Hey everyone,

My name is Nate I've been interested in starting to either road bike or mountain bike for some time now and have finally decided that I'd like to do both if possible! I understand there are hybrid bikes on the market but it seems like the bicycling community is very divided in both road bikes and mountain bikes. Around where I am I have both a lot of great roads to travel and a lot of amazing trails that span for miles and across multiple counties. I'm currently swimming, weight lifting, snowshoeing, hiking, running and would like to add biking into the repertoire. I'm lost when it comes to bikes and don't know where to start or what to invest in. However my budget is limited around $400-500 at the moment. Thanks for any help in advance.

Best,
Nathan

You won't get much help from this corner. Road bikes don't do trails well, and mountain bikes can't keep up with road bikes on the road. You could get a hybrid that doesn't do either particularly well, or some variety that leans one way but gives up some capabilities of the other. Given your budget, you're probably looking at either used, or a low-end model at a bike shop.

You might be able to find a bike store item for around $500. I'd check out Novarra brand bikes at REI. Or see what kind of entry level offerings they have over at the Trek store. You'll also have to wait until a sale. Or, just go to Bikesdirect & get one mail order. If you're new to biking my advice would be to start off easy. Get a nice lightweight hybrid or fitness style bike with upright bars. Get used to riding before going all in on a hunched over 15lb carbon fiber speed bike.

Yes road bikes don't do trails well, and while mountain bikes are not as fast on the road, it depends on who is riding the bikes whether of not one can keep up. My wife rides a 29in road bike and I ride a 27.5in mountain bike and can keep up with her on the road fine as she does not ride that fast.

Go with a used 1990's mountain bike from Specialized or Trek, and get a set of slick road tires to switch out for road riding.

The mountain bikes of that era did not have any suspension so you don't have to carry the extra weight when riding on the road, and the frames are rock solid and available cheap.

Get an entry level hybrid and get riding. New or used. You'll figure out what you really want as you go, and then get a different or another bike(s) later.

I have/do both, but it required two bikes. On a very limited budget I'd go with an MTB with hybrid tires I'd suppose.

When you say trails, what do you mean? There are some mountain bike specific trails in my locale, but they tend to be relatively short. But when you mention that the trails span multiple counties, then it suggests what we have a lot of in Wisconsin -- wider paths that are covered in a very fine gravel or crushed limestone. Of course a lot depends on the specific condition of those trails, but my "fun" bike is an old road frame with relatively narrow tires and it handles those kinds of trails just fine. Since I anticipate more of this kind of riding, I'm planning on moving to wider tires.

For any two kinds of bikes, somebody will come up with a new kind of bike that's in between. I've seen so called "cyclocross" bikes that can accommodate wider tires for comfort on trails, but that wouldn't seem out of place on paved roads.

Now if you're talking about real mountain bike trails, those would not be too much fun on a road bike.