drewtk

Help me pick my race bike! I’m a roadie / occasional mountain biker. I have a trail bike race this weekend, 5 loops of a 5 mile course that is soft and slow rolling. The trail is mostly soft dirt and/or covered in grass and pine needles. It’s the opposite of a fast, hard packed single track trail. No big climbs but a lot of gentle ups and down, and not very technical at all.

I have a 29er mountain bike, Stumpjumper, with Ardent tires. My other choice is my gravel bike, Cannondale Topstone aluminum, with WTB Riddler 37c tires.

With the slow surface, I’m leaning towards the mountain bike because of its wider and bigger diameter tires. Plus, I think it’s the more conservative choice if there isn’t a clear winner. But a part of me would love to race the gravel bike, if it’s going to be faster, because I expect that almost everyone will be on mountain bikes. Any feedback would be appreciated.

mstateglfr 

Option C- put some 42mm tires on the topstone? Cuts a bit of compromise between the two tires you mention.

If it really is as soft as you mention- I would probably want the widest tire to help reduce digging in. Some good traction on a wide tire would be nice. 25mi of flatbar would ot be nice...but I'm a weanie.

ericzamora

I was at an informal race yesterday. A mix of gravel bikes (i doubt anybody had anything bigger than 45) and hardtails (no plus sized tires spotted). It had sandy areas and river rocks to go through, some rolling hardpack terrain as well. The hardtails screamed through the stuff. I rode my steel gravel bike with 650b x 2.1 TBs, but i went just to fly the drone over the race. And for the free tacos. But looking at how people were doing, i would have taken my 27.5+ hardtail for sure.

eric/fresno, ca.

drewtk

I actually do have a 29'er hardtail as well with some crappy old tires. Sounds like I should dust that thing off and put some good rubber on there for the race instead. I don't need rear suspension for this trail.

drewtk

I hear you - I'd love to use the gravel bike but looks like I'm going to take my hardtail. Hadn't even thought of that until the other comment above.

Thanks for the feedback, all.

chas58

I do that kind of thing. Its kinda fun. I’m on a CX bike, so it really, really excels at slow tight stuff, and climbing. It weighs about ½ of modern mountain bikes.

My bike only takes 38-40mm tires, but I put a 54mm (700c) thunder burt on the front. That allows me to fly through roots and small rocky patches. The larger tires, along with a bigger front tire also give me significantly more trail, which slows the handling down a bit. For single track, that is good.

Sounds like a good hard tail would be your best bet. It doesn’t sound too soft – pine needles are a lot different than sand.

Questions to ask yourself

Do you need/want suspension? Or is it going to slow you down.

Does weigh matter?

Are you going to be able to take the downhill parts at full speed?

Do you want/need the wider handlebars?

Not a problem for my bike – but is pedal strike going to be an issue for you?

On my CX bike, I can slice up tight single track, and fly through the straighter rolling stuff. But I’m a lot more in control on my mountain bike – so it really matters how the skill level of the course matches up to my skill level. The CX bike can make a somewhat tame single track into a lot of fun!

ericzamora

Here's a video I shot of this fun bike ride i spoke of earlier. We've had seasonal CX races at a local nearby park over the years but it's been canceled for this year. The local CX organizer partnered with my LBS's owner, and a few others, and arranged this pop-up event last Saturday. The focus, Have Fun. I went just to check it out. And shoot video. You can see the one with a hardtail that knew what he was doing, just jammed up that one rocky/sandy portion mid-video (starting at 1:31 mark).

https://vimeo.com/369420506

eric/fresno, ca.

drewtk

That's some great video! The course I'm racing looks the most like the section from 0:47 to 0:55 of your video. The track is on private land, so it isn't used very much and has a lot of grass and pine needles.