Hardtail with slicks for commuting

My commute is only around 5 miles each way but I still want it to be reasonably efficient. Theres lots of stop/start, swerving down alleys, up and down curbs and pot holes and I’ve been using a Btwin road bike which has not been brilliant for it and is now dead (so much to fix might as well buy something new).

First I’ve been looking at these urban hybrid types like the Cube Hyde, Boardman URB, etc… then it struck me why not use a hardtail and stick some narrow semi slicks on? Would this be any good on all (admittedly poor quality) road?

It could have the benefit of doubling as a decent trail centre bike as my only current mtb is an enduro gnarpoon. This might actually never happen but there does seem to be some steals on the hardtail used market.

Ideally I want to spend about 300-400 quid and get something with hydraulic disc brakes and 1x gearing, don’t mind either flat bars or drops.

Pick up a Voodoo Bizango 29er perhaps? Should roll ok on slicks but you could keep a spare wheel set with proper off road tyres on as well.

I have one bike, a hardtail, for all duties, and have one set of wheels with MTB tyres (29 x 2.3) and one set with commuting tyres (700c Vittoria Voyagers)

You are right that the 60psi skinny tyres are a hell of a lot faster on tarmac and in general the hardtail works really well.

If you plan to have two sets of wheels for the bike, just make sure that they can swap over while still having the brakes and gears work with minimal adjustment, otherwise it becomes a PITA.

Voodoo Bizango used to come with Ardents and pumped up hard they’ll be pretty quick on tarmac. For only 5 miles I wouldn’t even change the tyres!

I commute on a rigid 29er, with Thunderburts. Love it. Light, nippy but tough enough for bridleways and canal towpaths.

doing exactly that on a rockhopper here, works a treat bunnyhopping kerbs and shooting cobbles etc..I put some higher riser bars on too for a bit more upright position in traffic.

Pick up a cheaper second hand hybrid – one you can get some slightly fatter tyres in.
Facebook Groups, Gumtree or Recykabike places are full of them.
(Specialized Sirrus here rocking wide tyres and it’s over 2 years in of paper round, commuting and short tours -£125 from Recykabike plus 2 of the cheapest tyres I could find on eBay.)

I found an older Dew Deluxe on Gumtree for £150, only needed the chain replacing. Perfect for the commute and would be fine for light trail centre stuff with some 650B wheels and tyres as the arches are silly wide.

I commute 4~5 miles each way on a rigid 27.5er. Happy with 2.3″ Maxxis Minion SS front, and 2.0″ Maxxis Race TT rear, both tubeless. 1×9 gears keep it cheap & simple. SLX brakes.

Just find a cheap hardtail and gradually upgrade it as you can, or as parts wear. Most of the components mentioned above were donated from my old commuter to a cheap frame from CRC (brand x ht 01).

My old 26″ hardtail has been my commuter for about 10 years now. Converted it to 1×10 and I run a 11-28(from memory) rear cassette and it’s great, fast enough and accelerates very quickly.
Only problem I had was punctures but Schwable Marathon Plus have almost solved that.

Sure – the Marin Muirwoods is pretty much what you described, it uses older mtb geometry but it is basically a rigid hardtaik with slicks and well regarded – will actually take proper 29er tyres but comes with 42 is scwalbe marathon s I think.

You could copy them with your choice of hardtails. The only downside might be if you get one with fs you have to push the weight of the fork on your commute an make sure you get one with a lockout

I just recently put slicks on my Soul- this is a sin but I couldn’t ride it offroad til my wrist got a bit better, and I wasn’t too happy on my skinny tyred hybrid either. And it’s a great laugh, it’s miles less good than the hybrid but that doesn’t really matter since nothing I’m doing pushes the limits of what I or it can do anyway. And every speedbump’s a jump, every red light’s a drag strip, cliche cliche, etc. I might actually leave it this way.

Have done so, with 2.3″ slick balloon tyres.

Pretty much perfect, especially for mixed urban terrain (kerbs, cobbles, stairs, tree roots under paths, nipping across grass)

Or, you could do this on your enduro gnarpoon:

I have Halo Twin Rails fitted on my hardtail which I find I good compromise for this type of riding. Roll well but surprisingly capable off road.

Lot of people love schwalbe big Apple/big Ben/little ben for commuting slick adjacent but wide. Kona made a Big Rove a while back essenstial hardtail frame rigid fork big apples (I think) essentially an mtb for commuting.

I did this for years using a genesis ioid. 1.75 conti travel contacts ( a 75% road / 25% offroad tyre)

Given potholed city streets mtb wheels are a good idea. flat bars and disc brakes mean maximum braking available at all times.

I reckon you’d save a maximum of 1min on a 5 mile commute even on slicks compared to say a set of Rocket Rons, does it really matter ? 1 minute.. hell, a set of lights could cost you more (or less) than that on a given day.

Just buy a Bizango/whatever and use it exactly how it is (maybe tubeless it to save punctures)

I put Big Ben tyres on my old 26″ Genesis. They worked well and (I thought) looked cool. Much nicer to ride than the skinny things I’d previously used on it.

I never rode it much like that though as after riding my new bike I just couldn’t get comfortable on it.

BITD as kids we would go out for hours and ride our mountain bikes/bmxs/whatever all over without ever thinking any of us had the wrong bike for the job, or even knew we could change the tyres. Much simpler times!

My 6.4 mile, fairly flat commute was done on either my road bike with 25mm tyres, gravel bike with 650b Horizons or my 29er xc race bike on Mezcals.

Between them according to Strava there was minimal time difference, less than 5 min which I suspect was more down to traffic than the bike.

I do know that the mtb felt tougher to keep up at speed but I suspect that’s a casualty of only having 11 gears with a 34/11 top as opposed to the other two bikes having 22 much gears so easier to keep a decent cadence and still keep at a good pace.

I bought some schalbe big apple tyres from planet x. They were about £7 each, a bargain.

If you are just commuting on it then sell the suspension forks and buy a set of carbon forks.

If you plan on commuting all year round then a hard tail with tyre clearance will be better. Sometimes it’s too dangerous to take my road bike to work due to ice, snow etc so I take my rigid 29er. I cycle slowly to work so it doesn’t make a lot of difference.

I cycle on a rigid year 2000 GT aggressor, with semi slick tyres so I can go on canal towpaths and on grass and offroad should I choose. The semi slicks roll nicely. Used to have 1.5 slicks on it and they are deffo faster. I do not think it is worth getting something flash to ride on. Not sure how well modern mtb bikes would do for commuting though, probably not very well. Mine has v brakes.

I’d just get a good bargain hybrid with rigid forks and some reasonable sized slick or small treaded tyres and forget about using it as a second offroad bike. You will be hard pushed to find a new hardtail that’s any good with that budget taking into account new rigid forks.
Modern mtb’s with slack geometry would not be that good either. Or get an mtb with older geometry second hand, although with changing standards this is not ideal either.

old inbred with rigid forks and some lifeline £7.99 slicks – job done 🙂

I use a 10 year old Merlin Malt 2 with slicks on (Wiggle own label somethings. Skinny for 26″ wheels, I know that much) for commuting and it’s great.

Currently has a slightly higher volume (and lower pressure) set of Schwalbe winter tyres (half spiked), but it still rolls pretty fast. Good for pot holes and kerb drops too.

I would say to bear in mind the gearing. Mine is a bit low for town and I seem to spend all my time moving between the last couple of gears at the top end. I’d probably go for an Alfine based solution next time and 700c wheels.

i cycled from london to the loire (vendome) on a 26″ RockRider hardtail. I think it was about 300 miles in three days.

Using just decathlon slicks – cost £8 each or something.

Slightly harder than the others on their roadbikes, but eminently doable. Five miles each way would be easy.

5 miles would be fine on a normal MTB with normal tyres, I did a couple of days on my commute on a Voodoo bizango with hybrid tyres and just locked the forks. 20 miles each way.

It wasn’t particularly pleasant though. 5 miles would be nice.

I have commuted in the pass on a rigid 29er then my old 26″Hummer with 1.60″ slicks etc I just find it to slow compared to a CX bike or Gravel bike plus with the wider bars on the Hummer traffic gets a lot closer to you and I am only doing 6miles each way just find it more fun on a gravel bike.

Not a huge amount of time difference between commuting on my CX bike with 35mm slicks, or my FS with 2.35 knobblies. But what I do find the mtb tyres wear out very quickly compared to the slicks, and I can run full length guards on the CX – this is far more important to me

Used an old 26″ Stumpjumper hardtail for a short commute for years. 2″ Schwalbe something slicks. Good for Glasgows potholed roads and fast enough for a 6 mile commute

Anything up to 5 miles I’d be happy to do on my 140mm FS trail bike with full knobblys, pump them up to 45/50psi and they roll surprisingly well.

I’m soon moving to a 13 mile commute and that will be so much nicer and easier on a more suitable bike. Of course in summer I’ll probably still take the mtb and go the off road route, leaving a couple hours before work vs 1 hour 🙂

Thanks for all the responses. I was going with the hardtail idea then came across one of these on the bay and picked it up last night locally for £300:

https://www.boardmanbikes.com/gb_en/products/1578-urb-8.8.html

Feels at least as quick as my previous road bike for my commute and a lot more agile with a flat bar and comfortable with 35c tyres.

^^^ that is a nice looking bike!

nice bike. looks ideal.