Looking for thoughts on a bike that my wife is considering – https://bikes.com/en-intl/products/growler-20-22-23 (Rocky Mountain Growler).
We both have done a significant amount of long-distance backpacking (thru hiking) and want to dip our legs into bikepacking. She also wants this bike for tooling around and general use. The bikepacking trips that appeal to us most are off jeep trail, gravel road, single track, off pavement.
A few things that we have been looking for in a bike for her:
- Front suspension (She is not interested in challenging single track, but she knows she wants a hardtail)
- Rims that convert to tubeless (Will be doing some riding in the southwest)
- Hydraulic brakes (Her current errand runner is cable, and I think she will dig the hydraulic)
- 11-46T or greater than 46T (Our understanding is that the higher the second number is, the lower the gear what can get into)
- Seatpost dropper – I realize that I could install an aftermarket post. (She has not had one, but sees how much I use mine both on single track and even around town, and wants one).
I've been trying to understand what makes for a good bike.
She is not crazy about dropbars and is likely be inclined to put on some bars like those below for a lot of hand positions. This was the bike of a GDMBR'r that we met when we were hiking the Continental Divide Trail in 2021.
Is there a reason that we should not be considering this Rocky Mountain Bike, or is well suited enough to try some trips with?
by theLongDistanceHiker
2 Comments
The Norco Torrent has some rear eyelets for gear mounts if that is something you would consider an asset. Otherwise pretty much any 130-140 hardtail should be more than enough to do what you’ve described. Rocky Mtn Growler, Marin San Quentin or Team Marin depending on how slack of a geometry you want… pretty hard to find a bike in that travel range that wouldn’t fit your needs…
Just a tips, front suspension is usually called an hardtail mtb, fs means full suspension, both front and back.