New or Old

[iandennis]

Hi All,

I have two mountain bikes to choose from, an 1990's Raleigh or a new Specialised Hardrock disc sport. Whilst the Hardrock is a lot of fun most of the time I find myself chosing to use the rigid Raleigh for a ride. I use my bikes for an 11 mile comute to work, mostly off road. The raleigh is all shimano, 7 speed and twist gear shifters, canti brakes. Ive replaced the saddle and the handlebars but apart from that is stock. The Specialised is a mix of Shimano and SRAM, hydraulic disc brakes.

The older bike just feels more "right" to ride, its had work sometimes but has much more feel to it and whilst a boneshaker it gets the job done very well.

Is this normal for retrobikers ?

 

[tintin40]

yes rigid is best

 

[Anthony]

You may be experiencing the difference between steel vs aluminium, rather than old vs new as such.

I would sell both and get an Orange C16-R with F7 rigid forks. Cheap to buy, superb bike and perfect for the kind of mixed-terrain commute that you're talking about.

 

[iandennis]

Indeed

I was out with two friends on Sunday morning, me on the Specialised, one on a Gary fisher full suspension and one on a rigid rockhopper. All about the same fitness.

The rockhopper left us for dead on the climbs ! No real benefit in having suspension as the route we took was mostly mud.

I do need spd's though