loboseb

I wanna get or build a mountain bike. To be honest, more just buy it than make it. But I still think this may be the right sub forum to ask. What the hell do I get?

I live in ATL. A decent amount of crappy roads, lack of enough bike lanes, hills, plus I wanna have fun riding mountain bike in the city. I currently own a speedy and light Fuji flat bar, keeping it, love it. I use it to get to places quick, wave in and out of neighborhood traffic, it is very efficient when I pedal.

I want a mountain bike for nimble city riding, the "faster" the better. Will i ride trails? Very very, occassional urban trails, and when I go car camping. And no I aint gonna be doing no specialized uber hard, daring trails.

Reality is, ill mostly ride it in the city (but I do want to work nicely on the rare times I go on a trail).

In stores, I have just looked at not tried some of the new sexy Fuji mountain bikes and GT's. Same for a handful of Jamis available in another store, and another store with Felts and Specialized.

I haven't tried any. Want just some opinions to guide me as opposed to going in blank to these stores.
The only thing i know is that mtn bikes are heavier with fatter wheels which will slow it down in the city. So where do I go from here?

One guy I met locally suggested I build my own single speed mountain bike with a "rough stump?" frame. I didnt really understand the why of his suggestion. I do know ATL is pretty hilly.

I did try a 2016 Fuji Cyclecross, really amazing and comfy, but, I dont think I want to ride in a road bike position.

Would love some ideas, suggestions etc. Of course Im already googling articles and top 10 bike listicles etc.

Thanks

Seb

bikemig 

Why not get a rigid MTB--new or find a high end vintage one--and get some responsive slick tires to zoom around town with.

bonsai171

Hi,

I also live in Atlanta, and currently have 3 bikes-a mountain bike, a singlespeed road bike (45t front, 17t rear), and a Shimano 105 Scattante road bike. Having moved to Atlanta from a less hilly area where I could ride up almost any hill (even singlespeed), this is definitely a big challenge. I would definitely suggest getting at least a double in the front, maybe even a triple. What kind of budget are you looking at?

Dave

bonsai171

hi,

To tag on to my previous post, here is a suggested bike, the Nashbar 29er. If you're not familiar with Nashbar, they have discounted parts, and run sales a lot (been buying stuff from them for years). The bike has mechanical disc brakes, a 100mm suntour coil fork with lockout, a shimano altus drive train, and runs for $400. They have a 22% off sale today, so you could get it for $312.

Nashbar AT29 29" Mountain Bike

Dave

NYMXer

I took a 29" hardtail Mtb and put 700x32 tires on the rims, and now, it is an excellent around town bike. Not too heavy but tough enough to take some bad road hits.

Noctilux.95

Totally agree. I have a rigid 29er that I use for commuting and occasional fire roads.

Wileyrat

The rigid is a good idea, but if you want suspension go for hard tail, and make sure the fork has a lock out.

loboseb

For the 700x32 tires, why slick?

Can these take a bangin? Will they work in the occassional easy urban and car camping trails?

bonsai171

The 700 X 32 might not be good if you want to ride this bike on any kind of trails. Having a wider tire will give you a more comfortable ride (a 700 X 32 tire is about 1.25" diameter and is kinda small). If you hunt around, you can find tires that are slick in the middle (for easy road riding-less pedaling resistance) and have some knobs on the side (which will help give you grip on trails / paths).

Dave

Darth_Firebolt

Trek DS or Specialized Crosstrail or similar. Quick handling MTB geometry, 700c (29er) rims, disc brakes, but it has a lockout on the fork for pavement riding, 38mm tires for quicker rides, and a higher geared crank than a normal MTB so you don't spin out at 20mph.

loboseb

So rigids are faster than Hard tails? from what I have been Googling around...

Wileyrat

I would say so (of course gearing matters too), you lose a bit of power through the suspension compressing, hence the front fork lockout kind of making it like a rigid.

Personally, if I were going to ride mostly road, I'd pick my old rigid over my newer hardtail (with lockout) every time.

NYMXer

This is the tire I ordered, grips well and rolls nice. It is a thinner tire (my choice) but wider ones are available. I still ride the gravel roads, rail trails and some minor off road trails with this tire and have not had any issues.
The idea was to make the mtb a training bike and more versatile, sparing me the cost of a new bike. It's working out well so far.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

loboseb

This is my current bike, a hybrid. Point being if I get a mtn bike I want something different than what i have.


Fuji Absolute 1.0 LE Flat Bar Disc Road Bike -- 2016 Performance Exclusive

hig4s

Same price as the Nashbar but with hydraulic brakes. https://www.bikesdirect.com/products/...ntainbikes.htm

My son has one, nice do everything bike.

skycomag

why not try a adjustable stem.

Joeyseven

What about A Urban bike?

I bought the Raleigh Redux to ride around town and off road also.Not to many miles yet.

Raleigh Corp might still have the discount going on still.
Code is CYCLE4PERK

The 3 is 1x10 with 27.5" wheels($570)
The 2 is 1x9 with 27.5" wheels($390)

Or the Giant ATX LITE (Triple) $435
3x8,27.5" wheels


https://corp.raleighusa.com/redux-3

loboseb

Big favor: can you all shed some light how would a rigid 29 compare to my current FUJI flat bar hybrid in terms of the ride?

Fuji Absolute 1.0 LE Flat Bar Disc Road Bike -- 2016 Performance Exclusive

kevrider

i am not sure why you would want a mtn bike for commuting when you have a commuter bike in the fuji. if you are worried about the fuji taking a beating, you should worry less. to allay your concerns, you could change to wider tires, maybe 35mm, give or take, and you'll have more meat between the rims and the curbs. performance sells a tire called the Gotham, 700x35, which is great for commuting, practically flatproof.

you could buy a rigid mtn bike and put slicks on it, then it will look like your fuji but with lower gearing and more weight.
you could buy a hard tail mtn bike, it will look like your fuji with a suspension fork and be slower.
obviously, a full suspension mtn bike makes no sense for commuting.
your fuji makes sense for commuting and city riding. it is designed for this. it is not delicate.

if you are worried about parking your thousand dollar bike at the bike rack, then you should cruise craigslist and grab a 90s mtn bike for 100 dollars and put a pair of 26" gothams on it. it will do fine for your occasional trail ride, remember it was built for that. my '92 Mongoose was my preferred city bike when i live in stone mountain.

loboseb

@kevrider you make an excellent point which is why I brought up my existing bike in terms of understanding differences with mtn bike.

The only thing is that in my FUJI bike, its a pretty aggressive position, and if I put in bigger tires it would slow it down.

kevrider

i see, you're looking for something that will sit you up for dicing with traffic... a properly setup mtn bike does not really do that. the bars may be farther from the ground due to the longer fork, but then, so is your bottom bracket. you would have to make some changes to sit more upright.

i would stick with my rec for a rigid 90s mtn bike. they are great for dominating curbs and potholes and i would have no qualms about swapping out stems and bars to change the position, as needed. but of course, you can tweak any bike to get the bars up. hth!


edit...
as far as differences between your fuji and the average hardtail... off the top of my head, the fooj will have:
- less weight
- shorter wheelbase with steeper head tube and seat tube angles... i.e. quicker steering
- more BB drop (?)... i.e., your saddle is closer to the ground
- larger chainrings and smaller cogs... i.e., taller gearing

all of these things make it quicker/faster/better around town. as i said, my mtn bikes all have a similarly aggro riding position as my road bikes, so that alone won't get you a more sit-up-and-beg riding position. you will have to change bars and/or stem to achieve that on a mtn bike. doing that would compromise weight distribution and reduce front-end traction on the trail, which is not ideal since every trail in atlanta has fast downhill sections.

kevrider

what about:

Category: Men's Bikes

something built for the purpose?

loboseb

why a 90's bike? and do you mean a hard tail or rigid from the 90's?

And no one has mentioned gears here....

kevrider

those 90s mtn bikes are cheap and plentiful and predominately rigid. all three qualities make them great city bikes.

we are all talking geared bikes by default, unless otherwise stated in the post (or thread title or forum subsection).

atlanta is pretty hilly, singlespeed would be a good workout. i have a '95 GT converted to SS for mtn biking. it's fun to ride, but it can be hard on the knees. i have not had a single speed bike for city riding... other than a huffy cruiser.

HTupolev

I wouldn't really worry about this. Wider tires weigh a bit more and add a bit to your aerodynamic profile, but they also typically get lower rolling resistance than similarly-built narrower tires. Obviously that doesn't mean that you can go infinitely wide with zero penalty, but the drawbacks grow with width much slower than people tend to think. If you've still got the stock Vittoria Zaffiro tires on that Fuji, if anything it's probable that a good 35mm tire would speed you up. The important thing, if you want a tire to roll fast on the road, is getting supple tires with road tread.

The bigger issue is how well wide tires will seat on your Fuji's rims, and how much clearance you have on the frame and brakes. If you want wide tires, this is where something like a rigid MTB wouldn't be a terrible idea; they've generally got the clearance to handle tires up to 2", and sometimes there'll still be room to spare for safe fender mounting if you want that. If you're concerned about good paved speed, high-performance wide 26er road tires aren't all that common, but they do exist, and their width allows them to handle loose gravel and dry bumpy hardpack pretty decently.