Bicycle gearing question (what bike)

danielf · 22-01-2010, 23:59

Evening all.

My current ride is a GT Avalanche 3.0 mountain bike, while the missus rides a Specialized Global hybrid. Since I don't use my bike off-road very much I got rid of the knobby tyres, and stuck some road tyres on it which makes a massive difference.

The missus and I regularly go for 30-40 mile rides on weekends, and recently did 150 miles over 5 days in Spain on crappy hire MTBs. My wife remarked that, despite the knobby tyres she liked the MTB due to the low gears option it provided which meant she was able to tackle climbs she couldn't tackle on her own bike.

We're now planning doing more cycling holidays, and need to carry some luggage. My bike doesn't have struts for racks so I'll need to get a new bike

, and the wife is kind of interested in getting a bike with lower gears, so she can tackle those climbs.

The dilemma: Basically, we both want all-round bikes, with struts front and rear so we can fit racks. We also like the low gears on MTBs (my GT has 42/32/22 and 11-32). I occasionally need the 22-11 on climbs, and the missus could definitely do with them. Struts (esp. front) appear to be rare on MTBs, and low gear options seem to be rare on hybrids.

Any thoughts on bikes that would fit our needs? I can't seem to find any...

Budget is flexible.

oddjob1212 · 23-01-2010, 01:26

you could just change the rear cassette to the ratio you need and most front and rear racks have alternative fixings for forks without eyelets but I'm not sure about low riders.