[Closed] I'm tempted by the dark side.

locally there are zero decent trails to me

Must try harder! There must be undiscovered (to you) stuff near where you live, I've been biking round my area for over 12 years and come across new stuff every year, without fail.

Anyone else given up fat tyres and only ride the road now?

I mostly ride road now but still try to ride mtb once a week or so. Stop calling it the dark side though, it sounds pathetic.

almost ... the mtb comes out once in a while and i live in Bristol !!!
tarmac only doesn't have to be a drudge, it's what you make it and who
you ride with.
6 or 7 hours off in the quiet lanes, pub stops, cafés, sunshine ....

That's fair. I only ride tarmac for my commute and always on my own. I only ever consider it as a way to make me stronger and fitter for MTB riding.

+1 a bike is a bike,bmx,time trial,mtb whatever.the problem is not everyone on a bike is a proper cyclist

Ah there it is. I knew i'd offend someone.

Stop calling it the dark side though, it sounds pathetic.

Apologies Tom, didn't mean to offend you. Just going the general references I see on the forum.

Anyone else given up fat tyres and only ride the road now?

n+1, surely?

Road bikes are slightly less great than mountain bikes, but they're still bikes and therefore A Very Good Thing.

tarmac only drudge

teadrinker - Member
I've dabbled before and enjoyed it,

That was your first mistake. Roadies don't enjoy it. It's just pain and suffering, wrapped in a big bag of snobbery.

😉 😉

just get some nice wide (1.5" to 2") but smooth tyres on a hardtail or rigid mtb, far more fun hooning around on that than getting beaten up riding a roadbike with skinny high pressure tyres.

Apologies Tom, didn't mean to offend you. Just going the general references I see on the forum.

Not offended I just think it sounds stupid ha. Road riding can be fun when you get into the swing of it anyway. So long as you have nice rolling country roads anyway. I don't think I'd enjoy it as much if I had to do loads of town riding or on busy roads.

I'm soooooo tempted to the darkside, solely down to this...

http://masoncycles.cc/

[img] ?1430468965[/img]

What you need is a cross/gravel bike as the n+1.
Worked for me, I used to do alot of mtbing , now hardly any.
I still get my off road relaxation time stringing miles of normally boring off road tracks together. Plus, it's perfect for commuting.

So long as you have nice rolling country roads anyway

I live on the Essex/Suffolk border so not exactly the great mtb mecca. We do though have a huge amount of country lanes and beautiful country side.

I've been looking at Cross bikes......still looking.

Just do it. Ignore the silly MTB snobs.

Road bikes are vastly better than an MTB with slicks, unless your roads are almost tracks. They go way faster.

If you have lots of good country lanes, it's nice. I'm currently near the Surrey/Hampshire border and what I would expect to be crappy lanes are actually stunningly beautiful, well made and deserted roads. I'm off to do 50 miles on them tonight in fact, and looking forward to it!

Completely. I'm as road obsessed now as I was mountain obsessed for 21 years. My poor lovely old Global titanium hardtail hasn't seen dirt for five years. I love the speed, the ease of travel, the clean aesthetic side and the tactics of road cycling.

Not so much a road fan but I do love my cx bike (probably closer to gravel in new money)

So long as you don't try to take one down full on DH or Park, is surprising how effective they are on singletrack, plus Moors, bridleways etc. Mine is my daily commuter, so the mtbs only really come out at weekends and holidays now. 🙂

+1 for gravel/cx bike. Makes simple off road more exciting.

Due to an injury making me unable to take impacts through my right foot/ankle anymore I very rarely mountain bike. Already had a road bike which I really enjoyed and got a cx bike aswell now. Gives me options.

Mountain bike now mainly used when out with my kids.

In the last few years I've somehow gone from owning 3 mtbs and 1 roadie to 3 roadies and 1 mtb!! Don't quite know how it happened but like you I have a lack of any real hills around here but the road scene is huge so it kind of makes sense.

I found that once I had a reasonable level of fitness and had fully adjusted to a proper roadie position (and got comfortable with it over long distances) it can be every bit as satisfying (oi oi) as mountain biking. There's the pleasures of riding in well disciplined group, besting yourself or others, the cafe stops, the fact that you don't have to get in a car to ride yr bike and i have to say i think that the dark side is generally a more sociable place to be. (Not coz mtbers are any less friendly, it just seems easier to make friends while road riding).

From a purely financial POV the road is much cheaper as you're not constantly replacing worn out and broken parts. With good maintenance your road bike can go on for thousands of miles without major expense.

In the end it's a bike and what we all have in common is a love of cycling, right? So throw away those prejudices and give it a go. As others have written, it suits a busy lifestyle as you can nip out for an hour or two and come back absolutely beasted, park the bike and get on with peeling the spuds or whatever.

What I love most of all is the feeling of self-sufficiemcy - being out miles away from home but knowing the bike is in top condition and unlikely to let you down, short of a puncture, which you can fix in five minutes. Maybe it appeals to my deep-seated anthropological need to roam my territory.

Do it, it's ace 🙂

Darkside is really actually very good, just not in a ringing the nuts out of a ride sort of way.

[IMG] [/IMG]

And this rocks!!

rewski
I'm soooooo tempted to the darkside, solely down to this...

http://masoncycles.cc/

[img] ?1430468965[/img]
/p>

Ridden it, loved it, getting one.

What the OP describes is a very familiar story, I've been there before, went back to MTB but find myself there again. For me the CX route wasn't quite right, don't get me wrong, it's a hoot off road, but found myself riding it a lot on the road - and wanting something more road focused. Then Dom came along with his new brand...

Hoping to keep all 3, Road, CX and MTB to cover all ground.

I bought a road bike just over a year ago and haven't been out on my mtb since. I'm not really into the whole maintenance side of mtbing so the road bike is so much better for me as it hardly needs maintaining at all and is so much cheaper.

Darkside is really actually very good, just not in a ringing the nuts out of a ride sort of way.

What do you mean? You don't try as hard or get as tired on the road?

I think road is better for the fitness aspect of things. I like how you can sit on the rivet for ages and give it everything, without being interrupted by technical bits, gates, muddy sections and so on.

Absolutely!!

I mean it in a not rattling down the side of a hill dodging trees, pumping off lips and drifting adrenaline rushing riding and a head down concentrating on dragging power out of every pedal stroke way.

M1llh0use - that 'dale is lovely. I want one, even though I don't need one...

I like how you can sit on the rivet for ages and give it everything, without being interrupted by technical bits

20 years of mtbing and then the last two have been pretty much nothing but road biking. 2 race bikes, 2 road bikes with discs, 1 TT bike and 1 SS road bike. And now no mtb....

Its easier to get a bike "fix" with kids and family responsibility cos you don't spend time driving somewhere decent and then having so much cleaning up afterwards...

Cheers kryton, I didn't need it either... 😉

Well I did but only as the old one didn't fit "quite" right.

these are good

I think it is a very underhand thing posting pictures of those Masons. I have just finished convincing myself that they are jolly nice but I really don't need one and now you go and wave pictures about.....it is just not right!

@ OP if you live on the Suffolk/Essex border, there are lots of clubs around there that do road and mtb rides. Boxford Bike Club, Hadleigh Cycle Club etc. Worth a look IMO. Maybe what you need is to hook up with new people, and benefit from their local knowledge.

As for riding on the road...I find it much more sociable than mountain biking, probably because it is easier to chat when you are spinning along a country road, than when you are blatting in and out of trees on your mtb. I got to the stage some time ago, where I felt the whole mtb thing was getting very introspective/insular and I started to get bored. Dragging my roadie out again, gave cycling a whole new lease of life as my horizons (literally) expanded.

I still ride my MTB and enjoy it when I do. I find riding on the road equally if not more enjoyable, so I do both.

More road time means less maintenance time and that is a 'good thing' IMO.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I've just brought a road bike. Cannot wait to get out on it.

What did you get?

You'll need to do something about your username now. Espressosipper may be more appropriate once your conversion is complete.

Anyone else given up fat tyres and only ride the road now?

Actually I have recently made this transition myself. It was in stages that started with the balance shifting from mtb to road, then purely to road, then I sold all my MTB gear, which was the last act of acceptance for my transition to the dark side.

You only get to live life once. In my view, it's really important to live it the way YOU want to live it and ignore the opinions of others who might have a negative view of that.

My personal reasons were just that, personal, but I suspect they will resonate with you/others so I will share them.

A 2-hour MTB ride is a 3.5hour 'event'. Even living as close to the Surrey Hills as I do, it's still 25 minutes each way to drive and at least 40 minutes packing, unpacking, setting up and faffing before you start turning pedals.

I've also got two young children which make even a 2 hours ride tricky. The consequence is just not riding all that much.

I was also riding with a very competitive group. When I joined them I was easily the quickest rider downhill but being a competitive group, they soon upped their game hugely and being competitive myself, I felt the need to do the same. The consequence; I started crashing a lot and breaking stuff. Not really compatible with a three week old baby and a three year old son.

Injuries and only a little riding meant I put on a lot of weight. Hitting 40 with a shattered humerus and weighing 18.5 stone was depressing.

So having ticked many 'life boxes' already but having missed out on a few road goals (it had always been my goal to go under the hour for a 25), I decided to transition and focus on achieving that instead.

Essex Suffolk border? Some outstanding road around there, I'd have gone for one of these 'gravel' type CX/road/whatever bikes myself. You could link some of the awesome coastal paths to the roads, bit of Tunstall forest. CX bike would be fanstastic in Thetford and up to the Peddars Way and Norfolk Coast.

I used to live that way and I think I'd probably keep the MTB for days out and buy a cx with 2 sets of wheels.

Only keep a h/t for sentimental reasons and popping to shops - almost nowhere left in UK I'd find worth riding off-road now (once you factor in travel/faff time) and as the road riding is decent round where I live it's no contest really.
For my occasional mtb fix it's far preferable to head somewhere with real mountains and a warm climate a few times a year and ride a hire bike 😀

I live in the Chew Valley, just south of Bristol. 15-20 mins drive to get to either Ashton Court or the Mendips. Quantocks, Cwmcarn, Cotswolds all with in about an hours drive.

These days I ride the road bike more than the MTB, mainly because I can ride it from the door, without the faff of loading a bike into/onto the car and driving somewhere. That means I ride more often, not just on weekends, which means I am fitter and faster when I do ride my MTB.

I don't have any decent MTB trails I can ride from the door but I do have plenty of quiet country roads, fantastic pubs and some stonking hills to ride on the road bike, its anything but dreary.

Picked up a Trek 2.1. Alu frame with 105 groupset and Fulcrum wheels. I used to have a 2.1 a few years ago and got on really well with it so looking forward to having another one.

Is it bad that I'm already thinking this will be great this year and then come next summer I'm already looking for a carbon "summer" bike?

I've looked at gravel bikes and can see the future having one, a CFD or similar.

I'm shaving my legs and drinking espresso tonight. Can't wait 🙂

Gravel bike? Just get a road bike with bigger clearances and spare set of wheels with more suitable tyres. Job done.

I've got a "gravel bike" too. I was looking for a commuter that was a bit tougher than a road bike. Basically a road bike for mountain bikers. I love my Vaya, slick tyres for going to work and joining the occasional shop ride. And a pair of knobbly tyres for chasing down mountain bikers around llandegla

Here's the (new to me) steed, Trek 2.1, full 105 groupset and Fulcrum Racing Quattro wheelset. Only picked her up today so haven't had a chance to take her out yet. Looking forward to this weekend 🙂

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almost nowhere left in UK I'd find worth riding off-road now

really? 😆