I’ve been contemplating upgrading my old Cannondale Badboy for a while now. It’s a nice solid bike with XT disk brakes, hope wheels, brooks saddle and super reliable 8 speed gears, but the 26″ wheels aren’t ideal for what is a mostly road based commuter/light tourer/weekend road bike. At 8 years old and many 1000’s of miles out of it, I think I’ve had my moneys worth out of the frame so I’m happy to retire it to the garage wall.
I’ve been eyeing up a Surly Ogre frame, as I love my KM mountain bike, but a £650 frame and new rims/spokes/tyres/guards was a bit over what I wanted to pay.
Anyway, I’ve settled on a Roadrat as its seems a nice frame for £350 and seems perfect to swap all the Cannondale bits on to. I’m going to borrow the wheels of one of my 29er MTBs for a bit until I get around to rebuilding the hope hubs from the Cannondale onto some 29er rims.
Question is, can anyone with a Roadrat let me know what tyre and mudguard combos you’ve used? I’m thinking of some 35c marathons with the widest guards I can fit – 42mm SKS ideally. Is that too big, and should I be looking more towards 32c tyres and 35mm guards?
Any advice from owners would be appreciated.
