Mud, gravel or mountain

[Thegreatthor]

I’m in East Yorkshire, we don’t have a lot of gravel, but, we do have a lot of grass/mud tracks. What is best for those? Cheap hard tail MTB or a gravel bike. A gravel bike is guess will be over £1k. But I could pick up a decent used mountain bike for a quarter of that.

 

[Pale Rider]

The 'decent used mountain bike' and two sets of tyres - knobbly and shallow tread - would be the cost effective solution.

Avoid a 'one by' geared MTB as top gear will be too low for the faster tyres.

 

[Dogtrousers]

How far do you want to ride? Do you want to do all/most your riding off road? Or mix and match.

I'm no expert on this but the advantage of a gravel bike is that it's really just as happy on the road, whereas the same may not be true of a MTB. That said, there are plenty of people who ride MTBs on the road quite happily - really depends on the tyres.

 

[Pale Rider]

How far do you want to ride?

Me and Doggers are on the same page.

The MTB and its knobbly tyres/low gearing will only be at a serious disadvantage if you want to bang out longer rides on good surfaces.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

I use Schwalbe Smart Sam tyres on my hardtail and that means I can cover good distances over a period of days. One of my favourite trips is mainly off road but that can consist hard packed canal paths and chalk roads. The middle pattern means there isn’t a huge amount of rolling resistance but they are luggy as you go towards the edge of the tyre. They aren’t ideal but haven’t disappointed too much in wet clay. Fine in loam and on turf.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

What is best for those? Cheap hard tail MTB or a gravel bike. A gravel bike is guess will be over £1k. But I could pick up a decent used mountain bike for a quarter of that.

Ignore the nonsense marketing spin. A "gravel bike" is any drop bar bike that has enough frame clearance to fit sensibly strong and moderately wide tyres. Like the sort of tyres you might fit to a Touring bike. Pretty much any old steel era drop bar bike apart from out and out racers, will take sensible tyres, often with mudguards fitted. My expensive when new 1985 steel touring bike cost me £30 secondhand, and I have never paid more than £20 for a used mountain bike. You do not need to confine yourself to just one compromise bike because of cost if you buy wisely on the used market. You could have a bike on road tyres for road use, and a MTB on more treaded tyres for tracks. Just choose the appropriate bike according to where you are going to ride that day. It works for me.

 

[MichaelW2]

A xc style lightweight MTB would be ideal. They used to be common in 1980s/ 90s, what happened to all of them? Yorkshire's finest bike makers, Pace and Orange used to make fine examples.

 

[Venod]

Avoid a 'one by' geared MTB as top gear will be too low for the faster tyres.

34 chainring 10 rear cog gets you about 26mph @ 90 rpm cadence with 50mm tyres, 700c rims.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

A xc style lightweight MTB would be ideal. They used to be common in 1980s/ 90s, what happened to all of them?

Urban commuters have adopted them as bomb-proof station bikes, that's what became of them. I see loads of rigid 26'ers of various makes and build qualities every day of the week in London. The lack of suspension parts mean the old steel rigids just keep on going, whereas the later hardtail and full-sus bikes wear out quicker and end up in the skip first.

 

[Pale Rider]

34 chainring 10 rear cog gets you about 26mph @ 90 rpm cadence with 50mm tyres, 700c rims.

It must be my hopelessly low cadence.

 

[12boy]

Either an old chromo mtn, touring or even road bike that can fit 35 mm or better tires would work well. One chain ring and a wide range of sprockets, say 11/34 will give you gearing for most riding. As the Skipdiver explained, this can be done at the fraction of the cost of a new bike. Your wheel weight and tire choices are critical to ride quality, and it is very nice to have a couple of wheelers with the same rim size so you can change for different types of riding. For example, my Al Cannondale with 850 gram studded snow Nokian tires is a very different ride than the same bike with 1 1/4 inch lightweight slicks. All three of the frame types above will weigh close to the same, the wheels/tires and possibly the chainrings , being the major weight differences. The other thing is fit. A bike with lively wheels that fits you perfectly with no mechanical problems will be a joy to ride, even if a little heavier. Once you have been riding a while you will be better able to judge what type of bike you want.

 

[DRM]

Knowing the area a bit I think a gravel bike or a cyclocross bike maybe better if you are intending to link tarmac & bridleways from your front door, I think a cheap hard tail mtb would be a disappointment and a quality full suspension modern mtb would be overkill, is this any good, no where near £1000
https://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/bikes/cyclocross-bikes/xla?deal=PLANETXMAS
only thing with Planet X is get in quick as the prices go up & down like a bride’s nightie

 

[DRM]

Ignore the nonsense marketing spin. A "gravel bike" is any drop bar bike that has enough frame clearance to fit sensibly strong and moderately wide tyres. Like the sort of tyres you might fit to a Touring bike. Pretty much any old steel era drop bar bike apart from out and out racers, will take sensible tyres, often with mudguards fitted. My expensive when new 1985 steel touring bike cost me £30 secondhand, and I have never paid more than £20 for a used mountain bike. You do not need to confine yourself to just one compromise bike because of cost if you buy wisely on the used market. You could have a bike on road tyres for road use, and a MTB on more treaded tyres for tracks. Just choose the appropriate bike according to where you are going to ride that day. It works for me.

This is true, but if the op has no experience of what to look for it could prove disappointing

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

This is true, but if the op has no experience of what to look for it could prove disappointing

Correct, but a purchaser can just as easily make a bad choice when buying a brand new bike as they can when buying a used one. The difference is a mistake with a new one will prove much more costly, whereas a badly-bought used bike may well be able to be re-sold at no financial loss. A ridden once or twice new bike that the owner finds they can't get on with is still only going to fetch 50% or so of RRP. It's better to make cheap mistakes than expensive ones.

 

[Grant Fondo]

My hardtail with Conti speedkings 2.1 goes almost everywhere, the gravel with 38cm non knobblies less good on muddy stuff but great on faster routes, gravely tracks and da black stuff. Overall best fun is the gravel bike mind you it is 14 years younger than the MTB and carbon, discs and lighter (not by much). I reckon 40-42mm knobblies on the GB it it could do some treacherous runs so gets my vote.