Roubaix Expert (carbon frame/Ultegra components)
Cannondale Trail 3
Cannondale street oriented hybrid (H400, aluminum frame.) This was my main bike for 20 years and is a fine urban commuter bike, but it starts to be work over 20 miles and shakes me to pieces on the C&O Canal.
I'm thinking about another bike for longer trail rides. The Cannondale Trail 3 is a trail oriented mountain bike (no really crazy downhill stuff). It's great for wet, sloppy conditions on the canal, and I appreciate it on the rocky or rutted sections, but it's heavy enough that I don't want to ride it more than 20-25 miles. Longer rides are frequent because the C&O Canal is out-and-back riding. Don't know where the right tradeoff is for longer rides.
A couple of bike shops have recommended the Specialized Sirrus X. For quite a few years, Specialized ran with the Sirrus/Crosstrail tandem for hybrids. This year, they've chopped the Crosstrail line way back and put a 38 mm tire on the Sirrus X for reasonable dirt/gravel capability. (The other Sirrus bikes remain road-oriented commuter/fitness hybrids with 30 mm tires.) Sale season is coming up, so I need to start test riding. Thoughts?
Think in terms of 40-60 miles on the C&O Canal; Harper's Ferry would be a good destination, or a through ride. Or riding out the W&OD, crossing at White's Ferry, and riding back on the canal. That's farther than I want to do on a mountain bike. I'm thinking hybrid or a gravel bike.
You should look at the offerings from Surly. My wife and I have a couple of them that we use mainly for gravel road (no single-track) riding. Ours are the Ogre and Troll models, which can be accessorized any way you want, as they have braze-ons everywhere.
sphinx!
Thanks for joining!
Always enjoyed reading your well thought-out posts in the soccer ping list threads.
You are off to a great start here.
Really good stuff.