Fitness/Hunting Bicyle

[Seed15]

Looking for a fitness/hunting bike to ride around. What do you recommend looking forward or staying away from? Hard to probably find something that checks all the boxes but newbie to bicycles and just don't want to get something I'll regret in two weeks. Hunting use will mainly gravel roads and field edges.

 

[keystone112]

Do yourself a favor and visit your local bike shop. They will have new and used bikes, help get the right size for you and they service what they sell.

I would recommend looking at a hard tail 29er for what you are describing. It’s a simple trail bike and comes in at various price points.

 

[Bubblehide]

I would be looking at a plus bike (3" wide tires), Plus bikes are 27.5 bikes, but made specifically for the wider taller tire. The tires are very very close to 29ers in diameter. Basically you get all the advantages of a 29 design, but with the advantages of a wider tire. For example, your stopping ability will be much better, you can air down and still carry heavy loads ...

 

[FLATHEAD]

When I lived in Central FL. I bought a "Giant" brand thats kind of a hybrid
between street/off road. I rode it quite a bit down there on sidewalks, parks, neighborhoods to stay somewhat fit and I've hunted off of it quite bit. It's not a hardcore off road
bike but it gets the job done.

 

[sneaky]

I would be looking at a plus bike (3" wide tires), Plus bikes are 27.5 bikes, but made specifically for the wider taller tire. The tires are very very close to 29ers in diameter. Basically you get all the advantages of a 29 design, but with the advantages of a wider tire. For example, your stopping ability will be much better, you can air down and still carry heavy loads ...

That's what I have right now. Don't ride it as much as I should during warm weather, winter I have an indoor trainer lol. Limited on sale options for it because it's an XL frame

 

[Titan_Bow]

I bought a Salsa Timberjack a few years ago and love it. With a cheap little trailer, it works great for flat land turkey and deer hunting, and I take up on the spring for bear hunting. It’s great for getting way back in on closed logging roads.
It’s a 2.75 plus bike, as mentioned above. I would stick to one of the companies that focuses on bike packing, Salsa, Surly and others. They will have some really cool packs and panniers made just for your bike. Definitely go for the 1x10 or 1x11 drivetrain. It’s so much quieter than older multi front sprocket setups. Also convert to tubeless of it’s not already, otherwise you will be dealing with flat tires a lot.


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[Yoder]

One thing I would think about is what if any suspension you need. I bought a bike with front suspension and 99% of the time I don't need it. When you're peddling up hills it makes it suck just a little bit more. The shocks compress and you lose quite a bit of force that way. I'm going to rig up some PVC pipe to lock mine out when I'm on gravel roads.

 

[Titan_Bow]

One thing I would think about is what if any suspension you need. I bought a bike with front suspension and 99% of the time I don't need it. When you're peddling up hills it makes it suck just a little bit more. The shocks compress and you lose quite a bit of force that way. I'm going to rig up some PVC pipe to lock mine out when I'm on gravel roads.

A lot of shocks now come with a lock out feature for this reason. When I was shopping for a new bike all the ones I looked at had that feature


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[Yoder]

A lot of shocks now come with a lock out feature for this reason. When I was shopping for a new bike all the ones I looked at had that feature


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I'm just super cheap. I should have paid a little more, that would have been handy.

 

[Phaseolus]

One thing I would think about is what if any suspension you need. I bought a bike with front suspension and 99% of the time I don't need it. When you're peddling up hills it makes it suck just a little bit more. The shocks compress and you lose quite a bit of force that way. I'm going to rig up some PVC pipe to lock mine out when I'm on gravel roads.

A decent shock will have adjustments like high speed compression that should take out that bobbing. Have you checked the air pressure in your shock recently? It may be too low.

 

[V2Pnutrition]

Do yourself a favor and visit your local bike shop. They will have new and used bikes, help get the right size for you and they service what they sell.

I would recommend looking at a hard tail 29er for what you are describing. It’s a simple trail bike and comes in at various price points.

This is a great suggestion. Getting fitted and learning where your dollar is actually going can be tremendously helpful.

For example, one brand can have 5 versions of the same model. The differences between each may mean nothing to you (like a "nicer" front fork, for example). Others may mean the world (a 1x vs 3x drive train).

This is true of the Trek Marlin line. You can pick up a great entry level bike for $4-500 new. The same model jumps all the way up to well over $1K. An (honest) bike shop can you help you determine where you need to be.

 

[htlt_surfboards]

I went down this rabbit hole about two years ago. Wanted a bike I could ride around town or on gravel trails locally but also wanted to be able to ad pannier bags to take the bike hunting. I wound up with a trek 520. It is steel frame so on the heavy side but I can also put all my gear and a full deer quartered up on it and ride fire/gravel roads. I also got a second set of wheels in a 650b size so that I could get larger tires on the bike. Kept the original 700c wheel set and use those for road rides. Has a ton of gears so climbing hills fully weighted down isn't that bad. I would go with the recommended advice above and focus on bikes that are made for bike packing. Also I don't think suspension is needed. It makes the bike not as good for climbing hills in my experience and once the bike is fully weighted down your probably not going fast enough that you really need suspension. My buddy uses a surly disc trucker for similar purposes and likes that bike a lot.

 

[Fartrell Cluggins]

29 hardtail is hard to beat. A rear rack will give you some cargo capability. It'll pull a trailer too. Do NOT worry about brand. All manufacturers make good frames. The parts they hang on the frames are all pretty close in quality/performance at a given price point. With Trek and Specialized you generally get a little less than you would with a manufacturer like Giant. Bikes are especially good for scouting.