Mountain bike questions

[Feorag]

Hi everyone, first post here. I'll try and keep my questions brief!

A couple of years ago I bought a guy's/unisex mountain bike (a Trek 3500 with 26" tyres, see below). I'm not a 'proper' mountain biker, I bought it mainly for accessing remote hills for walking, and for general use including on the roads, and with the hope of doing some cross-country bikepacking. I had a road bike before this, but I live on a farm in an area full of pot holes and kept getting punctures. Anyway, I've always found the mountain bike really heavy and slow (was probably too used to my road bike), and I wondered if that might be down to the fact that it's a 'guy's' bike.

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Yesterday I bought a woman's specific Trek Skye S (with 29" tyres) from Tiso, but on getting it home and comparing the two the weight and position feel pretty similar. I can't take the new one for a proper ride on anything rocky or bumpy though because I might take it back, so I don't know how the ride will compare with the bigger wheels.

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I suspect the 'guy's bike' issue might not be the problem at all, and that all mountain bikes really are this heavy and slow (I don't remember them being that way when I used to ride them as a kid!!). I'm definitely not convinced that the benefits of the new bike are worth spending nearly £400 on. So now I'm confused about what kind of bike is really the best for me.

Can you put mountain bike wheels on a hybrid bike? Or might a hybrid bike be able to handle off road stuff fine without the big tyres? Or could I put hybrid-type tyres on my mountain bike for road use?

Confused!!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Hi @Feorag and welcome to CC from me and my BigCat to you and your cat, he/she is lovely
I think one of your problems is the front suspension: I am not an expert, but a light mountain bike cost over £1,000 just because the components, and the frame of course, are much lighter in weight than under £500 offerings.
I think you want a hybrid with no suspension also with "less chunky" tyres.
At the moment, I am mostly riding a Pinnacle from Evans - link - with Schwalbe Land Cruisers tyres, a sort of semislick tyre good for rough terrain like gravel, grass and portholes but certainly not good enough for a proper mb trail.
Mind, it still weight around 12kg, nowhere as fast as a road bike, but you say you need to ride rough terrain, so skinny tyres are not an option.
You could also get a cyclocross: a lighter than mb type bike, drop bars, clearance for bigger tyres. They are quite pricey though.

 

[Jody]

Unfortunately as pat points out you will need to spend a decent wedge if you want a light (ish) MTB unless you buy second hand. Even then you will be looking at a bike at 25lbs+. There will be a little advantage with your new bike as the wheels are larger so should roll over the rough stuff but as you discovered the weights are going to be similar so epect the same again. You could probably loose a couple of lbs by getting rid of the forks and go full rigid. MTB is hard work due to tyres, terrain, weight etc but that's why they have really low twiddly gears so you can spin up climbs slowly. There is also no shame in pushing up some ascents.

 

[screenman]

On mild lumpy stuff and road my 29er is a tad quicker than my 26 and also more comfortable. You would expect the same sitiing bars position on bothe bikes. My average speed for an hour medium steady on the 29er is 16.5mph on my road bike 18mph, so not a lot of difference.

 

[NeilnrLincoln]

The Trek skye should be quite a nice light bike, but you could probably lose the best part of a kilo if you swap the forks for some (suspension corrected) rigid forks.
Some slicker tyres would roll easier too.

 

[die_aufopferung]

As the previous posters have said, mountain bikes do tend to tip the scale at a fair bit more than hybrids, and significantly more than road bikes, unless you're willing to pay 4 figures. There are a couple other options though. I myself most commonly ride a Pinnacle Arkose and there are plenty of other "gravel/adventure/CX-style-but-not-intended-for-proper-racing-CX" bikes about. If you can find one of those within your budget they're certainly up to most off-road riding, a bit lighter than MTBs, and a lot faster on the road - plus drop handlebars if you find those more comfortable than flats as I do.

Alternatively although almost no hybrids have the clearance for actual MTB tyres there are a lot of hybrids on the market that you can fit CX tyres to. They're still 700c (28", approx) and thinner than MTB tyres so roll fast and have lower resistance, but have the nobblies for digging into mud etc you'd find on MTB tyres - although nowhere near as aggressive as full on MTB tyres they're good enough for most offroading.

As for fitting touring/hybrid tyres onto your MTB - there are some touring type tyres (Shwalbe make quite a few) that are made in a 26" size that can go on your old MTB which will certainly lower the rolling resistance and very slightly the weight. If you do decide to stick with the 29er you can fit pretty much any 700c tyres to them, although you'd obviously want ones at the wider end of the scale as those rims will be too narrow to properly seat skinny tyres on.

 

[Feorag]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I ended up putting the new bike back. I'd rather hang on to the money until I'm totally sure I've made the right choice. I might try changing the tyres on my old bike for some long road routes I'd like to explore. I've seen (on another bike forum after google searching) a couple of types - these fairly smooth looking ones, but with some grip still: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/michelin-country-rock-mtb-tyre/rp-prod8547
Or these really smooth looking ones: https://www.evanscycles.com/specialized-fat-boy-atb-tyre-00119321

Any thoughts on which kind would be best?

I've never changed a bike's tyres before, I'm guessing it will be quite fiddly, so will only change them when I know I'll be keeping them on for a while. I'll need to watch some youtube tutorials! Or I could ask at a local bike shop and see if they'd be able to do it, depending on price.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Changing tyres is quite easy, as you say, just watch a few YouTube tutorials.
You will need tyre levers, a track pump, a pair of spare inner tubes in case you pinch one.
If you don't have a track pump a hand one will do but it takes ages!
Did you say the Trek has 26in wheels?
Then here I found a bargain for you, those are excellent for what you need at a great price.
The site tells you at what pressure to inflate, same values will be written on the sidewall of the tyre.
I might get another pair for myself

 

[dan_bo]

fat boys are nice and fast. They'll do whilst you make up your mind.

 

[Feorag]

Thanks Pat, those look good!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Thanks Pat, those look good!

I cycled from Glasgow to the Lake district and back on those, on NCN routes, not the smoothest lol not a puncture

 

[Feorag]

My current tyres say 26 x 2.00 on them - would the 1.75 size fit, do you think?

Sorry, I'm such an novice!

 

[marzjennings]

One of the problems I see when folks jump from a road bike to a mountain bike is that don't maintain the same seat height. Or at least the same distance between saddle and pedals. They'll set their road bike saddle height to maximise pedalling efficiency, but then ride a mountain bike with a lower saddle and be surprised that the mountain bike seems slower. The mountain bike isn't slower, the rider isn't pedaling as efficiently as possible, due to a too low a saddle height.

I only mention this because in your pictures your saddle is set pretty low and I wondered if your saddle was higher on your old road bike?

The distance between pedal and saddle is set the same for my road bikes and mountain bikes and generally I only see a 1 or 2 mph difference between bikes.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

My current tyres say 26 x 2.00 on them - would the 1.75 size fit, do you think?

Sorry, I'm such an novice!

Yes, they are a bit narrower, so ok for clearance.