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

See, I know Troy. Troy wants to go fast. Troy only knows fast. Troy does not do 5/10ths.

I'm legit whether I want to go fast vs just as fast as I can on something versatile... because bicycles are never actually fast unless you dedicate your whole life to them and are going down a steep hill.

I was wondering about it this morning - Does riding on the road get safer if you are going faster? Being closer to the speed of traffic might make it less crazy, but how close can you really get without a motor? 20 vs 15 in a 35-55 zone doesn't seem much different, either way people are coming up on you quickly.

I don't find riding on the road with traffic fun at all and avoid it at all costs. All my road riding is done on carefully planned residential streets with minimum traffic and speed limits 25-35 max. Anything more I don't enjoy. I avg about 15-17mph on my road bike, so I'm not going WAY slower than the traffic I do encounter. If I'm on a stretch with a lot of traffic, I can get to 20-22mph to keep up for a short distance. And I'm an out of shape fatass.

Most of my riding is done on paths and off-road. That's where the real fun is for me.

[troyguitar]

Easier said than done without driving to Philly - hell that might be the closest place I can rent one. I haven't talked to every shop yet but so far within a 90 minute drive there is one place which rents proper road bikes and two places which rent cheap hybrid/comfort/touring bikes - zero MTB options. Maybe just buy a Huffy or whatever on crangslist and throw it in the trash when I'm done?

Bottom line is I don't want two bikes, I barely even want one bike. The whole gravel/cross/hybrid idea seems as close as it gets to the WRX of bicycles: good enough for autox, rallyx, ice racing, commuting, camping, whatever you want to do besides rock crawling is only a tire swap away... It sounds like you're saying that these things suck on road and are flat out dangerous off road so I can't win.

You want a monstercross bike, honestly. It'll have sharp enough handling to ride on the road, but still be slack enough to take on the trail, you'd have some cush from the fatter tires when you air them down, and you could air them up for riding the gravel rail trails. You literally would have the one bike to do it all, and you'd be quite comfy on it. You just might have to have two sets of wheels to really go fast on the road.



You don't want a hybrid - nobody wants a hybrid except old people who just want a bike to hang on the wall of their garage to tell their neighbors, "Yeah, Nance and I ride." They're not made for doing more than 10 MPH on a bike path. And you don't want anything with an upright position and flat bars if you're going to be riding on the road either, because you're just going to hate life being tortured by any semblance of a breeze in your face.

Sorry I keep forgetting that "hybrid" is not a general term and is a specific category of casual bike.

Isn't the very first bike I posted exactly what you are talking about? This thing:

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/mot ... e-bike.htm

They have a scratched one for $499 shipped in my size, seems like it ticks all the boxes. I do keep thinking about this one though, the idea of the 1x11 simplicity is appealing:

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/gra ... -bikes.htm

40/10 top gear might be too short for roads though? Looks like most road bikes go at least 4.5:1. Maybe if I get strong enough I can put a bigger front gear on it. MODZZZ BRO

[Johnny_P]

You want a monstercross bike, honestly. It'll have sharp enough handling to ride on the road, but still be slack enough to take on the trail, you'd have some cush from the fatter tires when you air them down, and you could air them up for riding the gravel rail trails. You literally would have the one bike to do it all, and you'd be quite comfy on it. You just might have to have two sets of wheels to really go fast on the road.



You don't want a hybrid - nobody wants a hybrid except old people who just want a bike to hang on the wall of their garage to tell their neighbors, "Yeah, Nance and I ride." They're not made for doing more than 10 MPH on a bike path. And you don't want anything with an upright position and flat bars if you're going to be riding on the road either, because you're just going to hate life being tortured by any semblance of a breeze in your face.

Sorry I keep forgetting that "hybrid" is not a general term and is a specific category of casual bike.

Isn't the very first bike I posted exactly what you are talking about? This thing:

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/mot ... e-bike.htm

They have a scratched one for $499 shipped in my size, seems like it ticks all the boxes. I do keep thinking about this one though, the idea of the 1x11 simplicity is appealing:

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/gra ... -bikes.htm

40/10 top gear might be too short for roads though? Looks like most road bikes go at least 4.5:1. Maybe if I get strong enough I can put a bigger front gear on it. MODZZZ BRO

Yep that $499 one should do fine. You won't be on the road but I doubt that matters right now. Those tires are huge and should do decent off road. The under driven low gear is ideal for trails. Chromoly fork should be able to take a ton of abuse. The aluminum frame I'm sure is fine. That's not a bad pick at all.

You'll just have to approach MTB trails with caution, you won't be able to bomb on them at least initially, it'll take some time to learn how to finesse the bike through and around obstacles instead of just plowing over them. That thing will destroy rail trails though, and should do fine on the road with just a bit of added vibrations, but will soak up potholes better than your current ride because of the giant pillowy tires.

[Johnny_P]

I'm legit whether I want to go fast vs just as fast as I can on something versatile... because bicycles are never actually fast unless you dedicate your whole life to them and are going down a steep hill.

I was wondering about it this morning - Does riding on the road get safer if you are going faster? Being closer to the speed of traffic might make it less crazy, but how close can you really get without a motor? 20 vs 15 in a 35-55 zone doesn't seem much different, either way people are coming up on you quickly.

Most of the roads I ride are 35 MPH or less - rarely am I on a road with a 45MPH limit.

But yes, minimizing that speed differential is important. As is increasing visibility.

That. Try and ride on lower speed roads or through neighborhoods. Bright color riding jersey or shirt, and a blinky light that is on even in daytime, something very bright.

[Johnny_P]

Troy:
I don't know if 16" is too small for you, that's maybe on the short side of medium, but this seems good.
https://ithaca.craigslist.org/bik/d/ith ... 08842.html

I got back into mountain biking on a similar bike. It was a Trek 4500 that I bought for $240 and TRASHED within a year. But that's probably one of the cheapest ways in. The fork on this thing sucks but the frame is strong and the parts kit is somewhat decent. Throw some knobbier tires on it and go try it out.

Great for town riding. Great for rail trails. Kind of meh for single track but it'll do at least as well, likely better, than a monster cross bike off road.

[Johnny_P]

Another good deal that I'd have no issue taking on single track:
https://syracuse.craigslist.org/bik/d/o ... 86826.html

[Johnny_P]

This too if you can get it under 250
https://syracuse.craigslist.org/bik/d/b ... 44974.html

[troyguitar]

This was my rough take at measuring myself, points toward more like 22" or so frames? That seems big and I'm not convinced that their idea of inseam measurement makes sense. I'd have said 31" not 32" but their guidelines said to push up with about the same pressure as the bike seat which added an inch.

[Apex]

This was my rough take at measuring myself, points toward more like 22" or so frames? That seems big and I'm not convinced that their idea of inseam measurement makes sense. I'd have said 31" not 32" but their guidelines said to push up with about the same pressure as the bike seat which added an inch.

Dat seems big... My current rig is a 19" frame, and I'm 6'.

[Johnny_P]

This was my rough take at measuring myself, points toward more like 22" or so frames? That seems big and I'm not convinced that their idea of inseam measurement makes sense. I'd have said 31" not 32" but their guidelines said to push up with about the same pressure as the bike seat which added an inch.

All that's saying is it recommends a 55-56cm road bike, roughly a "Medium" mountain bike, or a 17" or so mountain frame.

[troyguitar]

Damn moran engineers strike again. How does 55 centimeters convert to 17 inches?

[Johnny_P]

Damn moran engineers strike again. How does 55 centimeters convert to 17 inches?

It doesn't. Bike sizing is retarded.

[troyguitar]

Damn moran engineers strike again. How does 55 centimeters convert to 17 inches?

It doesn't. Bike sizing is retarded.

I thought I was missing something, seems like you need to hunt for an actual geometry diagram for each individual bike and just ignore the naming of the sizes. Tough to do for older used stuff.

[Johnny_P]

It doesn't. Bike sizing is retarded.

I thought I was missing something, seems like you need to hunt for an actual geometry diagram for each individual bike and just ignore the naming of the sizes. Tough to do for older used stuff.

Yep. Road bikes have largely followed a common sizing convention. But mountain bikes, best bet is to ask how tall the person who rode it is/was and if it fit them well or not. If you're close to the person's size and they were comfortable its worth checking it out.

[fledonfoot]

Looks like today is day for the wife. I found an Intrigue Advanced 2 in stock, in small, and caught the owner of the bike shop on the phone. Seems like an awesome guy and great shop. Said he would honor the $3200 quote I got for the $3900 MSRP I was quoted at my LBS, who would only order the bike after paying in full and would charge a 15% restocking fee if the bike was too small. I'm probably bailing out of work around 3, and making the trek up to Allentown.

[Johnny_P]

Looks like today is day for the wife. I found an Intrigue Advanced 2 in stock, in small, and caught the owner of the bike shop on the phone. Seems like an awesome guy and great shop. Said he would honor the $3200 quote I got for the $3900 MSRP I was quoted at my LBS, who would only order the bike after paying in full and would charge a 15% restocking fee if the bike was too small. I'm probably bailing out of work around 3, and making the trek up to Allentown.

Saucon? Nice man we need pics!

[fledonfoot]

South Mountain Cycles in Emmaus. Saucon have one in Medium but I think it's a bit big for her.

Owner of the store is great... was telling me they've grown so much they just moved into a 13k sq/ft store and opened a cafe, and just got an OK to start serving beer and food later this summer.

I don't mind paying a premium simply because they have the bike, and if it fits... they win my business simply because of that and deserve to make a few bucks.

[Apex]

Looks like today is day for the wife. I found an Intrigue Advanced 2 in stock, in small, and caught the owner of the bike shop on the phone. Seems like an awesome guy and great shop. Said he would honor the $3200 quote I got for the $3900 MSRP I was quoted at my LBS, who would only order the bike after paying in full and would charge a 15% restocking fee if the bike was too small. I'm probably bailing out of work around 3, and making the trek up to Allentown.