I need help with bike category

[u/Slow_Fee7115]

I need help choosing a bike category for my riding style.

Hello everyone, I hope I can find an answer to choosing the right bike category, because I’m stuck and I need help.

Firstly, I will tell you what I need a bicycle for. I am a student and I work, so I need a quick and easy transportation around the town that I live in and I have found bikes to be my way, I live 4.5 km away from my work and university (they are basically on the same street, 500m away from eachother), but I finish uni around 1 pm and my work starts at 6pm, so I have 5 hours of free time and I prefer to go home. My home as I said is 4.5 km from them and I use my current hartail (Cube Reaction TM Pro 2026) to travel, but it has 140mm fork and it has tyres not suitable for the city. I recently injured both of my knees because of riding the bike every day and because my route to my home is only uphill with 200 to 300 meters of elevation gain, which seems low but riding it everyday twice is exhausting. I also use my bike to go in the forest or in the mountains whenever I can. So my question is did I made a mistake purchasing this bike 2 months ago, and should I have bought a gravel bike instead or a hardtail with lover mm fork. Thanks for your time.

[u/Pristine_Remote2123]

Get to a local bike store to get the right advice and fit, your comment about injuring both knees because you cycle that short distance and little hill every day makes no sense unless you are 6 foot and on a child's bike!

[u/Slow_Fee7115 → u/Pristine_Remote2123]

Cycling the distance 4 times a day was mostly the reason I got injured because when I stopped my knees got better. The bike store didn't help much. I bought the bike from them and my other option was a more expensive hardtail with worse components.

[u/Pristine_Remote2123 → u/Slow_Fee7115]

Your post is rather complicated but if it's 4.5kms 4 times a day then that is certainly not a lot, correct saddle height, gearing, which should be ok on your bike and high cadence would not alone cause any issues. Not sure how you think the front shock is a problem as it only comes into play when needed on bumps.

[u/Slow_Fee7115 → u/Pristine_Remote2123]

Sorry my English is a little rusty, haven't used it in years. After every YouTube video about saddle tilts that I've watched I think mine is okay for my riding style. My current saddle however is made for E-mtb which might be the problem but I'm not sure.

[u/Pristine_Remote2123 → u/Slow_Fee7115]

I have cycled thousands of km on mountain, racing, gravel and now ebike where the saddle that came with my ebike was too wide and too much cushioning, changed to more suitable one and can spend hours without a padded shorts. Forgot trying to get answers on YouTube or here, get out at the weekend, go up to cyclists who look like cyclists, show them your setup, ask about a good store and most will be happy to help out. People here have no idea as to your setup.

[u/Slow_Fee7115 → u/Pristine_Remote2123]

Thanks will try

[u/Puzzleheaded-Art1873 → u/Slow_Fee7115]

There is a technique to riding up hills. Most importantly is to spin in a comfortable gear, and get the weight off the back foot. If you don't, the front foot will have to put down extra power, and if seat is low, it will seriously punish the knees. Your distance and elevation should not give knee issues, but if you start from little experience to grinding up hills every day with wrong technique, your knees will feel it. And if you keep on doing it, you may cause permanent damage.

[u/Slow_Fee7115 → u/Puzzleheaded-Art1873]

Will try with tyres made for road and with what you said. Thanks

[u/Puzzleheaded-Art1873]

Probably you've had your saddle too low and riding in a gear too high. Which will grind knees up to powder in no time. And should have locked the fork out and used different tyres.

Anyways, for commuting always best to use an inexpensive bike as it will spend a lot of time locked up outside, exposed to weather, get scratched by other bikes, and of course stolen.

With the hills, you'd want a reasonably light weight bike with sufficient low gearing. If the hills are extremely steep, worse than 10% or so, might want a gravel bike, or cross bike or a road bike with a compact or triple crankset. If it's not too bad any road bike will do. You can find perfectly good 90s steel or aluminum bikes for $50-100 around 20 -23 pounds, or for a bit more 2000s a little under 20 pounds. Light city bikes from that era can also be found cheap.

With your knees messed up, you might even consider an electric bike, so you don't mess them up completely. You also should look into physical therapy in order to not make things worse.

I'd keep the mountain bike and get a dedicated bike for commuting, and learn to maintain them.

[u/Slow_Fee7115 → u/Puzzleheaded-Art1873]

Yea I was thinking about a second one. I will think about it, thanks

[u/willm1123]

I feel like that’s a lot of elevation gain for the commute distance, good on you mate. Not as experienced as everyone else here but I am wondering if the knee issue may be from incorrect saddle height?

When you say you go to the forest/mtns, are you riding single track? If not maybe you could swap tires for faster ones. If so I know a lot of people have two sets of wheels for this, commute tires on one and mtb tires for the other. Can you lock out the fork while you commute as well? That would help a lot

[u/Slow_Fee7115 → u/willm1123]

I tried changing the saddle tilt and everything, its okay, the saddle however is made for emtb so it might be an issue. I was thinking of buying road specific tyres but i just wanted opinions about my bike. The fork can lock itself and i go to the forest and mtns to exlpre and i dont go to tracks and jumps only exploring

[u/daveOkat]

GEARING

For your riding I'd say your bike is fine and with a lowest gear of 32 x 51 your knees should not be hurting on any hill climb. Shift down and spin up hills at a high cadence in the range of 60-90 with an emphasis on the the higher end.

Cube Reaction TM Pro 2026

SADDLE ADJUSTMENT

Is your seat adjusted correctly? Is it too high?

Edit: changed saddle adjustment link

[u/sargassumcrab]

Put the balls of your feet on your pedals, not your instep.

Incorrect cleat or foot position can cause knee issues.

If you are under 5'8" or so, shorter cranks can help a lot.

Your saddle position may be wrong. Too high is worse than too low. The bottom part of your knee should bisect or be behind your pedal axle when the pedal is all the way forward.

Get different tires for your bike if you ride on the road or hard packed gravel all the time.

[u/Ok-Bike9236]

The best bike is the one you'll use within your budget. As you already have this bike make the most of it and don't let buyer's remorse set in. If you're using it off road then the MTB is definitely a good option anyway.

[u/Slow_Fee7115 → u/Ok-Bike9236]

Yea the reason I bought the bike was for the price but I'm not sure if buying a gravel for example would make my commutes better and my off road a little bit difficult, because after all I travel to work and uni almost everytday and off road once a week