How do you ride your MTB?

j.r.hawkins

I bought an MTB a year or so ago after consulting with my son, who had been at me to ride the local trails with him. That bike has now become my commuter bike with 1.3" slicks fitted.

It rolls quite nicely, and on the recent Gong ride I was faster than the majority of the field, even those on road bikes, although that is attributable to commuting 80-100 miles a week on a hilly route as much as the bike setup. I would never ride distances on road with knobblies. The previous comments about them being sketchy in corners I can back up with lost skin and bent chainrings.

I've since bought a used Cannondale dual suspension for trail riding, so I could conceivably ditch the hardtail in favour of a flatbar or comfort dropbar for commuting, but I'll admit to liking the comfort of disc brakes in bad weather I'm less concerned about damaging the paint while transporting it on a towbar mounted bike rack when going on holidays than I am with the Cannondale.