29er and tour hybrid bike recommendations

[F0neb0ne]

Hi all,

I ve been discussing bikes with my girlfriend and we came to the conclusion that she needs a new one. Thing is: The criteria seem to favour something like a hybrid. What she wants to be able to ride is: 1 week tours with full luggage (e.g. along a river or something, dusty gravel tracks at the most here) and then also go for some trail fun in the Grunewald here in Berlin which features sandy up and down single trails.

So we are looking for something which combines the advantages of a 29er MTB with regard to its stability/controlability and comfort in riding a nice medium big tyre (my girlfriend tried both my Cannondale F2 Flash 29er and my 29er Scalpel) with the options for packing 20kg of stuff into 2 big packs fixed to a solid rack (like Pletscher) that you can mount to the frame (not just to the seat post).

So what are your recommendations? Thank you for your ideas!

Matt

[Lentamentalisk]

Go for a basic rigid 29er mountain bike sort of bike and put some big slick (or filetread) tires on it for most of your daily riding. But hold on to the knobbies for any fun trail riding you want to do. Or if that is too much work, get a nice fast rolling knobby tire like the Teravail Sparwood, and use it for everything.

For trails, unless they are super wet, the most important thing is to have enough tire volume. For road riding, the most important thing is to not have too knobby of tires. So you can still get the best of both worlds with a big balloony road tire on a rigid mountain bike.

-- Just be sure whatever you get has rack mounting points!