Which mountain bike for mostly road, some off-road riding

[MighyG]

Hi all,

Have narrowed myself down to the choice of one of these two, to have slightly slicker tyres fitted as most of my riding will be on-road, but I want robust frame and wheels to cope with some heavy bridleway riding now and again. So anyone got a major preference ?

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...uctId_512511_langId_-1_categoryId_165499#dtab

http://www.factorydirectbikes.com/bikes/merida_matts_20-md_2009/

only worry at the moment is that the merida comes in an awful orange ! but I can buy that through my LBS which I'd prefer

thanks


Paul

 

[PK99]

what sort of "off road" - pukkah off road = MTB or tracks, trails and towpaths = Cross bike

If you are simply doing bridal ways, a cross bike is likely to be robust enough

 

[MighyG]

I have looked at the Carrera subway but thought the wheels looked a bit lightweight for getting thrown about too much, I tend to go crashing over pavements edges a lot.

By "off road" I mean being able to do rocky bridleways (which there are a lot of round here), am veering towards a mountain bike just because its likely to be more robust.

Also was going for the bikes above because they have a lock-out for the suspension

Its a difficult choice as I've no experience of these new type bikes (how strong they are), all I've ever had was bmx's and a heavy duty mountain bike a few years ago, made from a lump of cast iron !

 

[willem]

If you ar ehopin gfor a bike that will last, look elsewhere. These are bottom end mtb's and unlikely to last very long. Look for a simpler bike, without suspension and with simple v brakes rather than cheapo discs.
Willem

 

[MighyG]

thanks willem, just got back from Halfords and have decided that the agressor mountain bike is over-complicated for what i need, didn't realise that suspension forks weigh so much

The carrera however looks like it'll do the job, but the girlfriend this morning bought one of these : http://www2.merida-bikes.com/en_GB/Bikes.Detail.244 from the Local Bike shop, and its a much nicer looking bike than the carrera, so looks like I am headed to the LBS too. Problem is I am going to have to go for the next model up from hers (can't have identical bikes !): http://www2.merida-bikes.com/en_GB/Bikes.Detail.177

Seems my original budget of £200 is well and truly blown !

 

[kewb]

might be worth looking at the claude butler range , good build bikes for the money .