Mountain Biking - Long road rides on MTB so you can "play" along the way?

Do you ever do long road rides on your mountain bike so you can "play" along the way? Sort of "Urban Assaults" only 50 miles or more in length. This morning I intended on doing a couple of hours of road biking, but as I stood in front of the bikes I decided to take the mountain bike instead. I use to do 100-150 mile rides of this type when I lived in So Cal, but I limit myself to 6-7 hours now that I am a bit older.

The entire ride today was approximately 60 miles in length and took 7 hours and it included stops at two university campuses for some "urban trials" and several parks for short hill climbs and single track runs. I also stopped at a couple of carnicerias for snacks and water and ended the ride at a Subway for a salad.

I had a great ride, got a good workout, and had a blast, but when I was sitting at Subway I was trying to think of someone to invite out for the next ride, and I realized that none of my friends would want to go. Either the distance/time was too much for them or they just wouldn't want to ride in the city.

When I got home I thought I would see if/how many BF members would be up for this type of ride so.....

Do you ever do long road rides on your mountain bike so you can "play" along the way?

Wow, that's pretty cool. I've done short rides (<5 miles) that included urban sessions along the way, and long rides (50 miles or so) on a mountain bike that were basically road rides on a heavy slow bike with knobbies, but never tried to combine the two. I guess I'm spoiled in that I really like my little 24" SS for urban, but that bike would be a tough ride for anything long.

This exactly why my Salsa Fargo is the favorite bike in the stable right now. I love to disappear for long rides on pavement, gravel, dirt, trails, whatever always at a party pace.

I don't count mileage, that's for sure. If I go urban...I go on the Parker. 50mi on the Parker would be pretty daggum brutal. (37lbs, short seatpost, short crank arms) I can't see any urban gnarbike suitable for a 50mi journey unless you brought an extra seatpost and saddle along with you to swap out "when you get there".

This is assuming our definition of urban is similar.

I tend to take the right tool for the job now'a'days. If I'm planning on cranking out some mileage off the trail...I'll ride the Crapper. (rigid 1x9). If I plan to stop and jump off some walls (like I did tonight), I'll ride the Parker. I'm not going to jump off 5' wall on my hardtail and bash up a wheelset that was never made to leave the ground.

It's always going to be a trade-off, I guess. Since riding urban stuff that is outside the capabilities of my XC bike...it would be hard to settle for piddling around on little curbs and dinky drops.



I'd say your Opie would be about as good a bike as any to start with...my Komodo would be a good way to go if it weren't for the all mountain wheelset on there. I wouldn't wanna biff a staircase and shred those.

Would 40 miles in the winter on studded snow tires count?

One of my favorite rides is to start out on the eastern part of the Katy Trail and take side trips on some of the adjacent mountain bike trails. Maybe do a total of 30-50 miles on the Rockhopper.

Don't think so...he's talking about a long all day ride from tech spot to tech spot. Not a rails'to'trails with other trails thrown in.

Just did this one recently http://gitondowntheroad.blogspot.com/2011/10/south-hills-ride.html (http://gitondowntheroad.blogspot.com/2011/10/south-hills-ride.html)

Not quite 60 mi., but I'm gradually building up on my Mamba. Plan on one twice as long this weekend if the weather holds.

Used to do this all the time... all the fun spots in our river valley are joined by little paved stretches and riding the whole thing is a day long affair.

Saturday mornings used to be good for 40-60km and some days I would ride 80-100km on the mtb exploring.

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Rinse...repeat.

I don't count mileage, that's for sure....
....I'd say your Opie would be about as good a bike as any to start with.....

Ed, I too quit counting miles years ago and aim for time/activity factor more than anything else. I think Rowland Owens term "party pace" really hits the mark for me though. I'm not doing intervals or an LSD, I'm just out to have fun for a few hours (even though it always seems to go a bit longer than I intially planned). Its just a longer range version of an "urban assault" ride. Its kind of like you were going out for a day of freestyle or trials, but you have to put in the miles in between where you are going to play.

While I admit to being 54 years old, I still have a whimsical side that has no sense of direction at times. I'm just out to have fun, and I would do the same rides on a stock Rockhopper if I didn't have the Opie.

But I take your point. You have to have the right tool for some things. That is why my Opie is a 13" version, has a compound seatpost that allows me to drop the seat about 17" from normal ride height, and I have 2 wheelsets (one lighter weight set for "normal" freeriding and one heavy duty set stong enough to do freestyle in a pool). It wasn't built to be light as much as the ability to sustain crashes like a BMX bike without incurring any appreciable damage. It also climbs stairs or hops up on planters and low walls like a trials bike. But we use to do the same things on our "stock" mountain bikes as well, which is what led me to putting together the Opie as it is today.

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd133/stealthammer/Da%20Opie/DSCN0174.jpg

Most I ever did on my MTB was 32 miles, and that turned out to be a bad idea. I decided to do it for my first ride in around 4 years this past spring, and man did I regret it. Since then I have gotten a cheap CL road bike for riding on the road that I am converting to SS. The closest trails to me are 16 miles away, and while they are really fun, they aren't worth the ride. By the time I get to them I would be too worn out to really enjoy them (the are extremely fast, smooth, single tracks). However, once I get my new MTB built (hopefully tomorrow, pics will be available when finished), I might change my mind; my old MTB was a 30+ lb walmart mongoose, while my new one is a much lighter Giant hardtail and might start making the trip just to ride, however, that still wouldn't meet your 50 mile range, but would get up to around 40.

It had better be a damn good trail if I'm going to rid my mountain bike on road very long to get to it. More than a 1/4mi on road and I get antsy. Heck, I can barely stand (most) double track that you sometimes have to use to get from one trail system to the next. If I was doing a long ride on doubletrack, I'd actually prefer a cyclocross bike.

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd133/stealthammer/Da%20Opie/DSCN0174.jpg

I like it!! Especially the seatpost.

Honestly, most of my best memories of riding a mountain bike were of this style of riding. Being 14 and not having any way to drive to trails heads (the closest one was a 15 minute drive), in the summer and on weekends my friends and I would meet up at around 10 or so and just ride around from spot to spot until it got dark. Despite being able to drive, a few of us started doing last summer around our work schedules, and I honestly had just as grand a time....though now I live a 20 minutes ride, 5 minutes drive, from a mini Moab

I live in San Francisco and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge to Mt. Tamalpais/Marin trails. The total distance is around 50 miles(but a lot of hills).

closest i ever got to that was to ride thirty miles of gravel to ride 9 miles of singletrack, then thirty miles of gravel back. boring!

Whew, 50+ on a mountain bike while riding from tech spot to tech spot sounds pretty intense! Most I've done on a MTB was 60 miles in a day, but that was on a fully rigid.

I'm with everyone else here...I like to ride maybe 10 miles at most around town from spot to spot, but combining the length of a good road ride with the techy fun of urban assault is too much for me right now. And given that I'm less than half the age of a lot of the people who have commented, this is a sign that maybe I need to pick up the pace a little :o

I forgot about this video...basically sums up this style of riding

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/29603/

What's the best tire for riding pavement then getting on singletrack?

What's the best tire for riding pavement then getting on singletrack?

The Maxxis Minion are a little bumpy on pavement but work well offroad, the Larson TTs are a bit smoother on pavement but wear out fairly quickly too, so I have a set of Ikons mounted on a wheelset that I use for Urban/Urban Assault rides, but the Maxxlite 310s are fastest on the road but don't really work that well offroad. I highly recommend two to three wheelsets with different tires mounted so that it is a simple wheel swap when you choose to ride different terrain.

Love doing that. Golf courses often have nice trails around them and I can pick up a few stray Titleist Pro'vs. I toss the Top Flites and Nike's back over the fence. I like finding hole in the wall mom and pop diners in older parts of town as well. The outskirts of Vegas and Hendertucky are great for that.

Kenda Kross is a good multiuse tire. Geax Saguaro is a new name that I put on and have been impressed.

Did another 5 hr "Urban Assault" today that included a loop around the city and couple miles of the Monon trail because I rarely ride on MUPs, but there has been so much discussion here on BF regarding them that I thought I would check it out again. It's a very cool trail but I would rather ride on city streets where the chaos is more predictable. It's funny how the least skilled riders seem to be riding the fastest through crowds so I actually moved back onto the street within a couple of miles to avoid having to push someone off the trail. I think I will just stay on city streets from now on.....

Also just got back from an hour ride on the Fixie with Apache. Man the weather has been beautiful today.