Weight of a mtb compared to a Trek hybrid

[fastdogs]

pardes, this seems like a great excuse to go test ride some mountain bikes!! You may heft some of them and decide they are not for you, but it never hurts to ride various types of bikes.
vickie

[pardes]

Yes, thanks so much for the link. Now that I have Firefox I won't lose the link as I have been doing recently.

Zen, I'm going to track down your tires. (What an odd sentence that is....I think I've had too much coffee and too many websites. Everything is beginning to look a little odd.)

A slight digression.....
I've read that one of the first signs of dementia is that things begin to look a little odd. And then even a little more odd......
I was visiting a nursing home with Magdalene. We were blithely walking down the hall to my Mom's room. Another resident tied in her wheelchair reached out her hand to Magdalene so I stopped of course. It generally took me half an hour from the front door to Mom's room because everyone wanted to pet Magdalene.
As the woman reached out just to about touch Magdalene's paw, she pulled back her hand and screamed, "Get that panther away from me."
I'm not sure who was more startled by the moment: the woman, Magdalene, or me. I think we all peed our pants. I know Magdalene did.
After that incident, I learned that if you take things very, very, very gradually with dementia patients, sometimes you can reach them without startling them. Magdalene became the best at this. She would sit with her back to the patients as if they weren't even there until they approached her.

[IMG][/IMG]

Magdalene's panther paws at 8 weeks of age.

Sorry for the digression. I need more coffee.....more websites.......

[bmccasland]

Truely vicious looking dog you've got there Pardes. 1 L of dog!

[mudmucker]

That picture is a hoot. Leave it to a scientist to take a picture of their pup in a 1000 ml beaker

[TahoeDirtGirl]

Pardes- change out the tires. Do you have v brakes or disc? See the reason I ask this is that v brakes in wet conditions are sketchy for me and I wanted to keep the same set up as my mtn bike so I don't have to relearn it as I bounce between the two daily. With that, it makes your bike heavier.

My bike is 28 lbs and is full suspension. I bought a Gary Fisher Utopia which is about 38 to 40 lbs unladen (commuter bike- it's a hybrid).

On the mtb I can get cruise comfortably at 7 mph. There is no bob with the suspension, you would never know you are on a FS until you hit a speed bump.

On the hybrid, at first, with 'cycle cross' tires, I was up to 9 mph cruising. And it was alot of work. The guys at the bike shop talked me into slicks, and now, I'm cruising at 12 mph. Big difference. So I would say go with the tires. Even on a heavier bike (and sometimes really heavier after the grocery story- once I had 60 lbs in the baskets) I go faster than on my mtn bike with knobby tires. And the Gary has a front fork suspension. Which was kinda of dumb for me to get because with the slicks, I never hop curbs.

Now if you want to be hardcore die hard ride to the bus stops, you can get Nokian studded tires. You won't be going very fast though. I would sacrifice speed for contact with the road. I'll be switching the slicks over when it gets nasty..I have Nokian studs but I don't ride on the road with them but I guess you could if you really wanted to.

[pardes]

BMCCASLAND and MUDMUCKER -- Magdalene begs* to differ with you. (She was a bit huffy* about it.) "Tell them I am a 2L dog, count them 2000 millileters, not a puny 1 L Chihuahua midget dog!" Just because she took a correspondence chemistry course from "Keep Your Dog Occupied During the Day University," she thinks she's Watson and Crick, Jonas Salk, and Albert Einstein all rolled into one.

The day I bought her there was a snowstorm predicted. I was supposed to pick her up after work but I knew we were going to be snowed in by mid-afternoon. So I raced to the breeder on my lunch hour, picked her up, and hid her in my lab cubicle for the remainder of the afternoon. However it's hard to hide a puppy in a lab.

I still regret that I didn't bring home her brother too. He was black and had this incredible sweet dome head and liquid brown eyes.....

Back to the bikes......

UFORGOT and TAHOEY suggested Gary Fisher bikes. Bless them both for taking the time.

How very odd since I scoured the Gary Fisher website yesterday and came up dry and then magically their two suggestions appeared this morning.

I've narrowed it down to 4 bikes, well 3, I think the "Simple City 8W" is just a nod to the fantasy that Magdalene would actually ride in the basket peacefully unlike the last time I tried it and she screamed to any passerby, "I'm a kidnapped German princess who is being tortured held against her will!"

Here is the link to the four bikes compared. TAHOEY votes for the Utopia and UFORGOT loved her Advance. The listing of components makes my head spin without a clue.

In case the link doesn't work, they are all Gary Fisher bikes: Utopia, Montare, Advance Step-thru, and Simple City 8W.

Which bike has the best components, the lowest granny gears, is the most lightweight, and can have fenders and racks attached?

* I can't believe I'm making bicycle and dog puns in the same paragraph. Where are the off-topic police when you need them?

[uforgot]

Oh I love that Gary Fisher Simple city too! Haven't seen one, but I'd really like to try one out! A fantasy for me too, as I already have a perfectly good Raleigh that was in showroom shape when I found her on Craigslist.

[uforgot]

Pardes...I sent you the Advance link before I read this thread. Somewhere else you indicated you wanted a step through mountain bike. I used the Advance strictly for off road. Heavier with front suspension and it isn't particularly rack friendly. From this thread, I can tell you that I had a Trek 7.2fx with 32c tires and it rode through everything. Those tires are bomb proof and I rode in the snow and rain with them just fine. I wanted a bike that I could ride skinny tires and fat ones also, so I wound up selling the Trek and getting a Surly Cross Check. I have two sets of wheels and just change them out. You could do the same with the Trek. Slicks for summer and something beefier for winter, but honestly, if you have those same tires I did, the Bontrager 32c tires, you should be fine. Something I think should concern you more is perhaps getting disc brakes for wet conditions? Just a thought since I hate telling anyone what they have is fine. We all want to shop for a new bike, you know.

[pardes]

Yup, I have the 700X32 tires with extra diagonal tread for throwing off water. They will probably do just fine in Delaware.

Thanks, I shall look into disc brakes. Anything to convince me to buy another bike. Right?

[Zen]

Don't get me started on Watson and Crick.
They stole everything from Rosalind Franklin.

[pardes]

Yes, they did indeed. Even if she was falling apart, they could have included her in some fashion. But I don't consider that treachery.

I often wonder if the situation was reversed would gender have made any different in the outcome. I'm in the scientific community and I have to say the treachery, every "man" for themselves gene seems to be equally shared between the sexes.

It is claimed that women work better in community and their committee results are often more "compassionate" than men in the same situation. Again, from personal experience in the scientific community I have not found that to be true.

I really think negative traits are equally shared in the same way positive trails are shared.

The only difference I see is that it is generally only women who discuss the topic in any depth. I think that is a very positive thing to continually examine the whys and wherefores of our actions and deep-seated beliefs and motivations. Many men lead examined lives as well, they just don't share the process in the same way.

[TahoeDirtGirl]

Pardes- I'm not totally happy with my Gary Fisher, so I would vote to get a simple Specialized Hardrock with Disk brakes (or is it disc? hmmm). The GF is a bit pricey and I don't really like the components. The SRAM set up (I can't remember which one) has given me nothing but problems-I'm getting ready to swap it out with a Shimano Deore.

[pardes]

Thanks Tahoey, I'll check it out.

In fact you almost answered a question I was about to post that would help newbies like me to shop for bikes.

Question:
If you look at 1) a top of the line bike, 2) a midline bike, and 3) an entry level bike, what problems are you likely to encounter with each. In other words, is it worth it to be a higher level bike if you can afford it? If you buy a bike at a mid level or entry level, what parts are likely to not be so good or should be replaced immediately?

[sundial]

I think you pay for a lighter bike and better/quicker shifting components. One of the reasons I sold my Rockhopper to a friend was so that I could get an Epic that had hydraulic disc brakes and better shifters. Oh, and the full suspension too. I had toyed with putting better components on the Rockhopper but knew in the end I would prefer a full suspension bike. I've been very pleased with my decision. I think that if one can, one should consider the mid-higher end models.

[pardes]

Sundial, how much would you say your Epic weighs? I checked them out online and found a dealer that is local. Which particular model would you recomment in the Epic line?