On the odd occassion I have to do a road climb or two and whenever I do I watch in shame as various road bikes leave me in the dust.

Is it easier to climb on a road bike or are these guys just that much fitter than me?

Obviously I have never ridden a racer (really, not ever).

road bikes in ‘faster on road than mountain bikes’ shocker.

Is it easier to climb on a road bike or are these guys just that much fitter than me?

Yes.

Technically easier maybe, but gearing will be harder.

They may not be any fitter, but could have a stronger core and legs.

If you are heavy then you’ll get left in the dust.

They don’t have the option to go as slow as you?

I am heavy but I’m an OK climber in a sort of winch my way to the top kind of way.

I figured that although they have less friction they also have harder gears to push so it would even out, looks like I’ll just have to get fitter. I might add that they also seem to leave the best climbers in the MTB group behind too.

I am heavy

theres half your problem. Drop some weight and you’ll be instantly faster.

Yes road bikes are faster, and have a better position for climbing on the road, if setup properly anyway.

The exact same dumb question got asked last week as well.

They don’t have the option to go as slow as you?

This, I find I’ll slowly drop to the lowest ratio climbing on a mountain bike, that ratio is higher on a road bike. Couple that with a lighter bike, massively lower rolling resistance and many roadies different approach to riding and they will elave you in the dust.

Sundayjumper – Who stuck a corn cob up your butt? Jesus, sorry for not reading every thread ever posted.

I’m slow up hills on a mountain bike. I’m also slow on a road bike but my god, do I suffer more!!

Sundayjumper – Member

The exact same dumb question got asked last week as well.

apologies for asking the questing, i forgot doing mtb’ing means i know absolutly everything about cycling in general – sorry for the dumb question..

PR**K

If you are heavy then you’ll get left in the dust.

This is where I suffer … i can keep up on the flat well, descent quicker than a lot of the group, but just cant keep up on the hills compared to the lighter guys.

I figured that although they have less friction they also have harder gears to push so it would even out, looks like I’ll just have to get fitter. I might add that they also seem to leave the best climbers in the MTB group behind too.

Why would harder gears even it out? all that happens is you get stronger because you are using bigger gears. Alot of MTBers have this habit of dropping down through the gears rather than suffering and pushing a bigger gear. Climbing hurts, embrace the pain, you will get faster.

Geometry has a large part to play too. My commute involves a very long but not outrageously steep climb and I generally swap between my AM or XC bike. The XC bike’s longer top tube and steeper seat angle make it easy for me to get my weight in the right place AND breathe. My AM bike has an RP3 and thus is much less bob prone but it’s flippin’ hard work on a long road climb.

And yes, I’m almost always pwned by road bikes on that climb. But then I descend three flights of steps to get to my train, which is something a road bike categorically cannot do… reliably.

I think if they are regular roadies they will be used to pushing a bigger gear up hill, they have no option. Hence they are fitter / have to go faster otherwise they would stall in the their bigger “easiest” gear.

I find that biking offroad only leads to an inability to anything other than spin wildly up hills.

I don’t really see why a lighter, more aerodynamic bike with narrower, faster tyres with less rolling resistance should go faster on the road than a much heavier one, with poorer aerodynamics and fatter, heavier tyres with higher rolling resistance.

Surely the porky, slow rolling bike would be faster? Particularly uphill where the mountain bike with its lower gearing will cover less ground with each pedal stroke.

Am I missing something?

If the mtber has knobbly tyres then surely the answer is obvious? A decent hardtail on the right slicks would climb well enough.

If you’ve got your suspension locked out/set up right/it’s not bobbing and it’s not over like 30% and wet and leafy then geometry has nothing to do with it really.

Some of it is down to the fact that most mtbs weigh a bit more (although relative to the riders this doesn’t make a huge difference).

A large part of it is just the tyre choice. Big, 2.2″ knobblys at low pressures don’t roll as well as 23c gp4000s.

However, fitness is the main thing.

It’s a rule that on a road bike on a hill if you see a mountain bike in front of you you have to blast past making it look as effortless as possible even if your blowing out your arse 😀

Road bikes are easier to climb faster on than mtb’s

Most (not all ) mtb riders I see change down far too easily rather than pushing on a harder gear building strength and power.

If you want to climb stronger/faster
Climb lots of hills
Get lighter
If you don’t want a road bike get a ss mtb

Easy 🙂

Passed a roadie going up Churwell hill in Leeds yesterday on my singlespeed (42/16) mtb with 1.95 slicks. It’s a brilliant climber, I think mostly because it’s quite light.

It’s a combination of frame design, wheels and tyres, gearing, weight and rider fitness.

We all know that a road bike is faster but even a change of wheels makes a difference – mine came with some bog standard Shimano wheels but fitting a pair of Mavic Ksyrium SLs, which are very stiff, light wheels has made climbing more efficient. Dunno about speed but climbing certainly feels easier.

My chainset is a compact, my lowest gear is a 34/27, quite a lot faster up a hill than my MTB with something like 24/32.

Since taking up road riding (after 22 years of mountain biking) my weight has dropped from 75 to 70 kilos, which makes a huge difference on hills.

My resting heart rate has dropped from 52 to 48. I am certainly faster on the mountain bike now.

On the road bike a short hill doesn’t seem very significant; you simply blast up it losing as little momentum as possible whereas on the MTB you lose that speed very soon, drop to middle or granny ring, sit back and plod up the hill. On long steep hills getting out of the saddle takes you a lot further per pedal stroke than on the MTB, which feels so heavy and ponderous that you might as well be dragging an old car tyre behind you.

you could just stay in a higher gear on the mtb.. you don’t _have_ to use the weakling gears

‘I climb well for my weight’ 😉

Riding uphills is probably the most definitivly honest athletic endeavor. No hiding. Its hard.