Mountain Bike Advice

[Deako]

26ers are more chuckable imo. Im a shortarse anyway, so a tiny frame on massive wheels looks silly.

[andrewparker]

Chaps, I'm thinking I'll use this bike to do a commute one day a week. Presumably all I'll need is a second set of rims with road tyres on? I don't really want to buy a hybrid bike.

[camfollower]

See if you can get away with just swapping the tyres out... new wheels tend to be quite pricey for anything decent.
On my commuter I've used Kenda semi- slicks which are ok, but not very good in low temps and leaning, came off a couple of times... now have winter tyres on them!! haha
Also tried Continental rubber, these are better as you can get more PSI in them and have a bit more sidewall grip.

To answer your immediate question, no you don't need any drivetrain alterations.

[andrewparker]

Winter tyres? Second set of wheels? I see a pattern developing here!

Please tell me cycling doesn't have a slippery slope too!

[andrewparker]

To answer your immediate question, no you don't need any drivetrain alterations.

Forgive my ignorance, but how does swapping wheels work with disk brakes?

[camfollower]

Winter tyres? Second set of wheels? I see a pattern developing here!

Please tell me cycling doesn't have a slippery slope too!

Haha! not as bad as the motor mate, for me at least.

Got a mate who does a lot of donwhilling and swears by Ellsworth bikes (a tad pricey for me)
http://www.freeborn.co.uk/ellsworth-moment-evo-bike-2013

RE: Disc brakes, discs are attached to the wheel / wheel hub, you can remove them to fit onto your new wheel.  But if your needing the new wheel for skinny tyres it's worth getting new discs for it too.
Otherwise you may as well just change over the tyres each time you need to; much quicker than swapping out the discs.

Doesn't take long with 2 tyre levers (2 being much more preferable over 1, with high pressure tyre removal!)

[andrewparker]

Ah, so in reality having a second set of wheels entails rims, disks and tyres. Could be expensive!

I'll probably do what you suggest and buy some tyres and inner tubes and swap over as and when I need to.

Cheers for your help

[camfollower]

Definitely mate... as the weather is getting better, grab some skinny Kendas, great value and performance as long as your not out in 1*C and turning into a hard corner at ~18-20mph

Can ramp those babies up to 60+PSI which is good enough for an MTB bike and Schrader (car tyre type) inner tubes.  If your feeling fancy you can grab the Presta (high pressue valve) inner tubes. 
I've got the latter but with an adapter that enables you to use a normal pump or petrol station machine to pump up.  Happy days

[gobbleplease]

29" is great for certain things, but for jumps downhill and free ride they just don't cut the mustard IMO

[alackofspeed]

Chaps, I'm thinking I'll use this bike to do a commute one day a week. Presumably all I'll need is a second set of rims with road tyres on? I don't really want to buy a hybrid bike.

Unless you're commuting a long distance, I'd stick with one set of rims. On the occasions I've ridden my 11mile commute on my 26er hardtail (running Maxxis High Rollers or Nobby Nics tyres) in lieu of my hybrid (Durano Plus tyres), my average speed has dropped from 19-20 mph to 15.5-16.5mph. I believe the time difference doesn't warrant the cost / effort / time to change rims / tyres, especially if you run tubeless on the MTB.

[Little_Dave]

As said already if your commuting in the week then you just need a decent set of semi slicks then all you do is swap over to your off road tires for the weekend if you're hitting the trails

Best of both worlds and will only set you back a set of inner tubes and tires 

Dave

[andrewparker]

Good work fellas, all your advice is much appreciated

[gobbleplease]

That's what I've got aswell I've got my trail bike with 2 sets of wheels, one with thin slippery road tyres for commuting and one with trail tyres on them........... Then I've got my DH rig with some highroller supertackys !

If you are looking for a bike for general commuting and some cross country the 29" rims will help you out, but if you are looking at progressing and hanging of the sides of the bike, jumping it and drifting on hard pack / chucking the bike about 26" is the way to go. Obviously frame choice will dictate the ability to that kind of thing aswell, Saying that though if you do progress you will probably be looking at upgrading the bike anyway.

[majinvash]

It would be worth speaking to your work and see if they can offer you an cycle to work scheme.
You dont actually have to cycle to work but you might be able to get about 40% off a bike..

[andrewparker]

It would be worth speaking to your work and see if they can offer you an cycle to work scheme.
You dont actually have to cycle to work but you might be able to get about 40% off a bike..

Yeah, I looked into it but to be honest I can't be arsed doing the salary sacrifice thing. I already do that for childcare vouchers and I have the money for the bike so may as well spend it.