I took my “Best all round bike” for another test run yesterday.
About 18 miles on road, followed by around 30 offroad, and another 7 on road.
Route was from Strathrusdale to Glen Calvie where I hooked up with the portion used on the HT550 (easy bit 🙂 ), and from Glen Calvie across the mountains to Glascarnoch, then by road to Garve.
The first bit of offroad was the trickiest because of the deterioration of the tracks. I managed them ok on the slicks, but some big lugs would have been better. Much of it was worse than singletrack because the deep ruts made it far harder to ride.
Conclusion? A 29er hardtail is the best allrounder.