Discuss…

never ridden an SS, but road is great for a workout and maintaining a high heart rate… i can sit at higher BPM on the road than i can maintain on the MTB that’s for sure.

Best workout for what?

mauja – Member
Best workout for what?

General atheletic improvement.

road – you just keep pedalling.

If, however, you’re using this as justification for a new bike then SS as you already have a road bike.

I race on a SS mtb, and do lots of fitness work on a geared road bike. Not sure if that really answers the question though.

Road allows you to control the effort far more easily, ie the potential is there to get greatest benefit for least time. Riding on the road means your body takes less of a battering.

But like so many things, riding doesn’t make you a good runner, all excercise gets you good at doing that activity and may or may not help with others.

wwaswas – Member
If, however, you’re using this as justification for a new bike then SS as you already have a road bike.

I already have a SS bike too. 🙂

then you surely know the answer?

tracknicko, I’ve only ridden the SS 3 times, its new to me. And have not researched the answer, I’m just generally interested in the answers to the OP.

assuming you’ve ridden your road bike more than three times then you know the answer.

if you want a structured workout that will actually have some fitness benefit in the long run then road bike

if you want some sort of interval session based entirely on what hills are in the way then ride a SS, the benefit of which will be making you very good at riding a SS up hills

I felt SS improved my strength and the road bike improved my overall fitness
HTH 🙂

Swavis +1

SS for the short hard bursts for hills = Strength
Road for longer controlled sustained effort = general over all fitness

Which would be better for losing weight? I have it in my head that the more rapid rotational forces involved in singlespeeding on the downhill and flat would help to move fat cells to the extremities of the body where they would then be expelled by gravity?

Some of that though, I suppose, could be affected by the tightness of your Lycra inhibiting the movement of the fat cells within the body. So I guess it would be a combination thing. Hence why Tour riders tend to use very tight Lycra to maintain weight over a long race maybe.

SS + road = best of both worlds!

Road bike for LSD (Long Steady Distance) – steady heart rate – around 60 -70% Max HR
Rigid SS – for pedalling technique and strength – also useful for general trail technique and keeping it real with steel
Full suss – for blatting round the same trail as the SS but much faster – with a stupid grin

So both useful for training in different ways

Road. Fitness improvements are huge.

Depends on what you want to get good at?

Off road SS is probably the least usefull wy to train for a road race whilst still being on something bike shaped (I imagine it’d be pretty good for track sprinters though). I suppose if you were going to use both at some point you’d do a winter on the road then ‘taper’ with the SS as by definition almost SS gives you the shorter/harder intervals. I like SS as unlike turbo sessions, sufferfest or even spinning class you can’t hide or sit out an interval, you’re keeping up with the guy infront and you’re stuck in that gear.

BMX

Neither is ‘best’, but if you only had one for fitness gains I’d pick a road bike. Bit dull for riding exclusively tho. Road and SS mtb do complement each other and I’ve become a better road climber since having a SS mtb.
I find long road rides at a higher pace and shorter SS blasts with plenty of short sharp climbs work well together. Flat SS pootles on a monday after long road miles on sunday, that kind of thing too. I also use the SS and a geared mtb for long endurance rides, the main aim of the road and short SS mtb rides is to go a bit faster for a lot longer on any bike, not to be a cat 2 or XC racer.

Road riding will make you a fitter cycllist ‘overall’ SS will make you fitter for SS

Is generally true….

However SS will teach you loads about grunt, balance, detirmination, you own limits in a way that road bikes ‘generally’ won’t. And arguably it’s more fun 🙂