Mountain bike or hybrid.

It's time to replace my 15 year old 24 speed aluminium frame mtb.I don't
ride off road, but do a lot of hill work. I also do reasonable distances,
road touring with front and rear panniers.
I have never tried a hybrid, and am unsure of the supposed advantage of 700
rims over 26.5. Surely if there is an advantage on the flat, there must be a
disadvantage on hills. Where I live there are plenty long ad steep climbs.
Any advice anyone?

Can you still get unsuspended MTBs? Not much point in suspension if you're
not going off-road. I would say your height should determine what wheel size
you use. If you're short you don't want a frame with 700c wheels. Even
though they're produced, the manufacturers have to compromise the frame
design to fit the larger wheels in a small frame. I'm 180cm and tour on a
bike with 700c wheels. My wife is 157cm and tours on a bike with MTB wheels,
though it is a touring frame and not an MTB frame. Surly's Long haul Trucker
touring frame, for example, is made for 26" wheels in the frame sizes up to
54cm and 700c wheels for the 56cm and larger frames.
http://www.surlybikes.com/longhaul.html.

Nick

"Fred" wrote in message
...
It's time to replace my 15 year old 24 speed aluminium frame mtb.I don't
ride off road, but do a lot of hill work. I also do reasonable distances,
road touring with front and rear panniers.
I have never tried a hybrid, and am unsure of the supposed advantage of
700 rims over 26.5. Surely if there is an advantage on the flat, there
must be a disadvantage on hills. Where I live there are plenty long ad
steep climbs. Any advice anyone?

"Fred" wrote:

It's time to replace my 15 year old 24 speed aluminium frame mtb.I don't
ride off road, but do a lot of hill work. I also do reasonable distances,
road touring with front and rear panniers.
I have never tried a hybrid, and am unsure of the supposed advantage of
700 rims over 26.5. Surely if there is an advantage on the flat, there
must be a disadvantage on hills. Where I live there are plenty long ad
steep climbs. Any advice anyone?

Are you in Melbourne?

If so I'd recommend you go and talk to Peter Moore at Abbotdford Cycles
(next to Richmond station) He is one of the best suppliers of touring gear,
and he may even stock the Surly Long Haul Trucker. I'd recommend this for a
reasonable cost bike. It is a frame, complete with all braze-ons, and
touring geometry. 26" for frames less than 56cm and 700c for the bigger
rider. They now do a fully specced LHT touring bike I believe.

Another way to go, if you have some $$$ is to talk to St Kilda Cycles about
their Saints bikes. A friend has a Saints 26" road tourer/expedition bike -
veerrry nice! A photo of his finished bike is in the scrolling image bar
he
http://www.stkildacycles.com.au/saintsFabrications.htm

Sounds like 700c would be quite good for what you're doing, but then I tour
on a 26" rigid MTB, setup with racks, mudguards and 26 X 1.25 or 2.00 tyres,
slick for road, semi-slick for rougher roads. And I am 180cm tall. The
choice is really a personal one, with 26" being a bit more adaptable if you
do intend to do any real rough stuff.

--
Cheers
Peter

~~~ ~ _@
~~ ~ _- \,
~~ (*)/ (*)

"PeteSig" wrote in message
...

"Fred" wrote:

It's time to replace my 15 year old 24 speed aluminium frame mtb.I don't
ride off road, but do a lot of hill work. I also do reasonable distances,
road touring with front and rear panniers.
I have never tried a hybrid, and am unsure of the supposed advantage of
700 rims over 26.5. Surely if there is an advantage on the flat, there
must be a disadvantage on hills. Where I live there are plenty long ad
steep climbs. Any advice anyone?

Are you in Melbourne?

If so I'd recommend you go and talk to Peter Moore at Abbotdford Cycles
(next to Richmond station) He is one of the best suppliers of touring
gear, and he may even stock the Surly Long Haul Trucker. I'd recommend
this for a reasonable cost bike. It is a frame, complete with all
braze-ons, and touring geometry. 26" for frames less than 56cm and 700c
for the bigger rider. They now do a fully specced LHT touring bike I
believe.

Another way to go, if you have some $$$ is to talk to St Kilda Cycles
about their Saints bikes. A friend has a Saints 26" road tourer/expedition
bike - veerrry nice! A photo of his finished bike is in the scrolling
image bar he
http://www.stkildacycles.com.au/saintsFabrications.htm

Sounds like 700c would be quite good for what you're doing, but then I
tour on a 26" rigid MTB, setup with racks, mudguards and 26 X 1.25 or 2.00
tyres, slick for road, semi-slick for rougher roads. And I am 180cm tall.
The choice is really a personal one, with 26" being a bit more adaptable
if you do intend to do any real rough stuff.

--
Thanks. I'm in New Zealand - South Island where we have some real hills! I'm
172cm and present bike is rigid with racks and gaurds also. I run 1.5
slicks, or semi-slicks (crossover tyres). I don't do a lot of rough stuff
and have been happy with current set-up. When touring, fully laiden, I do
100 to 150/160 per day, and just wondered whether there is something more
suitable than an mtb. I notice several bikes now marketed as hybrids with
straight mtb handlebars, which I prefer. But from reading your comments and
some other opinions I think I'm best sticking to the style I'm used to with
26 rims. It's difficult to work out the difference between an mtb and a
hybrid these days, but looking round pretty much anything without suspension
and disc brakes gets called a hybrid.

Hi Fred
Recently I did a 1600kms tour with a friend of mine. She had a 26"MTB and I
was on my 27" (700) Trek 7500 Hybrid. We both had panniers front and back
and travelled approx 100kms/day up and down the hills of inland Qld. On the
flats I absolutely left her for dead and she worked hard all day every day
to stay with me. On the hills - although slower I didnt have to put in the
effort she did.She had slicks. She freely admits that for every 6th
rotation I did , she did 7 /12.
I live in Far North Qld on the Atherton Tablelands and life is full of
hills. I love my Trek hybrid and am so glad I didnt buy a MTB. By the way -
I have also toured on dirt roads, corrugations and sand on the Hybrid
(distances of 300kms over 3 days) and it has coped well. AT the moment I am
travelling 70kms round trip to Mareeba every day which is all down hill
going there and takes an hour and all uphill going home which takes almost 1
3/4 hrs. I did own a MTB for a few years and would not buy one again - I am
a hybrid lady
BTW the bike has done over 10000 kms in its first year and I have just had
the chain and cassettes replaced, other than that I did have a problem with
a brazeon but it was sorted under warrenty LOVE MY TREK!
Kathy
(almost 50 and STILL loving my bike!)

"just us" wrote in message
...
Hi Fred
Recently I did a 1600kms tour with a friend of mine. She had a 26"MTB and
I was on my 27" (700) Trek 7500 Hybrid. We both had panniers front and
back and travelled approx 100kms/day up and down the hills of inland Qld.
On the flats I absolutely left her for dead and she worked hard all day
every day to stay with me. On the hills - although slower I didnt have to
put in the effort she did.She had slicks. She freely admits that for
every 6th rotation I did , she did 7 /12.
I live in Far North Qld on the Atherton Tablelands and life is full of
hills. I love my Trek hybrid and am so glad I didnt buy a MTB. By the
way - I have also toured on dirt roads, corrugations and sand on the
Hybrid (distances of 300kms over 3 days) and it has coped well. AT the
moment I am travelling 70kms round trip to Mareeba every day which is all
down hill going there and takes an hour and all uphill going home which
takes almost 1 3/4 hrs. I did own a MTB for a few years and would not buy
one again - I am a hybrid lady
BTW the bike has done over 10000 kms in its first year and I have just had
the chain and cassettes replaced, other than that I did have a problem
with a brazeon but it was sorted under warrenty LOVE MY TREK!
Kathy
(almost 50 and STILL loving my bike!)



Many thanks. ( almost 60; so in slightly older English, I still love my bike
too :-)

On Dec 17, 6:36 am, "Fred" wrote:
It's time to replace my 15 year old 24 speed aluminium frame mtb.I don't
ride off road, but do a lot of hill work. I also do reasonable distances,
road touring with front and rear panniers.
I have never tried a hybrid, and am unsure of the supposed advantage of 700
rims over 26.5. Surely if there is an advantage on the flat, there must be a
disadvantage on hills. Where I live there are plenty long ad steep climbs.
Any advice anyone?

What about a flat bar roadie?

Not a hybrid as such, but still give you a nice flat bar and road
geometry. I prefer my roadie on the road over my mtb, and my mtb is
much better when the going gets rough. I'm soft though, and have a
triple chainring, which helps in the hill climbing department. I'd be
lost without little ring. Or walking... ;^)

Tony F

My hybrid is a 9 speed which has 3 chainrings also?
Friends have flat bar roadies which are 10 speed but they cant even get off
the edge of the road if they are on a narrow section up here and feel like
they are going to be trampled. At least with the Hybrid I can get off But
each to their own huh?
Kathy.

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:59:59 -0800 (PST), thefathippy
wrote:

What about a flat bar roadie?

Considered a cyclocross frame?
They have longer chainstays than a roadie, almost as long as a classic
tourer - good for panniers.
Built for mud clearance so plenty of room for fatter tires and
mudgards.

Aeek Wrote:
On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:59:59 -0800 (PST), thefathippy
wrote:

What about a flat bar roadie?

Considered a cyclocross frame?
They have longer chainstays than a roadie, almost as long as a classic
tourer - good for panniers.
Built for mud clearance so plenty of room for fatter tires and
mudgards.

Or a Surly Cross-check?

http://www.surlybikes.com/crosscheck.html


--
cfsmtb