After living with a mountain bike on road tires for several years, I decided to build a 26" road bike from scratch. (My mountain bike was a dual suspension model which I purchased with the hopes of getting into mountain biking.) I choose a frame made by Kinesis which I stumbled across when shopping parts from the British company ProBikeKit. The Decade Tripster is a hybrid frame that combines disc brakes with road geometry and light weight AL and carbon fork construction.

While I have built it as a flat bar bike using some of the components from the mountain bike it replaces, I choose a road version of the disc brakes so that I could convert it to a touring bike with drop bars and lower gearing in the future. Selecting a tire that would take advantage of the added clearances available was an important consideration. I went with the 26x1.75 Continental City Ride because it features a smooth center, like a slick, and high puncture resistance.