mt. bike or fit + nobby tires
I'm your average clydesdale... 6'1", 260... I have a decent road bike (felt f65) and at the moment stole my brothers' Salsa mt. bike... but he wants it back so I'm looking to buy something but I'm all over the board, so I need a little help to pinpoint what I should be looking at.
My needs for the second bike:
- trail riding (pepples, gravel, dirt) some single track, but nothing too technical (not tree hopping or anything along those lines)
-cruising with the fiance, she's not really IN to cycling yet, so a slow cruise around the countryside and in town would probably work better on the new bike rather than the road bike.. but it's not essential.
-in regards to suspension, I don't like it... at all. When I stand up and pedal up a steep hill on dirt, I don't want a spongey front end... My brothers' salsa has a fancy fork that I tried to lock but couldn't figure it out... but I minimized the range of movement on it, but really it still annoys me.
-price point... well this one is flexible to a certain degree... I've seen some lower end bikes that might fit the bill for 300ish... but I've been tempted by $600 bikes too.. I want the bike to withstand my weight and work for years to come.
I'm somewhat tempted to buy a middle of the road fit bike and put some nobby tires on it for trail riding...
Thoughts?