BluesDawg

Here is something similar that was made for Dave Zabriskie.
https://forums.mtbr.com/showpost.php?...76&postcount=3

More offfroad oriented as it is built on a 29er frame, but a lot of road parts on it too.

Paravia

Yesterday I rode the racing bike for the second time, a more serious 35 miles. I am still well pleased for there is no climb I can't take. One negative note, most roads here are chip sealing, so once reached the top of the hill I can't descend as fast as before (with the hybrid). This is quite ironic since I am now riding a racing bike! I still heartily recommend a road bike vs an hybrid, or even a cyclocross at this point.

Wanderer

Hey Zen - you came pretty close to describing my '08 Specialized Crosstrail. With Schwalbe Marathon Supremes, 35mm front, 40mm rear. It is a nice do it all bike.

Lenton58 

I find this an interesting thread because I am riding what I'd call a hybrid on the road — not by by choice exactly — but because the classic road racers I'm rebuilding seem to be taking an age to complete. My ride is an upgraded Trek 930. I use stirrups on Sylvan light road pedals. The quil stem is set right down and I've sawed off the flat bars to exactly shoulder width. I don't think I'm too far off what it is like to ride a roadie on the horns. And, it steers real fast. Of course, I'm pushing more weight than a roadie, but I ask myself, 'What difference does it make on my commutes with teaching stuff, my civilian clothes, lunch and a pair of shoes on my back? I feel that I may have more inherent stability when I'm twisting and turning my body while to see what is around me and avoiding being destroyed in the Japanese rush hour. I've got stunning stopping power with the XT cantilevers that use competition pads. Not a light brake set, but they help when the schoolgirls (charinko) and scooter riders try to play suicide. It's a war out there.

Yep, when the first road racer is ready, I'll be on it going to work. But the Trek hybrid is definitely a street warrior that has got me back on the road as a commuter — keeping my health despite the hair raising jolts I get every morning somewhere up the line.

The one ASTONISHING difference came from this mod: 1.25 inch high-pressure racing practice tires. The contact profile is very close to tubular 700C race rubber. I run about 100 psi, and at my 76 Kg its a pretty good ride. The speed difference was gob-smacking.

cyclezen

great thread! some really excellent bikes in there! a lot of singles, although I appreciate the idea of SS, I don;t think I'd like to hump my way through some of the places I ride offroad, on a SS.
But still nice stuff...
especially luv that stuff about Tomac and his bikes with some great pics of him bombing with the disc wheeled bike. Thanks a bunch for the thread URL, it is total STOKE!

so fork - having a hard time finding a 29er which is also 'light'. Suntour has a bunch of 700c forks but not much info on the quality level or weights of them. Not sure with the wacky Rockshox site if they even have a 700c SID (which would be their lightest forks, I 'm guessin)
Other side is finding a 'better' grade of 700c wheelset which can run with Disc. I;d at least like to go disc on the front and no problemo livin with a V on the back.

Hey 'Wanderer', 'Lenton58', it would be really cool to see pics of your machines.

I've been mullin the idea over for some time, just held back by having way too many machines already and it took a bunch of offroad time to get to where I have even a dim idea of how to go about it. Haven;t really seen much of this in and around SB, but then I don;t do the race scene and a lot of offorad is very DH oriented here because we have (had, before the recent fires) a bunch of good DH, which translates into very tough uphill.
It would be great to see this 'hybrid'/monstercross thing has some legs here in 50+; so if anyone has played with the idea in some fashion, I know I'd sure like to hear and see what you cooked up.
sortta reminds me of when the 'fun' shape thang really took off in surfin and a slew of new shapes came into the sport.
Let's see some of your monstercross

BluesDawg

As for wheels, pick the hubs, pick the rims, pick the spokes and build your wheels.

Forks would be the tough part. Have to find one that is both light and not flexy. Tough call. Would eliminate the noodly SID.

Timtruro

Isn't it true that some bikes just roll BETTER than others? It seems to me that it is. I mean bikes made for similar riding, using 2 road or two hybrid, one bike will many times just roll better than the other. Very easy to notice when both are just coasting down a long gradual descent.

Pista Largo

Based on personal experience with my winter and summer commuting tires; If the 32s are studded nokians at 70 PSI and the 28s are conti gatorskins at 120 psi then the difference is huge.

Lenton58 

Thanks .. I'll do that as soon as I get the knowledge about how to post decent graphics here on this forum. I've posted hundreds of them on other sites, but here I have yet to post what others post on a usual basis. What I get are tiny things (JPG) that you click on for a sorry-assed image, and when you click out, the page returns to the forum index. It REALLY annoys me!!!

BluesDawg

To post high quality images, you need to put the photos on another website and use the "insert images" icon at the top of the message box to insert the url link into a message. Photobucket, Flickr and others are good sites for hosting your photos online.

Sixty Fiver

My hybrid is not a compromise bike as it does exactly what I built it to do... it won't go quite as fast as my road bike because it is geared lower and weighs a bit more but my road bike won't tow 300 pounds, go off road,tour, or even climb quite as well as the hybrid has gearing that allows it to climb walls.

For all day comfort the hybrid rules.

There are so many types of hybrid which is really a term to describe an all rounder that is designed more for comfortable riding than all out performance but there are hybrids like the Trek FX series that are more performance oriented and can hold their own quite well.

I have taken my hybrid on fast group rides and had no problem keeping up and it handles challenging terrain nearly as well as my mtb... for that I run a different wheel set.

It could be the one bike to rule them all.

BluesDawg

Suggest you come up with a new name. While what you are talking about shares some characteristics with the "monstercross" concept, the suspension fork would disqualify it from what I understand the term to mean in the threads on MTBR forums. No sense inviting sneers from the "purists".

hockman4357

Is your hybrid bike a Trek FX series bike? If so, which one do you own? I am considering the purchase of a Trek 7.3 FX at this time.

BluesDawg

The older Trek 900 series (lugged steel frame, rigid fork) makes for an extremely versatile bike. I have a '92 970 frame and fork which I have set up in so many different ways it is ridiculous. Works great when configured either as a pure offroad bike, a road bike or a true hybrid, ready to go on or offroad.

Sixty Fiver

My bike is a '99 7500 Multitrack... the 7.3 is a very nice bike and gets great reviews.

When I built up my 7500 I wanted a really solid bike that could handle anything I threw at it so the parts spec leans pretty heavily toward mtb and cross and I was nicely surprised at how capable a road bike it is.

The frame geometry is aggressive enough that it took well to modifications and I always thought the fx series should have been offered in a drop bar version as they make a pretty decent all rounder.

Lenton58 

Thanks BluesDawg. Some months ago, I tried something like that and failed. I'll go another round and get back.

Lenton58 

I stated earlier that I am using 1.50 inch tires — WRONG! they are 1.25 x 26 — high pressure. This is an upgraded/modded Trek-930. I bought it new here in Sendai in '94. I intended to use it off-road, but that never happened, and it left the dealer with street slicks. Despite the miles stacked on it over the years, the BB is original ... as are the chain-rings, R & FD, Alivio hubs (with fresh axles) and quil-stem. The original flat bar has been cut to shoulder width. The other bits have all been replaced with with something better or lighter. The pedals are Sylvan Lights. I intend to strip and coat the frame one day (it's much more battered than it looks here), and the rebuild will include some lighter parts and maybe a compact road crank-set with some low gearing. For fighting in the chaotic city traffic, its great. The 930 was a welded frame using True Temper tubing for the mains and stays and Trek dropouts in the rear. Can't remember the specifics for the forks. — Lorne

maddmaxx 

So where is the dividing line between hybred and road bike?

cyclezen

OK, how about keepin it in 50+? 'Geezercross' ?

nice bikes, guys! love the variety I like all those treks (and others...)

ya know we have it easy... if we were 30 again, having things to prove, all that tech advantage, riding life would be tough. Now, whether we ride or race, only thing we have to prove is to ourselves. So bikes can easily reflect what WE want them to be. That's about as 'custom' as it gets. Nice

even though I'm lookin at cross type frames, I still have a GF tassajara frame hangin around. It being light enough, and I have a set of Bontrager Racelite Disc Tubeless ready to go, and some older White Bros cranks, and a set of BB7 discs... I guess I'm goin '26'.
BluesDawg, what rubber is that on your 970?

its great to see and think about what everyone does with their bikes to adapt them to their riding, not just this thread, but also many prior ones.

Its especially nice to see so many quality older frames/bikes being re-worked to your ride concept.

BluesDawg

Performance Forte FasTrac. Very light folding tire. Rolls smoothly on the road and grips well on most dry offroad surfaces.

Performance no longer lists it, but I think this one at Nashbar is the same tire.

I am a big believer in using parts you already have, but I'd sure like to see your original concept carried out. I think the 700c wheels and the cyclocross geometry would make for a very different feel than something based on a 26" MTB. On the other hand, I think finding the right suspension fork for that application was going to be a tough and complex problem.

Lenton58 

Hi maddmaxx:

Is this your frame?
https://www.pricepoint.com/detail/177...rame-White.htm

If so, you went the other way around than most of us, so your question raises more interest than on the surface of the assumption that a hybred starts off as an off-road frame and ends up nearer the pavement.

The Sette White frame accomodates 700 wheels, but yours look like 26 inch — are they? The tires are they tires or tubulars? They look to be the equivalent of my 26x1.25 Panaracer Closer.

I take your question to be rhetorical because you are demonstrating that there is no dividing line — only a blurring of orthodox concepts in order to match individual needs.

maddmaxx 

That's my point exactly............the word hybrid can be a pretty broad stroke of the brush. This bike is one exteme end of the spectrum, really a flat bar road bike on high performance 700c wheels, but outfitted with a full MTB control group. It's fraternal twin (pics later) is a modified MTB frame with its geometry altered by using a rigid suspension fork with very little length correction. This dropped the front end and upped the steering response.

The pictured bike is a mostly road (or very smooth off road) bike, the latter is a dirt road or occasional asphault bike. By classic definition, neither is a true hybred.........but then, what is?

BluesDawg

What is a rigid suspension fork? or for that matter, What is asphault or hybred?

Today's hybrids vary quite a bit and are very different from what they were 15-20 years ago. The best hybrids (imho) are hybrid bass.

maddmaxx 

So very true. Some words have evolved in our sport at the whim of a marketing directors pen. I believe that there are hybreds out there that cover the full range from MTB to Road.

On the other hand, what is an MTB. That class seems to have evolved into distinct groups....Cross Country, All Mountain, Downhill etc.

It makes it hard for a newcomer to tell fish from (bass ) but it provides a wealth of possibilities for the mix and match homebuilder to create a personal masterpiece.

maddmaxx 

The most current shot of the road based bike "White Rabbit II" and 2 shots of its fraternal twin Dormouse. The Dormouse drivetrain is 1X9 with a single 32 chain ring and an 11/32 cassette. Two sets of tires go on the bike, these are the wet weather (maybe it for the year here) tires.

The two bikes converge on hybrid from opposit extremes. Both are a lot of fun to ride in their environment. Both fit this 63 year old's style.