anglais49

Hey y'all,

I'm considering buying an interim road bike, but not sure if it would be any better than the mtb I have already. If anyone could provide a bit of versus context, it would be much appreciated.

So later this year I'm going to spend £1300+ on a full carbon Giant (TCR) or Trek (Madone), to do everything from a daily commute to 50/100-mile events, to a week's climbing tour of the Alps. But I need something until I get round to that...

Right now, my only bike is a Specialised Rockhopper (https://goo.gl/XHvr2). It's a 2010 model and was around £900 new. I use it mainly off road, but also have a pair of slick tyres for it since it's also the only on-road bike I've got. It's almost worth buying a cheap road bike just to save me having to keep swapping nobblies to slicks!

But since a road bike now would be interim, I don't want to waste more than £200 on something I know will be surplus in a few months. I've spotted a Muddyfox Pace on the Sports Direct site for £180 (https://goo.gl/o76XY). Supposedly reduced from RRP of £350, but I can't imagine anyone would pay that for one. Now I know it's pretty basic spec-wise, as you'd expect for £180, but here come my question...

Is it going to be so low spec that I would actually be better off just riding the Rockhopper on the road? Or will a road bike, even a budget one, always be better on the road than a mtb. I've no idea how a poorly spec'd road bike compares to a reasonably decent spec'd MTB for road riding... Any ideas?

Thank you!

PS, I know I could up the spec of a budget road bike by going up to something like a Triban 3, but at the end of the day that's just wasting a bit more money on a bike I'm not going to ride for long. Cheaper the better. Can't imagine there's a whole world of difference between the two anyway.

jdon

Patience Grasshopper. You already have a plan for a great upgrade bike so save your pennies and pounds for that. I think you figured that out already. Welcome to BF.

anglais49

Hah, cheers. I suck at patience though and wouldn't really miss £180 if it went missing tomorrow... itching temptation

jimc101

Muddy Fox is a very budget orientated brand now, don't confuse it with the brand it was in the early days of MTB. If you want a real budget road bike, would look at Btwin @ Decathlon, or Halfords own, the ones they have been doing over Xmas on TV are better than the MuddyFox.

For your money, would look at either getting a 2nd set of wheels for your MTB, with slicks; or better yet, as jdon, save your money for a better bike, at £1300, you are out of the sweetspot for good intro road bikes, which is the £999 bike to work price, and a long way off anything special, you almost need to double your budget for that.

wphamilton

For road riding get the road bike. It won't hurt to have a backup when you get your main ride later this year.

IthaDan 

What second hand purchase channels do you have? I'd be checking the UK craigslist equivalent if I were in your shoes- £180 not a lot of money for a new bike, so a lot of corners will have been cut and you might wind up losing momentum before you buy your "real" road bike.