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I've been riding a hybrid bike on some intermediate mountain bike trails(at least according to MTB project), and it's been really fun. While I'm not able to "send it" as hard as some of the other riders, I'm still having a blast.

However, today, I showed my friends around a fire trail I've ridden a small handful of times, while they were all riding mountain bikes. While they've ridden trails a lot less then me, and had only recently got mountain bikes and were new to the sport(hence me showing them around), I seemed to struggle a lot more to keep my bike on the trail compared to them. While I'm sure a lot of it was due to my lack of skill, I was simply sliding around a lot of and skidding my tires a lot when braking/accelerating.

While I'm not looking to switch to a new bike, I'm looking for what I can do to maybe go a bit faster.

On the equipment side, I could switch out my stiff smooth tires for something that is knobbed? I was thinking it would help with the sliding I'm feeling when turning. I'm guessing the knobs would help in dirt and gravel, given that my bike would only be able to fit up to a 35mm tires, would it make that big of a difference on such a thin rim? Maybe the more supple casing and rubber compound would help, but I'm not sure about that. Any thoughts about this? The tire would be the only thing I could really change to help off road handling characteristics without spending too much.

Any difference is the fixed fork. While my smooth tire will have less grip, I'm finding it hard to maximize the amount of grip I am using, especially around turns and when braking. When I hit a rock or any bit of sudden uneven terrain, I feel like my frame is bouncing around and becoming unsettled easily at higher speeds. As a result, I'm getting lots of skidding when braking, as well as snap oversteer and twitchiness when turning.

However, while I can't change the fork, in terms of technique, how can I ride faster on my bike? I'm not sure how I could ride differently, but maybe I could borrow some riding technique from the gravel riders? Any tips are appreciated here. I've seen the 90's MTB riders with their fixed forks, who rode mostly the same gnarly trails that we do, so how did they ride differently with fixed forks? I just want to end with saying that I know I'll never be as fast as the pros with my hybrid bike, but I'm just trying to wring out more speed so I can keep up with my mountain bike riding friends, once they get a bit faster.

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    So right now, your bike is a flat-bar commuter bike with smooth tyres and no suspension? What are your other uses for this bike? If you shift the focus toward MTB then it becomes less good at commuting/road riding.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Jun 3 at 10:13
  • You might be able to change the fork - but it's probably not cost-effective, and the frame of a road-oriented hybrid isn't really built for it. A replacement fork could be rigid but with clearance for 50+mm tyres, or could add suspension; both would help
    – Chris H
    Commented Jun 3 at 13:32
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    @Criggie I ride a lot of road too, hence my reluctance to sell my bike and switch to a full MTB bike.
    – itisyeetimetoday
    Commented Jun 3 at 21:43
  • @ChrisH Got it, I'll look into new forks and checking if my existing brake system to mount to new forks.
    – itisyeetimetoday
    Commented Jun 3 at 21:43
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    @itisyeetimetoday This is where N+1 applies - when you can only have one bike for multiple purposes, it is a compromise. A second set of wheels or just tyres could be your next step.
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Jun 3 at 21:46

3 Answers 3

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Using offroad tires will greatly improve the grip in dirt. Even with just 35mm clearance there is a great selection of appropriate tires in the gravel and cyclocross segment of the big tire manufactures like Continental, Schwalbe, Maxxis...

Using low tire pressures also increases grip. Just high enough to not get pinch flats. If your rims are tubeless ready use it. Tubeless gives you higher puncture protection while allowing even less pressure.

Next is technique. You don't have suspension on your bike, your body is the suspension. Actively use your arms and legs to absorb impacts and keeping the wheels in contact with the ground. Look way forward while riding so you know what's coming up and choose the best line through the obstacles. Don't just look at your front wheel and the next 2 meters of trail. Getting surprised by a trail feature and stopping/slowing down to think about how to handle it is the biggest speed killer in Mountainbiking.

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  • Having recently had to ride my hardtail with seized forks, the last paragraph is key. Standing up meant I could go about as fast, though some hits slowed me more than they would. The exception was descending, when even on bent legs if I went as fats as I normally would my head was bouncing around so much it made it hard to see where I was going. I still had >2" tyres, which isn't the case here
    – Chris H
    Commented Jun 3 at 13:30
  • Does standing up mean basically putting all of my weight on my pedals? How high do I stand? Can I still pedal when standing?
    – itisyeetimetoday
    Commented Jun 3 at 21:41
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    @itisyeetimetoday yes, you can pedal standing up over rough stuff. It takes some getting used to. You may find it helps to put the saddle a bit when riding trails (and back up for road). But at the very least, when descending out for a short rough stretch get your weight off the saddle. It bent knees are better than standing up straight, and allow the bike to bounce around underneath you. That generally means having one foot forwards and the other back, though cornering with the outside foot down is helpful (and a reason not to have the saddle too high, so you can put your weight on that foot)
    – Chris H
    Commented Jun 4 at 5:32
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The techniques used by gravel riders are not so different than the ones used by mountain bikers (bunny hops and their derivatives are a great way to clear obstacles, mass transfers between front and rear are also critical), but their use is much more systematic because of the lack of suspension. Gravel bikes used on MTB trails would however typically use wider tires than 35mm — in the past 47mm on 27.5" wheels, now 50mm on 28"/29"/700c wheels.

On tires, cyclocross tires would indeed be an improvement on smooth but loose surfaces, but won't help so much with rocks/stones: wide tires with low pressure can deform much more to "surround" obstacles such as roots or rocks, while a thinner tire at higher pressure will just bounce (even more without suspension), which is what you are experiencing.

But an obligatory safety note: road focused hybrids are designed using the expected loads of road bikes - no jumps for example. If you compare endurance/allroad road bikes and equivalent gravel bikes, there's a weight penalty of around 800g-1.2kg for the gravel bikes, mostly because there are different structural requirements (to give some examples: Canyon Endurace/Grail, Specialized Allez/Diverge E5). If budget is the reason why you don't want to change bike, consider what will happen if you break your bike because of "unintended use". A basic MTB with gravel tires (to not penalize too much road efficiency) may be a better choice if you intend to ride often on MTB trails.

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    Suggestion for the last sentence: "A basic hardtail MTB...". Switching to a full sus would almost certainly be overkill and to keep the price down the most basic ones have to make a lot of compromises. Also, don't go too basic - lockout on the forks is well worth having if you're riding mixed surfaces
    – Chris H
    Commented Jun 3 at 13:26
  • @ChrisH Good point. Also, some basic MTBs with double chainrings have more range (and could then be better suited for mixed use) than single chainring MTBs than the product ranges above - a 12-speed with a 10-5x cassette is the minimum to have something equivalent to double chainrings in terms of range.
    – Rеnаud
    Commented Jun 3 at 13:53
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    @Renaud you can prise my MTB triple from my cold dead hands! It's the top end where I feel the benefit, whether riding to the trails or doing a 200km mixed surface ride with the off-road at the far end. But you won't find 3x9 or 3x10 on many new bikes these days
    – Chris H
    Commented Jun 3 at 13:59
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    @ChrisH The new CUES offers a better combination than a 3x10, in my opinion: a 2x11, with 46/32 front and 11/45 rear. It gives about the same range as a 3x10, but with much less chainring jumps (simplified big ring, road, small ring off-road). I have a similar setup on my fun bike, it is by far my preferred combo - although for a pure MTB, a 40/26 front would be better (also available in CUES, but strangely only on entry level ranges, upper ranges have 36/22).
    – Rеnаud
    Commented Jun 3 at 20:16
  • Got it. I'm just trying to ride some more rough and bumpy fire trails around the area, so no jumps for me. I can slap up to 45mm tires, so I'll check for some wide gravel tires.
    – itisyeetimetoday
    Commented Jun 3 at 21:42
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I suspect you can fit tyres considerably larger than 35c. I own a pretty typical low to mid-range hybrid bike (Pinnacle Lithium 2) and I'm currently using 28" × 2.0" (700 × 48c) tyres in a desperate attempt to make the terrible roads round me more bearable (only partially successful). These are road tread not knobblies, but they fit with room to spare on the wheels that came with the bike. If your bike is a typical hybrid I imagine you'll be able to fit knobblies that big with no problems.

I've attached some pictures to show the clearance between the tyres and the frame:

Front clearance

Rear clearance

Front view

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