I live in Florida, and have started to love biking on trails both paved and unpaved quite a bit. I have a CannonDale Quick 5 Hybrid that I use for riding paved trails, and a junk mountain bike that I use for unpaved trails.

My questions are:
1) Would it be beneficial to purchase another set of rims/tires/tubes just to have for mountain biking? Swapping the wheels out on my Cannondale takes a grand total of 30 seconds, and doesn't even need a wrench.
I don't want to bend/risk bending my wheels that I use for paved trails. And I really don't think anything will happen to my frame out there.

2) Where is a good place to purchase a backpack for riding and/or a backpack that fits in my frame online?
Right now I'm just using my backpack for school and filling it with water bottles and food for when I go out mountain biking. I've considered a Camelbak but don't really know enough about them or their competition to make a decision.
The pack I want to attach to my frame would carry allan keys ( don't want something to come lose on the trails.. it's happened to me already ) , a spare tube or 2 ( my friends tire popped out there before and he was forced to run his bike back to the car. ), and whatever else might be needed.

3) I also would like to get a set of 120 psi tires/tubes for riding on paved trails, the set that came with the bike was 85 psi. I normally maintain at least 15mph over a 30 mile ride, in the beginning of the 30 miles I ussually don't go under 18mph though.
Would there be a big difference in my speed from the extra 35 psi?


By the way, the mountain biking trails that I ride on are beginner ones I'd assume because Florida doesn't have real mountains. They are pretty overgrown in some spots, though, with roots. in general, if you fall off the trail you're going to fall a couple of feet and then land in some gross water, lmao.

1) Depends on if youre aight with the frame geometry for offtrack riding and what type of riding you consider as unpaved trails
2) ChainReactionCycles, they have good prices too but you should always deal with your local bike shops and support them
3) You shouldnt even considering getting 120 psis, most of 120 psis tires are for road bikes, 85 is aldready fair enough for the kinda stock bike you have

As for those allen keys, some little portable tools sells at around 30 dollars with all the tools you need to repair a bike on place
As for the camelbaks, theyre great, most decent ones start selling at around 70$, the only bad point about them in my book is most of em only carry 2 liters of water and if you dont get a proptector for the tube you drink water from, it heats and the remains from last time you drank when you drink are disgusting, you usually spit the first time you drink some to only get fresh water
Good point about them tho is they are compact and have a better back support then the average back pack - school bag

1) Depends on if youre aight with the frame geometry for offtrack riding and what type of riding you consider as unpaved trails

The Unpaved trails are basically obstacle courses through woods, they are maybe like 2 feet wide at max, and are pretty overgrown with roots and sometimes have pockets of sugar sand.
Essentially I just want the mountain tires in order to be able to ride on my cannondale 24" wheels, as opposed to my Wal-Mart mountain bike 22" wheels.

2) ChainReactionCycles, they have good prices too but you should always deal with your local bike shops and support them

I'll look into the local shops, of course, but I was jwing what my other options are.

3) You shouldnt even considering getting 120 psis, most of 120 psis tires are for road bikes, 85 is aldready fair enough for the kinda stock bike you have

Mainly what I'm looking to get out of the 120 psi tires is a cheap performance upgrade, if it's worth it.There is a local bike shop that hosts group rides commonly ranging from 25-50 miles that i would like to start going on.
They ride like 2-4 mph faster on avg than I do [ depending on the length of the ride] . Of course over time I'll be able to build up to that level, but I think group rides would also help me to be able to reach that level.

As for those allen keys, some little portable tools sells at around 30 dollars with all the tools you need to repair a bike on place
As for the camelbaks, theyre great, most decent ones start selling at around 70$, the only bad point about them in my book is most of em only carry 2 liters of water and if you dont get a proptector for the tube you drink water from, it heats and the remains from last time you drank when you drink are disgusting, you usually spit the first time you drink some to only get fresh water
Good point about them tho is they are compact and have a better back support then the average back pack - school bag

I already have the allan keys, I usually just carry them in my backpack, but I would like to just always have them on my bike whenever they are needed.
As for the Camelbaks.. I usually carry around 1.5-2 liters with me when I ride, so it doesn't seem like that would be a cost-efficient upgrade to my riding gear. I'll look into it though.. who knows.

1) Get me a perspective shot of your bike so I can see the type of tires
2) Local shops all the way unless they really dont hold what you need
3) 2-4mph deosnt require tinnier tires, I ride faster then that with a single speed bike
4) You should be good getting a camelbak then, more ergonomic and what not plus its rather cheap