Done with the hybrids...getting mountain bikes....what to get?
 

Ok this is going to sound really wishy-washy but we just got our hybrids a week ago and after riding them several times this week and weekend on our rail trails we just think we would be much better with mountain bikes. There are some areas we ride where we just dont like the ride of the hyrbid and i thought i could get my husband talked into some road riding but he wants to stick with the mountains and trails...so we are going to either sell these bikes and get mtb or see if our shop we got them from will exchange for mtb's. Our choices of brands from our LBS are

Scott Aspect
Giant Talon 29er
Giant Revel
Specialized Hardrock

What is the pro and con of getting the 29 wheels? What brand would you guys suggest...we want disk breaks and lockout.

You should be ashamed for even thinking about talking him into road riding. He's a manly man, why turn him into a turtle neck wearing, coffee shop pimping, ghey spandex wearing roadie? :lol:


I would say go with the Hardrock. Fat tires, low pressures, squishy fun ride.

+1 for the Hardrock. I work at an LBS that deals Specialized, even the best riders never fail to have a good time on a Hardrock.

There are probably a zillion threads on that topic. I have bikes with both wheel sizes. I prefer the larger, 29er wheels for longer rides over smooth ground. If I'm going to ride the four miles of road to the nearest trailhead, and then the trail, and then the road back, I'll usually grab my 29er.

FWIW, I'll point out that Giant uses thru-axle forks on their 29er models. That Talon comes with a 15mm thru-axle fork. When I am headed to a rocky and rooty trail, I grab my 26er with its thru-axle fork. The thru-axle provides a stiffer, more positive interface between fork and wheel.

Lastly, Specialized makes a Hardrock in both 29- and 26-inch wheel sizes. If your bike shop stocks both models, you could at least compare them on parking-lot rides.

Curious what you bought and why it was so much of a disaster. By definition - if you take a mtb bike and put road tires on it you have a hybrid - but I doubt thats quite what you were driving.

But ID`ing the areas your hybrid fell down in would probably help - particularly because you`re considering a 29er.

I just put 29er mountain bike tires on my hybrid after my friend and I befriended one of the guys at the local bike shop. I got the hybrid with some on-road/off-road tires and it worked well for the cross country stuff we were doing. The LBS employee showed us some single track runs and my friend is hooked so we're doing that now. I felt really under-tired (had a fun spill as a result too) so I did a 29er conversion (see sig)*. I haven't tried it out yet besides flying off curbs to check for stability but the conversion was easy. This might be one thing you want to try before getting a new bike simply because if you get something like the Talon 29er and you have a good quality 700c Hybrid bike... you're really just changing tires. I went from 700c x 38 road/off road tires to 29x2.1 front & 700x40 rears.

My friend got a Talon 29er-2 over the Revel 0 (basically the same bike besides tire size) because of the larger tire and it has the front lockout that the Revel lacks. He ended up replacing that after two weeks with the Reign because of riding with the LBS Employee and his 6K All mountain wiz bang bike. He read the 26"/Full suspension bike was better for jumping off things (he's a toy nut). My friend was able to keep up with the much more experienced LBS Employee our first time out on the trail with the Talon so I don't think he made a bad choice in the first place. As a result of his toy-lust, I get to ride his Talon sometimes and I have to say that it's a very nice bike. Definitely nicer than mine but I'm poor so no fun for me ;).

I like staying glued to the ground and going quickly so I appreciate the pros of the 29er setup. It's a really nice ride and easily as fast as my beater Chro-Mo road bike. I'll let him get all the crazy air while I leave him behind haha. I can report back to this thread about my conversion after we do a 10 mile ride this weekend.

*I went for a smaller rear than I could have simply because of economics and I was worried about frame fit (not much of an issue after all). At some point I'll throw a 1.9" 29er tire on there.

Not sure if you've done anything yet, but my Hybrid -> MTB conversion was a success. I easily kept up with/out climbed a 26" hard tail mountain bike. The ride was nice and I even inadvertently took a 9-10 foot jump I had no business taking... and can still walk/move my neck haha. If you haven't done anything yet, throw some MTB tires on your hybrids and have some fun :).