I have come to the realization that I really do not get out on my bike offroad as much as I would like 🙁

Its not a time thing perhaps more of a terrain thing (very flat).

For a while I have been contemplating a road bike. Probably flat bar as have never really felt comfortable in drops.

To date when I have needed a bike for the road I have stuck some Fatboys or Street Runners on one of my hardtails and off I go but I realize the limitations of slicks on MTB.

Sooooo…..

Looking at options for a quick build/buy in the Darkside arena and am looking for pointers.

Do I go with a hybrid(?) like a Roadrat or face my fears and get a “proper” bike with drops?

The other thing to take into account is that “I iz not down wit da kidz” translating to “bit stuck in my ways”. The bikes I own are all steel and apart from a quick foray into aluminium a few years a go I have always stuck with steel.

The problem looks to be though that steel roadbikes now tend to be at a premium?

All help would be much appreciated 🙂

Cheers,

Mark

Try the drops you can always but flat bars on if you don’t get on with them. It may take a bit of perseverence, but once you get used to them, they are great.

Genesis Equilibrium for a steel road bike – http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/road/equilibrium/equilibrium-20

I’d go normal road bike, if you make sure you get the right size it should be more comfortable than a hybrid (more hand positions). Nothing wrong with steel and there’s still a load of cheap steel frames available, just the ones that get advertised the most tend to be the premium ones for obvious reasons. Can’t offer a recommendation unfortunately as I’m a carbon convert…

1. Stop calling it darkside
2. get dropbars, flat bars are for hybrids/29ers
3. shave your legs
4 If you want steel, its expensive now, unless you can find and older bike on the bay. or you could for a honky tonk which isn’t a bad price

Stop calling it darkside and get over your prejudices – steel is just a niche thing with no real practical advantages – there’s a good reason for the scarcity of steel road bikes. Though I have a very nice 22″ 531c frame I’d happily sell you for lots of money if that would make you feel better.

LOL, your on a mission today!!

get a bike fit.

a lot of mtbrs say this

never really felt comfortable in drops.

because they try and make it fit like a mtb.

as an outsider option the pompetimine with alfine might be a nice choice. probably easier and cheaper to go flat bar than a ‘normal geared bike’ too.

Rule No. 1: Its not big, clever, funny or correct calling it the ‘Darkside’.

Rule No. 2: A Roadbike shall never have anything other than drop bars

Darkside Roadbike

aracer – No prejudice towards other materials – just what I have been used to in the past. And 531 is sooo yesterday 😉 Besides steel isn’t niche …. is it?

Thomthumb – Good advice re bike fit. I have to say that previos attempts in the past (using other folks bikes) have lead to a strange mtb esq riding position.

Will have a look at the Kona & the Genesis – Thank you folks 🙂

Letmetalktomark. Did you know that Evans were selling Trek 1.1 (2010 verson) for ~ £350?

Spend about £400 IMHO for whatever you can get and get drops / ignore hybrids.
If you want to annoy the darksiders get a triple – especially if it is flat wher eyou live and ALWAYS wear your camelbak and keep the peak on your helmet – it drives them mental
I would accept any material for a road bike as the risk of impact damage is much less than with a MTB. They are all of similiar level of comfort re flex etc on the road

If you want to annoy the darksiders carry around things you don’t need get a triple – especially if it is flat wher eyou live and ALWAYS wear your camelbak and keep the peak on your helmet

FTFY (though I’m quite happy to recommend a triple if it is hilly where you ride). I suspect anybody who considers themselves a “darksider” will actually approve of the peak and camelbak.

And 531 is sooo yesterday Besides steel isn’t niche …. is it?

Oh, the ironing.

You don’t need a full on premium biomechanical bike fit but you should definitely visit a few good roadie-oriented shops, get their opinions and try out various bikes for size. Manufacturers will differ in terms of what size they claim (just like MTBs).

What’s your budget? That’ll affect frame material choice more than anything, eg if you’ve got £500 then you’ll be looking at aluminium.

After that it comes down to what you think fits best and looks nicest. Campag, Shimano and SRAM all work equally well, just in slightly different ways and with a different feel so go with whatever works for you.

And stop calling it darkside.

aracer I actually do both and sometimes forget the dress code for each so seem to equally oiffend both groups
Bikes are bikes who cares

a lot of mtbrs say this

“never really felt comfortable in drops.”

because they try and make it fit like a mtb.

I’m curious about this…. so what’s the difference, and I’m think of recreational riding for both, not dirt jumping vs. TDF time trial?

I wonder – do roadie forums tell roadies wanting to go off-road to stop calling it the darkside?

It all depends on how much you fettle your bikes – if you do fettling then check your local classifieds / fleabay for a cheap road bike for about £100. Then you can put flat bars on it if you want.

I use flat bars in winter (with bar ends) and drops in the summer.

From experience:

1. Choose Alu with rear carbon seat stays or go carbon cheapo Ribble sportive, planet X or similar (new or second hand).

2. Wide drop bars are easy to get the hang of – you wont spend much time in the drops anyway.

Stop calling it darkside

Stop calling it darkside and get over your prejudices

Rule No. 1: Its not big, clever, funny or correct calling it the ‘Darkside’.

has this forum been taken over by a bunch of roadies, i’m surprised the name has not changed to single lane world

DaRC_L – Member
I wonder – do roadie forums tell roadies wanting to go off-road to stop calling it the darkside?

No, ‘cos they don’t really care about the “us and them” that the majority of mtb-ers have wound themselves up about.

Top tip about darkside riding, anyone who doesn’t think it should be called darkside doesn’t know anything about darkside riding, and their opinion on anything should be disregarded.

do roadie forums tell roadies wanting to go off-road to stop calling it the darkside?

On roadie forums the darkside is more likely to be recumbent riding or something way more niche than MTBing.

In all my years of riding bikes, I’ve only ever come across the term darkside on internet forums. Funny that.

Go for drops, took me around 2 miles to get the hang of them.

Prepare to spend money all over again on new road specific kit and enjoy doing so!

To the OP (from a roadie-turned-parttime-MTBer)

Get a drop-barred, geared road racing bike.

For a basic idea, put the measurements into this fit calc. It won’t give definaitve answers but will give you a rough range of top tube lengths to go for. Top tube is the important measurement for a road bike.

If you’ve never had a road bike, go and sit on some in a shop, don’t buy one online until you know more.

Don’t be surprised if you feel like you’re diving over the bars, you should be forward more than an MTB and you’re never going to need to hang off the back of the saddle.

Don’t be afraid to go up to 130mm for a stem, and ceratinly avoid less than 90mm – fast twitchy handling is not a plus on a road bike.

Get a compact double (50/34) chainset if you live in the flatlands – triples are for touring or climbing 25%ers at the end of 150 miles.

Crud Racer guards are now good enough to use one race-geometry bike in all weathers.

In my rough dabble in road cycling + 1 for the wide drops, I went 40mm wider than I’m supposed to and it helped me get used to it.

I can understand the weight/stiffness benefits but steel does look good compared to ally and the colour schemes are far less TDF.
Genesis do a couple of decent steel road bikes and for a bit more money there’s a few from Charge.
If you’re New Forest/Southampton way I’ve got a Surly Pacer I’m getting rid of 56cm, 300 miles on the clock…

I swapped from a slicked up MTB to a Langster (1st Gen) to a Tarmac. It took a while to get used to the length of stem – at first it felt way too stretched, now it feels just right/a little short. Glad I didn’t swap it!

Same with hoods/drops. At first, didn’t feel safe on the hoods as I couldn’t reach the brakes in the way I wanted, so I was always in the drops – took a while to get comfortable with the new grip positions.

Scenetoomuch – my mate is looking for a cheap road bike – What height are you and how much you looking at?

foxy – shall i email you? would that be easier? i have some photos

OK cool – not expecting he has the money ATM but its worth a shot 🙂 He was looking at winter bikes @ about £300.

…email sent just seen that though, probably not much point.

Remember that one of the most expensive parts on a road bike are the STI’s shifters. You can get a sporty hybrid, put a shorter frame and drops or a longer stem to compensate for lack of drops and flat bars but if normaln 9sp shifters can be had for £15 for some older Deore, than cheapest Sora shifters are going for over £30.

If You want to buy a complete bike than have a look at some used ones and with Tiagra shifters/gears. Road bikes don’t loose as much value after some time and Tiagra shifters are really good. You should be able to pick one up now for around £200-250. This should give You a taste of road riding and be good enough for a start. My first road bike was a full Sora Raleigh I bought for £200. You need to watch out as You might like it. I now have a steel Lemond with full Ultegra 😉

If You want a cheap and universal bike than my mate is selling his ss’ed Giant SCR Ltd, carbon fork, alu frame, good wheels. Pretty light and has a more relaxed geometry so it can be a bit more comfortable road bike or a sporty hybrid. If You like it, put some gears on it (he might have some Sora shifters as well).

scenetoomuch – Thanks for the email – Dunno – you never know – but I think the frame maybe a bit big anyway 🙂

They are all of similiar level of comfort re flex etc on the road

nonsense. Depends how it is built.my steel surly is way smoother and more comfortable than my aluminium trek with fat tubes and stays is with the same wheels and tyres. Having said that I wouldn’t really want to road race on the cross check.

foxy – no worries, it’s understandable, it’ll be on the classfieds soon if he fancies it in the future

my steel surly is way smoother and more comfortable than my aluminium trek with fat tubes and stays is with the same wheels and tyres

That’s nowt to do with the material or the size of the frame tubes though (or at least the real comfort isn’t – the perceived comfort due to sideways flex might be). I’d hazard a guess that the Surly has significantly different geometry to the Trek – and probably also a different riding position.

Perhaps, but with the same wheels and tires there is significantly less buzz from rough roads, and bigger bumps have less if a sting to them. Isn’t the flex you mention part of the properties of each material though? In terms of tube diameter – the pencil thin seat stays on the surly are going to flex more than the AA battery diameter ones on the trek. Basic engineering innit?

proper road bike, proper mountain bike… no middle of the ground nonce bikes

Blah, blah, darkside, blah, steed, blah… the one thing I’d say is that fit does makes more of a difference on the road. The one thing I never got on with on my first road bike were the awful ergo drops, horrible thing, hated using them, felt really unsafe. Compact drops are so much nicer to use, I thought I hated drops, actually I just hated the ones on my bike because they didn’t suit me.

Stop calling it the darkside.

I’d also suggest that you consider mudguard clearance. Yes ‘proper’ mudguards look spoddy but they do so much to stop you getting covered in ‘belgian toothpaste’ that they’re worth going for in the winter months.