So I’m thinking about commuting on an old railway line because it’s fairly direct and much nicer than being on the road but when I tried riding on the loose stones it was awful.
It’s basically still the old railway ballast with the sleepers and rails etc removed which means loose energy sapping stones. I tried riding it on my normal HT 29er with 2.4 tyres. Would I be better off with a fat bike or slicks or something else? Any ideas? It’s far too slow to be an option at the moment.

Fatbike is, indeed, the answer.

Something with plus tyres would work pretty well, say 650b with 2.8″ or 3.0″ tyres if you don’t want to go full fat.

Given my fatbike floats over cobbles that shake your teeth out on normal tyres I would think it a good bet.

What was wrong with the

HT 29er with 2.4 tyres

Or is this an excuse for n+1?

How much of the route is the railway track? Fat bike tyres are OK for off road but what about the rest?

Been a while since I last rode it, but I found 2.35″ G1 up front with 4″ JJ rear works well on the Meon Valley Trail.

However, iirc that old railway line is soil rather than gravel, which can be littered with big puddles if it’s been raining.

Perfect terrain for a gravel/adventure bike.