[Closed] What bike would you pick for 100 mile offroad in a day?

rigid, rohloff, Shand

Used one of these?

http://www.bikes.com/en/bikes/element/2018

100 FS with lockouts will be quite nice and forgiving at the end of the day but still responsive on the ups?

Nothing really to be scared of with FS maintenance, it's basically a few extra bearings and a third leg to your fork 😉

Done the SDW BHF last couple of years on a FS 100mm. Never regretted the comfort.

Value option, one left in XL. (I size up from guide if on cusp)

https://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b4s183p6926/GIANT-ANTHEM-27-5-2-2016

London To Brighton is perfect on a CX, SDW on a 29er of any flavour.

Having done both I wouldn’t buy a bike specific to either. They’re one off rides that really don’t bear much repeating. Buy a bike that suits your local regular riding. Whatever bike that is will do either ride you’ve mentioned above with a change of Tyres.

For one ride? Whatever bike I already had.

Do you have a fat bike? Maybe. Set of 29+ wheels for it?

a FS would not be my choice for  routes you could do  relatively comfortably on a rigid bike

Hardtail if you might do MTB on it o you  want greater comfort

CX if you might do long road rides on it or you want greater speed

Anthem 29er

I’d be pretty tempted by the Krampus frame in the classifieds if that’s the sort of riding that floats your boat. 29+ would be spot on for long mild off road.

Something like a Mason Bokeh with 650b wheels. Fast enough, capable enough, nice enough 😉

Wow thanks all for the rapid response, have no fear I am not buying a bike just to do this, I am not that rich but thinking about changing my day to day bike to one that can do the day to day rides I do and the longer distance stuff.

I must confess in a bizarre way I am actually really enjoying the longer rides and prep and hence a chance in ride could be called for.

Completely concur with the ideas and hadn't thought about a 29+ bike but had got stuck on the idea of a 29er or similar to keep maintenance down as I ride a lot and am not (cough) that mechanical to service etc.

The links have been a bonus and surprise thanks, whilst the Element looks nice the price tag is a bit scary and the Anthem looks like good VFM.

Thanks for all the ideas and keep them coming.

Sadly as much as I love the fat bike I think the weight, drag etc over a huge distance (no snow) is going to make it  much harder than it needs to be. Will have to explore n+1 option as I don't really want to part with it.

Thanks again.

James

Ebike

Found going across the Cambrian mountains from Llandrindod to near Lampeter very comfy on a 29er salsa horsethief. It’s not 100 miles, maybe 50 or 60, but it was mid January and beastly wet and windy weather. Didnt ache after  as much as when I did it on a 26 hardtail a year ago (voodoo d jab).

Cycling off-road to Paris soon and I'm happy to be using my Boardman 29er. I've owned some premium niche bikes in the past but this is by far and away the most comfortable for this kind of journey.

I'd choose my Diverge and maybe try to bodge in my old USE sus post. Bit of bounce at both ends.  Canondale  Slate or one of those spendy gravel bikes with the odd looking forks luaf or whatever they are called.

https://www.canyon.com/mtb/dude/2018/dude-cf-8-0.html

If it was a quagmire, set of 29er wheels for it with 33mm X-One Bites.

Ebike... and 2 spare batteries😛

100 miles a day off-road, erm KTM 250cc?

I did the SDW in a day on my slack 27.5" steel HT. The perfect bike would be a light, carbon, short travel, 29er HT or FS. Failing owning one of these, just rung what you brung, which should be the bike you've spent many hours training on (and a heap of good weather & a tailwind).

My cyclocross bike

Whyte t130 for me last year. I'd do it again on the same bike.

I've done it on a HT which was a giant xtc29, faster but hard on the backside!

I also did it on a 26" wheel commencal meta.

+1 to a boardman ht pro 29er. Swap the rims and go tubeless with some better tyres

The bike is really really fast, comfortable and very capable

Definitely consider a 29+ bike, especially at 6'3".

My Krampus is my go to bike for longer, less techy rides (though it is happy on more technical stuff too).

I've done plenty of 50+ mile rides on it, and it's so comfy as an all day rider - Dartmoor N to S off-road, HOTS a few times, and plenty of others.

If I had to get rid of all my bikes bar one, and I'm an avid bike horder, then it'd be the Krampus I would keep.

I'd want both a 29er FS 100mm and a fully rigid 29er hardtail in order to have the choice.  SDW on a wet muddy day is a slog.  You'll want max clearance and minimum faff.  It's also a very useful tool for putting the miles in if your doing a fair it of training.

On the flip side, a baked-hard SDW is painful.  Now I'm only familiar with the sections around Arundel and Brighton, but some of those descents can get very badly rutted from trampled mud and tractors.  100miles on it will hurt!

I'd go second hand for both, maybe with a single set of wheels to share between them.

I've ridden the SDW countless times on everything from an MTB, CX, SSCX, 29+ and fatbike  - each has their benefits / fun factor.  Waiting for the right conditions and weather is probably more important - ridden it in mid-June where the temperature was 10C and a 30-40mph headwind by the time we got to Trueleigh. Rode up from Jeavington in a thunderstorm with bolts of lightning and torrents of water running down the track. Also been up there midwinter in ankle-deep slop where you had to push the bike downhill in places...

A 120mm full suspension of some sort unless there are particularly gnarly descents on it then 140mm or 150mm

I've done 100k in a day off road but never 100 miles

160-180mm DH bike and i think we have most bases covered

Done most of my ITTs on a rigid 29er. So several 100 milers, in the case of the HT550 it was five in a row, the last "day" was 280km. This year I'm on a Spearfish 🙂

LOL, loving the diverse replies and my views so far

!) Ebike - no, no and thrice no. Sorry not for me all the time I can pedal I will pedal and when I cannot I will then consider an ebike.

2) Motorbike (other than a grin) illegal and cannot ride - so that's a no.

3) CX Bike, whilst I can see the appeal it is not for me, it's the drop bar thing I know I can ride on the hoods and so on but other than the long rides I have to ride it all the rest of the time too. Great for what it is but not for me.

4) DH bike, thank you cp you made me LOL

5) Loved the comments on the Boardman HT and completely agree comfort is not related to price and they do make some cracking bikes for VFM

All the events I am doing are planned so I don't get the luxury of picking when I ride so I just have to pick, ride it lots and hope.

Seems to be a few saying 100-120 FS and a few going HT and a mix of others thrown in for good measure so that is cool and always up for more ideas and suggestions.

Thanks once more.

James

Giant anthem advanced.Good deals out there on2017 models.

An Ebike won't even last 100 hilly offroad miles until the battery dies. You wouldn't even get a third of that even on a high spec one. Main reason I won't buy one yet.

I did a 100k in the Peak District, mostly on rocky bridleways and singletrack. 10,000 ft of climbing and descending. I had a 100mm HT and a 120mm FS at the time. I chose the FS and didn't even consider taking the HT.

Do it on whichever bike you envisage doing the other 99.9% of your riding on.

Something with a low standover height for dismounting and nice comfy shoes. SDW on a weekend in June will be so busy you'll be queuing up at the gates.

I'd slap some fatter tyres on my Vagabond, probably 2.35.  Keep it simple, run pressures to suit.  Nothing fancy, it's running 2x10 Deore and cable discs.   Comfort + simple reliability.

*Edit. Strike that.  9000 climbing = a lot of descending?

Orange P7.  Hydros and 140mm forks with lockout. Maybe bar-ends with all that climbing.

I'd be really happy to do an event longs this on my whyte t129. 120mm with lockout if needed and fast rolling 29er tyres. Perfect

I've just finished  http://www.touraotearoa.nz/p/home.html  doing 180km a day and a 29er Hardtail was perfect for a mix of off road single track, gravel roads and a fair bit of tarmac.

Anthem as above. My brother had one of the first ones from 2006 and I think they have made decent models every year ever since.

back to the boardman ht 29er again.

climbing out from the goyt valley up the one way section I frequently overtake roadies and my fitness really isn't that great. On both my other bikes I'm no way near as quick on the same climb.

And I have been running an ardent on the rear and higher roller II 2.3 3c on the front

Then on the way home i'll drop the post and nip onto the DH track in Mac forest

I used zeek vouchers and 10% british cycling so paid around £740. Rebuilt the wheels with WTB I25 (they fit on the stock rims) and added a brand X dropper for £90 and 2 new tyres.

Whatever bike you don't have in your garage already.

N+1 is life!

Done it on my Open U.P with 650b Thunder Burts.

fatbikeandcoffee

...Sadly as much as I love the fat bike I think the weight, drag etc over a huge distance (no snow) is going to make it  much harder than it needs to be...

The drag is all to do with the tyres.

Put a set of slick fat tyres on it and you'll be amazed at the difference.

I put Black Floyds on my fatbike a few years back and found it worked very well on gravel, and really was only limited by slimy surfaces.

It's a perfectly viable (and very comfortable) solution.

Alternatively if you you are worried about a lack of tread a set of Larrys is also not draggy.

The main thing is to get a tyre with a big thread count, eg 120tpi, and you'll usually find it rolls easier.

[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7289/8731655656_7e3f8d63cd_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7289/8731655656_7e3f8d63cd_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

Chubbyish 29er light HT for me.

I've done the SDW a few times. Bikes went from a rigid, canti'd dogs bolx to a very old FS which I think was called an Alpine 500. The later gave me the quickest time <10 hrs.

If I had to do it again it would be on a gravel bike but the most suitable would probably be a modern 100mm FS. Would have thought an Anthem 29 would be a reasonably priced appropriate choice.

Canyon Dude 8 is ~12.5Kg IIRC, ~4.5Kg lighter than my default Wazoo, partly thanks to those BR2300 wheels that weigh just 2.3Kg compared to 3.9Kg plus that lovely carbon frame it has.