I am looking to get back into cycling and need to buy a bike, 80% of my riding will be on pavement with about 20% on park trails and dirt roads. I've test driven quite a few bikes and feel like the Specialized CrossTrail or HardRock will work for me. I am leaning towards the CrossTrail Sport, but have found that I can get a better equipped HardRock for the same price. So here are my questions
1) Is the HardRock really more value for money ? or does the CrossTrail have better components ? 2) The "Sport" version of these bikes allow lockout of the shocks and an extra speed gear, is this really worth the upgrade, can I just go with the base edition and add these if I need ? 3) I tried a few department store bikes and they weren't very good, but in general has experience been that starting with those is prudent ? (I did a lot of biking about 10 years ago, but not so much here in the US...so its going to take me a bit to get back in the groove of things)
Well I went ahead and got the Crosstrail, the base edition because it drove really well and was on sale, I really am enjoying it so far, the shocks on the front fork are helpful on uneven pavement. I did take it to the beach for a bit and the wheel lost some of its trueness, bottomline really nice bike for pavement doesn't hold up too well on the trails.
I had a similar dilemma recently, my ratio is about 95% paved vs 5% dirt trail. I went with a cyclocross bike and am thrilled with it so far. Has pretty good road/paved performance and has been great in the dirt. Good luck with your new bike!
