Bike Choice
 

I know that some of you have ridden the C&O to Pittsburg. Given your experience, would you select a Rivendell Sam, a mountain bike or hybrid. The Sam is set up with 35's. I've heard that the C&O portion is pretty rutted, which got me thinking that a hardtail might be the best choice.
Thanks for your input.

Never done those, but for unpaved riding I'd go medium width like 34s or wider. You can switch tires on any bike even as part of the sale. However, the more standard 15 mm wide (inside) rims are not the best for above 32, but it's not a hard and fast rule. Some charts indicate they are fine to 34. Also, many 34/35s are actually a few mm narrower.

Old Sheldon Brown, may he rest in piece, has a chart near the bottom of:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html

Al

I guess it depends on how rutted, for how long those sections are, what time of the year and how much you are carrying.

I've done 50 miles a couple of times using a Specialized Tri-cross bike with 35mm tires. That seemed to be a good combination of a bike that still felt like a road bike that could still navigate the occasional ruts and bumpy stuff. I was still pretty beat up afterwards though.