Suspension?

[Jonny69]

Depends on the road bike too. A nice springy frame soaks up quite a lot of a bad road surface. I doubt I'd last long a super-stiff alloy frame...

You might just be better off with a rigid frame mountain bike and road tyres. The added width will let you run them at a lower pressure and they'll be able to take more of a pounding than a 23mm racing bike tyre.

 

[spark303]

What about a Moulton?

 

[bm0p700f]

I ride at least 1 foot from the kerb, that way cars have to slow down to go around me rather than drive past at speed in the same lane leaving no space. Also it leaves me space to move in if I need to. You ride too close to the kerb! Also as for toughness of road wheels, if they are built right they are very tough. You should see the state of the roads in Suffolk, nasty.

 

[NAILTRAIL96]

The ridgid mountain bike I ride is an alloy marin so that might not have helped.

I take the point about riding in the lane rather than at the edge of it, I was just trying to be helpfull (drivers mentality).

Those moultons do look like a good bit of kit but not really suitable for me.
I have a second set of wheels so I'll get some slicks.
It's an interesting topic though, I was at an old friends house the other day (not really spoke in years) and he now swears by a ridgid cross bike for on and off road and very rarely (even when racing) does the mountain bike leave the garage.

 

[lae]

If you find an old touring frame or even an old mid-range steel 10-speed bike, then depending on the rims, you can usually fit some enormous tyres in - I've only got 28c in my Carlton Corsair but I can get my thumb between the tyre and the frame - there's nearly 3" of clearance in the forks so I could get some 50c Schwalbe balloon tyres in there if I wanted (mudguards might be difficult though)!

Being narrow-tubed steel, too, gives it some compliance over bumps.

 

[David B]

and then when Mapei started wiping the floor riding rigid Colnagos they gave up on suspension.

mmm ... wasnt a certain belgian, how can we put it? not so clean when he won those races?

Call me a hardened cynic, but that pretty much echoes what I thought when I read the thread - I don't think it was Mapei's choice of bikes that was bagging such emphatic Paris-Roubaix wins....

David