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Buying a roadie for a MTBér


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Fellow Hubbers,

 

I'm toying with the idea of buying a roadie to supplement my weekly training. I'm enjoying the daily session on my hardtail, but in all honesty it is not getting the justice it deserves on the tar. Hence wanting to train mondays to friday's on a roadie bike, then weekends head off to the trails. 

 

I ride a 21inch L frame 29'er hardtail. I'm a solid 98kg's and 193cm (or 6'3" for us other folks)

 

Now I've never purchased a road bike before so I'm asking on pointers

- brands?

- size of frame?

- carbon or ally frame?

- group sets to look for?

- what to stay away from?

- 2x or ?

- etc? 

 

Bear in mind I wont race the road bike, its mainly for midweek training rides, so an older model like a 2015 or later would be fine. I'm not the fastest either, therefore no need for me to look for a TT bike. And personally, I'm not into a gravel set up - I'd rather stay pure MTB for the dirt, and pure roadie for the tar. 

Budget is around the 15k mark to give an idea of expenditure. I'm not looking to buy right now, just weighing up the options first. 

What do you guys suggest? 

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Thanks, but is this the size frame I must look for? etc

In compact frames, you'll look for a L.

In old school language, you'll look for something in the region of a 60cm c-c(t), up to 62 (you could look  58/59 and fiddle with stem/position/etc)

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I’m 185cm (6”2’) and ride an XL MTB, my road bike is a 59cm. Depending on brand you need a 60cm roughly I’d think.

 

Being on the taller and heavier side myself I strongly recommend 28mm tyres. This will be important to consider when looking for bike as frame and fork must have clearance.

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This goes against the advice usually offered on bikehub, but it worked for me in a similar situation. Get an entry level Giant alu bike, with Sora components (Mine is a Defy, but I think the Contend is the current entry level). Should be around R10k new (extrapolating from what I paid 3 years ago, which might be very wrong...). Read a bit about geometry, a very aggressive bike position can be quite uncomfortable if you are used to MTB (or have a weak core) while an endurance bike feels pretty good.

 

I wanted something bulletproof, and cheap to maintain. The bike spends 70% of its time on the trainer, and is used for the odd weekend ride out to Chappies when the MTB admin feels like too much (I can roadie from home) and the CTCT.

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I was in the same position. Needed a roadie mostly for the IDT during hard lockdown.

 

Ended up with a Valenti running 10spd Sora components. Paid R6999 for it on sale. Served me very well for the past 1300km.

 

Alu frame with carbon fork. At 1.79 I settled for a 56 frame.

Edited by Steady Spin
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In compact frames, you'll look for a L.

In old school language, you'll look for something in the region of a 60cm c-c(t), up to 62 (you could look 58/59 and fiddle with stem/position/etc)

Edited by Eugene
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