Originally Posted by
jrickards
I was thinking of a 29er because it would certainly work as a commuter and road bike but I am not certain how it would fair on trails and the dirt camp road (especially when the road gets really washboardy). Besides, I would still want to switch tires between road and offroad purposes.
Want to join in to the conversation?
I thought 29ers were intended for rough stuff. If so it would be nicer on the trails and dirt road than on pavement. I'm sort of thinking about a bike along the lines you are thinking of, both road and off road. A dual-sport in motorcycle terms. I've been considering the Surly LHT with fairly fat tires, the Salsa Fargo with thinner tires, or a Rocky Mountain Sherpa (which it looks like I can't find!) with wide tires. My commute is 9 or more miles each way with several miles of gravel and about twice as many miles of nice pavement, all back roads.
Don't you need to haul stuff when you go out to your camp? I want front and rear rack capability though a rear rack and panniers are fine for my commute.
None of those three bikes I mentioned have very low granny gears, the LHT and Fargo go down to 20 gear inches, and the Sherpa is 25! My Rocky Mountain Fusion that I'm riding now goes down to 17 and I use it fairly often when climbing hills with a load. Is your riding usually flat?
Would you actually be changing tires all the time, or splurge for spare wheels so that you can just swap them out when you want different tires?