I think I made the wrong choice.

[WestieMan]

Here it goes guys. I am in need of a bit of advice.

About a month ago I purchase MTB as my son started using my old one.
So I treated my self a lovely 2011 Specialised Enduro, that was a last years model, that my local bike shop still had in stock. Anyone knows about them, they know that they don't come cheap.
The idea was to do a bit of a down hill and trail at the weekends and for general ride with the kids at the weekends.

Well the trail and downhill bit haven't happened as yet. I finding my self always doing something at the weekends and leaving only few hours to go out with the kids for a quick ride.

I have tried to go out for a road ride in the evenings after work to get my fitness levels up, but 6-7 miles I am done.

Now thinking that a some kind of road bike would have been a better choice for me. Longer rides in the evenings and ride the weekend with the kids too.
But after spending all that cash on this bike I really can't justify spending any more on a road bike too.

So I am better of advertising the bike, or going back to the shop and trying to do some kind of deal?

What you guys thinking?

[racerbob]

Depends how you look at it really. If you are just interested in getting fitter, getting a road bike won't make much difference, so you may end up doing 12-15 miles on the road bike, the effort involved might be just the same as the 6 miles on the MTB ? so you will be using the same amount of energy for different distances, if that makes sense. On the other hand, certainly a road bike will be more enjoyable on the road and you might 'feel' like it's doing you more good because it's more likely you'll want to ride it more, as opposed to the MTB (on the road)

If that's the case, I'd be off to the bike shop and do a deal.

Good luck anyway

[TonyHetherington]

If you're busy at weekends and not going out in the evenings as much as you'd like, I'd ask if that will be similar with a road bike.

Road bikes are of course far nicer at riding on the road, but if you're doing anything other than the road (i.e. tow paths, canals, nature parks etc. with the kids) then you'd end up with a hybrid of some sort anyway.

Before jumping the gun and losing a chunk of cash, I'd probably suggest sticking at it and getting out on the MTB a bit more?

[BliarOut]

Rule #10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster.

[anonymous-user]

i'd give the mtb more time, after all mtb can be ridden on and off road, road bike can only been ridden on road. you might go quicker on a road bike but you lose that ability and also, its hard to go slow on a road bike, it sounds stupid but they arent ideal for riding with kids etc.

i dont know where you live but buy an OS map of your area and look for some bridlepaths or by-ways that are near your house, they are great fun and there are most likely quite a few in your locale (unless you live in central london in which case its a bit irrelevant!!)

you will lose loads on the mtb if you shop it in, privately you will be lucky to get 60% of the price you paid and a shop wont offer much more on a trade-in.

[BOR]

A possible solution for you *could* be to change your tyres for faster rolling ones. You can always pop the originals back on if you do any downhill.

[BliarOut]

Ah yes, my old MTB was good for 46.9 MPH

[2DDav]

BOR said:

A possible solution for you *could* be to change your tyres for faster rolling ones. You can always pop the originals back on if you do any downhill.

That would be my suggestion as well. I recently made the mistake (imo) of buying a cheap bike that's not greatly upto the job its being asked of, anyway, I use is for a mixture of forest tracks, cycle ways, canal paths and roads. The standard nobbly tyres were making it really hard going, not to mention he constant hmmmmmmmmm on the road as well. Over last weekend I changed the tyres to some Panaracer Mach SS (http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/products/panaracer-mach-ss-tyre).
they have made a massive difference and make the road riding especially a lot more enjoyable (but still hard).

[Gren]

That's one hell of a bike to go out for a quick ride with the kids on, will be taking a hell of a lot of energy to heft that extra weight around. A 100mm/120mm hardtail would be a lot easier to bimble around on.

Unless you are going to be doing more DH then I'd be swapping bikes.

[WestieMan]

Gren said:

That's one hell of a bike to go out for a quick ride with the kids on, will be taking a hell of a lot of energy to heft that extra weight around. A 100mm/120mm hardtail would be a lot easier to bimble around on.

Unless you are going to be doing more DH then I'd be swapping bikes.

Thanks for your reply s guys, I think the swaping tyres is a damn good plan.

Gren The going out for a quick ride with the kids was not the main reason this bike was purchased.
I used to do allot of trailing and down hilling before I started my business 5 years ago and that was the main reason purchasing that bike. And yes you are right. It is one "hell of a bike"
I just found my self not getting the time for one reason to another to get out to the trails and have some fun.

Il get my self some change of tyres, and go from there.

Thanks for your advise guys.

[BliarOut]

The Panaracers are a good compromise and are tough as nails if you do want to go on shale trails. If you want I'll dig out a picture of my bike old bike when it wore them so you can see how they look.

Edited by BliarOut on Thursday 14th June 20:01

[WestieMan]

BliarOut said:

The Panaracers are a good compromise and are tough as nails if you do want to go on shale trails. If you want I'll dig out a picture of my bike old bike when it wore them so you can see how they look.

Edited by BliarOut on Thursday 14th June 20:01

That will be fantastic fella.
Thank you

[rhinochopig]

I'd look at doing a swap if you can. A 160mm travel bike is complete overkill for 70-80% of UK off-road trails - especially if you're an infrequent rider - never mind riding on the road. A 160mm travel bike will be utterly horrible on road and heavy to boot.

Either look at a 120mm hardtail or a 120-140mm full-sus. I'd even look at 29" wheel bikes too if your local training rides are mainly on road.

I have a 140mm travel full-sus and that only gets wheeled out for black-runs or if I want to horse it down some reds. For Reds and blues (or natural equivalents) I tend to use my hardtail.

[Hard-Drive]

Ok so you have an unsuitable, but desirable light use bike. I'd be going back to the shop, and see if they'd do you a straight swap for a half decent roadie and a half decent MTB, perhaps second hand if needed. OK so you might lose some money, but not as much as you will lose next year when you finally give up on it. Get rid now, and go and get 2 bikes that you can enjoy your cycling on.

[BliarOut]

Here's how your bike might look with Panaracers fitted.




They're tough as old boots. I was pretty pissed off at first when I managed to slit one on glass, then I realised it had actually managed to get me thirteen miles home in this condition.

[tuffer]

How much do you want for the Enduro?

[WestieMan]

tuffer said:

How much do you want for the Enduro?

Email me with an sensible offer fella.

Edited by WestieMan on Friday 15th June 11:27

Edited by WestieMan on Friday 15th June 11:29

[WestieMan]

BliarOut said:

Here's how your bike might look with Panaracers fitted.




They're tough as old boots. I was pretty pissed off at first when I managed to slit one on glass, then I realised it had actually managed to get me thirteen miles home in this condition.

Thanks fella. They look just the job.