krobinson103

Cyclocross and mbs and make great distance bikes. Very versatile.

Ramona_W

Whether a mountain bike will be comfortable for street riding depends on tires and inflation, I think. If you want a cushy ride, stick with the wider offroad tires and adjust tire inflation to the minimum necessary for your weight to avoid a puncture. If you want a more streetcentric bike, you can switch to something semi-slick but fairly inexpensive like Vittorias and inflate them to the upper limit. The advantage to starting with a mountain bike is you do, in effect, have a hybrid because you have the clearance to go with wider or narrower tires and aren't limited as you would be on a road bike.

xuwol7

Hi Jen
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Moun...in+bike+skills

buy this book it is awesome

I ride a 1984 rigid Peugeot MTB and have slicks for the road and off road tires for the dirt etc.

Yes off road tires will slow you down and not be as good as the slicks, but I found toughing out with the off road tires will make you a stronger rider.

My advice is unless you are a pro TDF rider just riding your bike the way it is will make you better, harder yes but it will get you in shape quicker and make you drop all the guys whilst riding...true

I ride a Peugeot 1984 MTB with Velociripators from WTB and It is fun to drop people on their new carbon fiber bikes and full kit (It is the Indian and not the bow).


Buy the book eat right and get in world class shape

True

SparkyBeacon 

By "street riding" do you mean city riding? I "borrowed" my daughter's Schwinn Frontier to use for commuting for about three years. I was very satisfied with its performance around town. For tires I used 1.5" slicks.

NormanF

Yup.

Fast-rolling balloon tires are my preferred tires because they glide over bumps and potholes in the road like they don't exist.

jenbike

Thanks everyone. I will look into getting that book.

Roads here are typical suburban; it does get a bit bumpy sometimes on the shoulder with brush, especially by a part of the road where there are no houses. I like being able to glide over the debris and occasional stick in the road.

I also do feel the bike pushing me on uphills to get stronger. It has not been long since I restarted riding and I swear that my legs feel more muscular and less flabby already. I have been going a bit further every few days (some days I skimp out and go shorter if I did other stuff like swimming earlier.) Uphills on my bike (nothing really steep) are a nice workout and then I can go downhill on the back and relax a bit

jenbike

I gotta say that I have become smitten by this bike. Since raising the seat, I feel more power on my downpedaling and do not mind drifting off into the short grass/grit on the side of the road. Went over a surprise stick in the road too with no troubles.

Medic Zero

I've ridden both 1.5" and now 2.15" slicks quite a bit. I was very happy with 1.5" wide tires (Panaracer T-Serv* Protex's and Vittoria Randoneur Pros) and didn't find them to be too harsh a ride, even though I was running those tires at 75 and 90 PSI, respectively. Perhaps these aren't what you are thinking of as "thin", but they certainly aren't thick skinned like the plain-jane Schwalbe Marathon I tried (although all three have excellent flat protection). I've been trying 2.15" Schwalbe Big Bens for the past three months and while I appreciate that they do soak up a little more of the impacts from all the rough pavement here, they are a little heavier and sometimes prone to a little bobbing under acceleration. I like both. If your roads are horrible you might prefer a ~2" slick, if not, 1.5 inchers are great. I'm in the middle of building up a replacement for my current commuter and I honestly can't decide which tires to put on it. I'm afraid to say that my fender preference is probably going to make the decision for me!

I've done a fair amount of tame trail riding on all the above tires, they all do well.

All I ride are MTB's, in the past three years I've put over 7,500 miles on mountain bikes, with something over 95% of that being on the road. Right now I'm commuting three days a week (I work 12 hour shifts, so just the 3 days) on a MTB with slick tires and handlebars with a lot of sweep and rise. That's a minimum of 20 city miles a day on my "mountain" bike. I also regularly take it for longer rides, and enjoy 35 to 50 mile rides on my converted mountain bike. I've ridden as much as 80 miles in one day and enjoyed that as well. With a good saddle, comfortable handlebars, and appropriate tires, MTB's can be comfortable rides.



I'm not a big fan of trekking bars myself, my recommendations tend to run more to the Soma Sparrow, On-One Mary type of bar. I like riding more upright, particularly in traffic, as I can see over parked cars at the cars creeping out of driveways and spear them with my helmet light. There's a lot of handlebar choices out there these days, your local bike shop might have a few bikes with different handlebars you can sit on and see how they feel and they might have inexpensive copies of some of the more expensive alternative bars out there.


* These tires run a little small, if you are wanting ~1.5 inch Panaracer T-Serv's, buy the 1.75" version, they're much closer to 1.5".

Medic Zero

Can you hop off a curb without flatting? That was one of the big downsides of moving to a tire that small for me. With the 1 & 1/8th inch wide Continental Gatorskins I ran for six months I would get a pinch flats trying to transition from being on a curb to being in the street. Of course, I'm a Clyde too, so that probably had a fair amount to do with it, but it turned me off from tires of that size. That, and the brutally harsh ride of a 116 PSI tire with very little volume and very rough roads...

msx

Might road tires even be worth the hassle for someone looking to commute every day, but hit the trails every weekend or every other? Are there affordable (cheap) rims that would make the transitioning easier, or is that not worth it?

Obviously varies depending on personal preference riding mtb tires on the road etc, just trying to get a feel for what all I'll need on top of the bike.

bicyclridr4life

"Fact": MOST Mountain Bikes see little to zero use off road use. The vast majority are used exclusively on pavement, some see a little use on gravel roads or trails.
Knobby tires don't slow you down that much, when fully inflated, but they MAY make a bit more noise than "slicks". Air pressure for slicks and knobby are roughly the same at 60 PSI give or take.
Knobby tires have a bit thicker tread, thus slightly less likely to puncture on that @*%$##@&* piece of glass you run over. Tire liners, "thorn proof" tubes and SLIME should prevent most punctures (nothing is truly thorn proof - except those airless foam tubes or tyres)

In short, bicycles are very adaptable and versatile. You can ride a "road bike" off road (look at Cyclo-Cross bikes for proof) a "Mountain Bike" on or off road, a "Hybrid" on or off road. a Multi-speed or single speed or even fixed gear can take you around the world. Get a bike that you like, and ride.

SHBR

Sorry for the late reply.

Yes, curbs are no problem, I could do the same with most road bikes too though.

My weight is around 87KG.

My only complaint about these tires is in wet conditions, sand and glass will stick to the tread and cause punctures, also grip is reduced substantially.

cmcristi

There is one thing. You should check the width of your rims. You cannot go and buy any tire you want and put it on your rims. The width of the rim dictates which is the minimum width tire you can put on it.
Tire Dimensions | Schwalbe North America

Scott P

I've put the vast majority of the miles on my mountain bike on the pavement. I ride it every Sunday for 20-30 miles. I have some 1.6 inch Street Runner tires and it makes a fine pavement bike.

xuwol7

^^^^
So true, many people make a big deal out of "ride slicks or it is very hard to ride a MTB on pavement."
The only difference I notice riding my 1st mtb with 2" slicks, or my 2nd mtb with 2.1" WTB Velociraptors is when I start from a dead stop it may take a little more effort to get up to speed, very little effort actually.
Both tires are @ 60psi.

I also ride in the winter with 2" studded tires through heavy snow and ice, once you spend many a winter riding through all the slush, ice etc, knobby tires are a non issue...lol

MikesChevelle

DIRT DROP IT BABY -

Parrothead1

Cool bike, can I get a picture without bike and railing, I miss Boise

MikesChevelle

Something like this?

Parrothead1

Mike, your just horrible and unfair, it's not nice to tease someone like that, I lived out there(Nampa) from 72 - 76 and would be back there tomorrow if I could. I envy you.

MikesChevelle

What is stopping you

Parrothead1

Finances and a 16 year old daughter that would raise all sorts of he!@ if I told her we were moving across the country, 2 years is the goal....I can't wait

MikesChevelle

Keep in touch, let me know when the moving van arrives!!!

BrenGun

Exactly what I'm doing with my Trek 6000. I'm sure that I'd ride faster with a road bike on the road, but I like it. No worries about riding into soft sand at the side of the road with wider tires. One of these days tho I do want to put on drop bars and a threadless riser stem.

Parrothead1

I don't have a lot of trial/mountain riding exp. but, I do know from experience that some knobby tires have come in very handy from time to time. If riding on the road and being on the side of the road now and then, I'd go with the knobby's. JMHO

Repack Rider

I use a FS 29er for a town bike. Took a road bike ride last week on a rigid frame and I'm thinking, wow, this thing is brutal.

Use cheap tires with the least knobby tread you can find and pump them up to 60psi.