Different Distances MTB vs Hybrid vs Road Bike

[Alan O]

Something else I probably should have been a bit clearer about and there was a certain amount of assumption on my part.
I rang the store that the bike came from and they said you ideally want to stay above 1.75 which translates pretty much to 45mm which would knock out an awful lot of the ones suggested and I’ve already looked at the likes of Schwalbe Marathon Greenguards, G-One’s (good puncture protection) Supremes, Land Cruisers to name but a few but they all come in around the 38 possibly up 40mm so have discounted them.

Are the shop being overly cautious and can I go narrower without changing the rims on a 29er with I would have though pretty standard width rims???

That said they’ve all been earmarked anyway for when I get a gravel bike

Bearing in mind that my MTB wheels are 26", my current Sport Contact tyres are 42mm (1.6"). That's on Mavic rims marked 559x17, and they'd easily take thinner tyres than that.

[Witterings]

[/quote]
Bearing in mind that my MTB wheels are 26", my current Sport Contact tyres are 42mm (1.6"). That's on Mavic rims marked 559x17, and they'd easily take thinner tyres than that.[/quote]

How / where can I find out the minimum width tyre I can put on the rims I have ... I'm running with tubes rather than tubeless.

This has erred into a conversation about different tyres now which is obviously very relevant to how far you may or may not want to go on one or the other and which is potentially more comfortable for longer rides .. lets say you had a hybrid or a locked out MTB that could take Schwalbe G-One Raceguards .... they'd potentially fit all bikes suggested ... which one are you going to ride most??

[PH]

How / where can I find out the minimum width tyre I can put on the rims I have ... I'm running with tubes rather than tubeless.

Here's the Schwalbe guide, it's a bit cautious, but if you want to play safe it advises rims with an internal width of 17 - 23mm would be suitable for tyres 37 - 40mm
https://www.schwalbetires.com/tech_info/tire_dimensions

[The utility cyclist]

Further on a hybrid/flat bar road than outright road.
Reason, more upright position on the hybrid, knackered shoulders and wrists make the more forward position of my drop bar bikes put pressure on them and thus more pain, I also have more hand positions on the flat bar bike, four compared with three and that's without any bar ends.

Even if that were not the case the double the distance thing is cobblers IMHO.

[Alan O]

Bearing in mind that my MTB wheels are 26", my current Sport Contact tyres are 42mm (1.6"). That's on Mavic rims marked 559x17, and they'd easily take thinner tyres than that.

How / where can I find out the minimum width tyre I can put on the rims I have ... I'm running with tubes rather than tubeless.

This has erred into a conversation about different tyres now which is obviously very relevant to how far you may or may not want to go on one or the other and which is potentially more comfortable for longer rides .. lets say you had a hybrid or a locked out MTB that could take Schwalbe G-One Raceguards .... they'd potentially fit all bikes suggested ... which one are you going to ride most??

As PH says, you need to know the internal rim width, which should hopefully be marked on the rim somewhere. As a rough approximation, my 17c internal-width rims have an external width of 23mm, so that might help you guesstimate yours without taking them off. On my MTB I don't think I'd want to go narrower than about 37-38mm tyres, as I do like the comfort of tyres wider than on my tourer.

As for which bike I'd ride the most, I don't think I'd ride very far on a hybrid, because it's really in the same territory as my tourer - and I find the tourer with 32mm tyres to be ideal for longer distances (and having varied hand positions on drop bars makes a big difference to me - I find drops comfortable, but it's very much a personal thing). Having said that, I doubt there'd be much difference between a hybrid and a locked-out MTB if they both had slick-ish tyres of similar width - I do actually have a rigid MTB that I got really cheap and I haven't ridden it yet (it's still waiting for tweaks), so I really should try that.

[horizon]

It's inevitable I'll end up with another bike anyway ... it's just when but was interested to see people's comments in the interim ... maybe to help me justify the purchase

Yes, but with that new bike you can make consistent decisions about it to make it and you lighter and faster. Obviously it's good to have a starting point so the advantage of say a lighter frame is already baked in. Then you consistently choose lighter equipment, more aerodynamic riding position and so forth. AIUI that's what makes a bike lighter and faster: it's you, the bike, the luggage, the wheels, the tyres, the water you carry etc etc. You can make some of those changes to your existing bike to attain rough parity with a faster bike (as everyone says, the difference isn't huge) but that can be a faff if you need to change back.

[MikeF]

Further on a hybrid/flat bar road than outright road.
Reason, more upright position on the hybrid, knackered shoulders and wrists make the more forward position of my drop bar bikes put pressure on them and thus more pain, I also have more hand positions on the flat bar bike, four compared with three and that's without any bar ends.

Even if that were not the case the double the distance thing is cobblers IMHO.

What sort of flat bars do you have? Straight bars? What are the 4 hand positions? I'm not sure I can find 4 hand positions on straight bars and "thumbs up" isn't available so that's one option ruled out.

[The utility cyclist]

Further on a hybrid/flat bar road than outright road.
Reason, more upright position on the hybrid, knackered shoulders and wrists make the more forward position of my drop bar bikes put pressure on them and thus more pain, I also have more hand positions on the flat bar bike, four compared with three and that's without any bar ends.

Even if that were not the case the double the distance thing is cobblers IMHO.

What sort of flat bars do you have? Straight bars? What are the 4 hand positions? I'm not sure I can find 4 hand positions on straight bars and "thumbs up" isn't available so that's one option ruled out.

Standard flat carbon bars.
Std overhand grip
Overhand but resting pad on far ends of grips, this widen the arms outwards
Overhand in std grip position but resting pads on tops only which pushes the hands further forwards.
Resting hands inward toward the stem in almost a time trial position, it's not ideal and a bit cramped but usually do it when it's windy and want to get a bit lower/more aero, also do it on longer high speed descents. Having used the utility bike to climb up a few cols in France for a short trip some 7 years ago I found this meant I could reach 46mph even on a relatively lowish gradient (7-8%)
I should fit the bar ends I bought years ago which would give me a 5th position.

[MikeF]

Further on a hybrid/flat bar road than outright road.
Reason, more upright position on the hybrid, knackered shoulders and wrists make the more forward position of my drop bar bikes put pressure on them and thus more pain, I also have more hand positions on the flat bar bike, four compared with three and that's without any bar ends.

Even if that were not the case the double the distance thing is cobblers IMHO.

What sort of flat bars do you have? Straight bars? What are the 4 hand positions? I'm not sure I can find 4 hand positions on straight bars and "thumbs up" isn't available so that's one option ruled out.

Standard flat carbon bars.
Std overhand grip
Overhand but resting pad on far ends of grips, this widen the arms outwards
Overhand in std grip position but resting pads on tops only which pushes the hands further forwards.
Resting hands inward toward the stem in almost a time trial position, it's not ideal and a bit cramped but usually do it when it's windy and want to get a bit lower/more aero, also do it on longer high speed descents. Having used the utility bike to climb up a few cols in France for a short trip some 7 years ago I found this meant I could reach 46mph even on a relatively lowish gradient (7-8%)
I should fit the bar ends I bought years ago which would give me a 5th position.

OK. What I dislike about straight bars is that I can't alter the wrist position whatever the position of my hands.

[Mud-Plugger]

Are the shop being overly cautious and can I go narrower without changing the rims on a 29er with I would have though pretty standard width rims???

That said they’ve all been earmarked anyway for when I get a gravel bike

You can go way narrower. My rims are 622-19 - which is 700c - 19mm internal width. The bike ( a hybrid) came with 42 mm tractor tyres, and I've just fitted 28mm Schwalbe road tyres with no problems. You might need slimmer tubes but mine didn't. 30-35mm wide tyres will give a bit more comfort, the 28mm tyres are a bit lighter.

[hamster]

Even if that were not the case the double the distance thing is cobblers IMHO.

It was in the context of riding on- or off-road as well as simply the bike.

[PH]

Even if that were not the case the double the distance thing is cobblers IMHO.

It was in the context of riding on- or off-road as well as simply the bike.

I got that impression from your first reply, but I don't think that's what the OP was asking. I understood the question to refer to the same route on a different bike and the advice they'd received that a road bike would be 5mph faster.
On road Vs off road speed differences could be just about anything. I don't do much off road but I have done some 30 mile routes where I've come home as knackered as after a 300 km audax.

[sunnydunny63]

I reckon based on time riding at the same effort that 1km on an MTB off road is the same as a mile on the road bike...or a distance on an MTB off road is the 1.5x on the road. You can fiddle that into average speeds: 12mph off-road is the same as 18mph on.

+1 for this both my wife and I have found this approximation to be reasonably accurate over the years

[djnotts]

"What I dislike about straight bars is that I can't alter the wrist position whatever the position of my hands."

Bar ends? Some designs give flats exactly the same number of differing hand positions as drops.

[Sweep]

"What I dislike about straight bars is that I can't alter the wrist position whatever the position of my hands."

Bar ends? Some designs give flats exactly the same number of differing hand positions as drops.

Yes, you got there before me.

Then your wrists are untwisted, though some folk claim that this is a unique feature of drops.
In fact when cruising I often spend long periods on the wrist-untwisted bar ends, either at the base of the bar ends or the mid point. If you have longer "ski" bar ends, that gives three positions on the bar ends alone.

One of my bikes is actually set up so that the optimal reach is when I am on the bar ends.

None of the bikes give any issues with braking or gear changing.