I’m a road cyclist who wants to do some off-roading.

I can’t think about buying a mountain bike at this point, but I’m thinking about fettling one of two bikes I have in time for the Christmas break, and starting my off-road experience on that. In terms of riding style, I’m probably more of the long-distance bike-packing type rather than a downhiller. In fact, I’m a bit nervous about any fast and rough descents. I’d be riding around Aviemore.

So, the choice is between a 10+ year old Kona Jake The Snake and an early 90’s Saracen Powertrax.

I’m thinking about buying a pair of bullmoose bars for whichever bike I use, although I’m not sure how well they’d match either bike (in terms of stem length and riding position).

For the Kona I’d fit the bullmoose bars (with flat bar controls) and some decent quality cyclocross tyres (maybe Challenge Limus clinchers). The bike has a White Industries ENO hub (fixie) but I’d fit a freewheel to let me try out some off-road single-speeding.

The Saracen has the high seat and low bars typical of the 90’s. Again, I was thinking about fitting bullmoose bars, but with an Aheadset extender post to give some more height. The bike has 3×7 gears which I’d leave in place. However, I’d also fit some decent winter tyres – possibly Conti Mud Kings.

Which bike should get the nod?

In my limited experience of riding round Aviemore I think that even tracks that aren’t very extreme to ride will benefit from bigger tyres. I think rocks could feel awful through 35mm tyres

MTB here

Fitting flat bars on a bike designed for drop bars means it’ll run ‘short’ as an MTB frame is typically 2-3″ longer – you’d probably be better fitting some dirt-drops or similar. If you’re riding fire roads, then SS gearing might be OK but more technical stuff could be more of a challenge on a CX and fit the biggest tyres you can fit to help dealing with rocks. Can’t really comment on the Saracen as it’s a long time since I’ve ridden a 26″ MTB. If it was simply a recommendation, then a 29er with 2″ tyres might be more suitable

Unless you are riding on very smooth trails, you want 2″+ tyres.

26″ is fine, the benefits of 29ers are minimal irl.

Thanks very much. The Saracen it is! I was coming around to that way of thinking after remembering the Kona as being quite sketchy on stony tracks.

I just need to work out how to bring the Saracen a little more up-to-date. It’s got some old Conti 2.4″ tyres on at the minute, but they’re close to the chainstays, so not ideal for winter rides. The Conti mud tyres I was thinking about buying are only 1.8″ so possibly a little narrow, although perhaps I could use latex tubes, or even see if tubeless was possible.

After saying I was going to buy bullmoose bars, I’ve just seen the big Stooge ones with a fair amount of rise…

I live in Aviemore and ride most of the trails on drop bar bikes, CX tyres or 40mm Nano’s, inc Glen Einiech. Badaguish and high burnside would be another story however(just for context). The trails drain pretty well here for the most part TBH. *other opinions are available * 😀