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OK, not a HT vs FS question...
Planning a ride with some work colleagues who do a fair bit of cycling. A number of them have commuters / "town" type mtbs rather than full on knobblied up mtbs - and they do / have used them offroad, but mainly on fire roads...
Now, I wouldn't normally recommend that they tackle the Gap on a commuter :lol:, but when walking that route I have seen folks riding the old Roman road on more commuter style bikes.
Any thoughts?
After all, a cx bike would be suitable..
I suppose you could do it slowly on a bike like that, but where's the fun there?
The first DH section after the gap is ok after the initial 200m or so, but I wouldn't fancy the DH after the tramway climb on 'lesser' bike.
I'll be recommending HT mtb as suggested bike spec - but I know a few of the people who are interested went and bought commuters on the C2W scheme 🙁
more about the rider than the bike. i think a commuter would not be much fun on the descent. I was rattled to shit on a 456!
Ss 29er with bounce at front is what I rode last year.mate did it rigid he was fine
One of the group is planning on 29er rigid SS
One of the group is planning on 29er rigid SS
Do they have a beard? If not i have a selection of false ones which can be loaned.
You could get over it, yes.. but I don't think it'd be particularly enjoyable to be fair. The trail on the north side is quite rocky for 35mm tyres.
It would be fine for the Gap, the top of the descent has been flattened out, not quite a fire road but it does not have the steps that used to cause problems for duff 4x4 drivers. As several people have suggested, the descent into Dolygaer would be the biggest challenge, you can avoid a good portion of it by turning right on the first forestry road if people have had enough of walking/been shaken to pieces already.
It is doable on SS, none of the climbing is especially steep/sustained technically.
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you can get a VW T25 round it i think a commuter will cope fine[/url]
My first time on The Gap was on an Apollo hybrid steel rigid with 1" town and country tyres and basic canti's. It was my first off-road ride and more or less got me into this lark!
No it was not comfy or fast and I walked the harder bits, but it was blinking fun!
No it was not comfy or fast and I walked the harder bits, but it was blinking fun
That's what I was expecting - hopefully most folks will have proper mtbs, but I don't want to exclude those that don't
Make sure their tyres are pumped up hard then 🙂
As said doable after a fashion on just about anything. But the fun factor might be missing on a commuter with narrow tyres. Does it have to be the gap ? maybe a more fire road based route might be better. 😆