Comfort vs Utility

[francovendee]

Before deciding on a new bike use your MTB to get yourself fitter. You'd have to do this on a new bike anyway. Once you've regained some fitness then you are in a better position to choose the bike that you feel comfortable on.
I use an old MTB for all my cycling but fitted with narrower tyres. The longest ride I've done on it was 65 miles. It took me most of the day but I'm now 74 so didn't feel to bad about my efforts.
I hope more people like yourself decide to do something about weight and fitness, I've found riding a bike helps this and improves your mood even on wet day!

[531colin]

Saracen Rufftrax isn't a bad bike at all.....bikes like that at that time were more or less designed to be just "bikes"....about their only concession to "fashion" is the big knobbly tyres.....other than that, its very similar to most "hybrids" you would buy now......designed so that most people can use them for most purposes, most of the time. In fact, that sort of bike (with rigid forks) is often wanted by people on this forum to use for loaded touring or poor roads.
To me its a no-brainer.....get some road tyres, and get comfortable on the bike you've got. Somebody already linked my fitting guide, but its in my sig. anyway. One warning.....its one thing being comfortable on a bike sitting in the shop, its another thing being comfortable for 50 miles, you need enough reach to be able to distribute your weight between the contact points, and to brace your lower back against the effort of pedalling.
For general recreational riding I like my hands about level with my backside, and a decent reach.....either "on the hoods" on drops, or on bar ends on flat bars.

[Brucey]

Just change the tyres for high pressure semi-slick touring tyres. Job done.

yup, and +1 to what Colin says too.

BTW apologies if this is obvious, but a little-used bike is often little-used for a reason, i.e. that it isn't set up right, or doesn't really suit you for some reason. You would be amazed how often folk 'solve this problem' by going out and buying a new bike, when a little tlc and some new tyres etc might have resolved all the issues with the old one... after a while the new bike ends up in a similar state and the whole er, cycle, continues, if you see what I mean.

On the other hand a shiny new bike is just the thing to motivate some folk to go out....

Also note that the weight of the bike doesn't greatly affect your average speed; when buying a new bike it is a 'nice to have' but not 'an essential'. For example 1kg extra will make a difference on the flat that is difficult to actually measure, and at worst it might be ~1% of your all-up weight when climbing, so will make you 1% slower.

cheers

[AF83]

Thanks very much all for your feedback. You've totally changed my direction of thought and I'm going to give the old Saracen a facelift and go from there

[Dominic]

I have a twenty year-old Saracen Rufftrax (hi-ten steel frame with cromo DT (!)) which has gone through many incarnations, including single-speed, 650b wheels, and even fixed (for the road!). Currently, it wears Vittoria Randonneur tyres (26 x 1.5") and a rear rack. I say, go for it, you will have a lot of fun on it.

I have photos of my Saracen but can't upload them; but you can see some pics on my Instagram account (dominicburnet).

Let us know how you get on!

[meic]

A nice fast and comfortable tyre here at a decent price.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitt ... prod109593