Viewing 12 posts - 81 through 92 (of 92 total)
  • How much easier is road riding than MTB?
  • fasthaggis
    Full Member

    I’ve yet to find a steep road that I cannot ride up on my road bike, even with several heavy miles in my legs already

    Yeah,it’s no bother on 34×36 😛 😉

    PimpmasterJazz
    Free Member

    As evidence, my mate rides mostly road with a little bit of mtb, I ride about 50/50 but with far less total riding. It’s hilly here on or off road (exmoor)

    On a road bike he is considerably faster than me, up and downhill by some margin. His fitness is better and that counts most plus he’s pretty fearless descending on road.

    On an mtb ride he’s as fast or faster than me on a fire road climb where fitness rather than mtb skills count. BUT include some technical climbing and some off road descending and he’s left for dead (like a minute slower on a 60 second descent) because his mtb bike handling skills are not good enough

    That would be my take on it too.

    I find road riding knackering, probably down to the consistent pedalling and reasonably static position. I also also find it really dull. However it does feel that it substantially benefits my MTBing.

    acidtest
    Free Member

    So when’s this race going to happen and can we watch it on redbull tv?

    stilltortoise
    Free Member

    But your effort level to walk up a steep off road climb is almost certainly less than grinding up a 25% tarmac ramp at 60rpm…

    The question was about riding, not walking and I suggested that something that makes you get off and walk is arguably harder. Getting off is “giving up”. All bets and comparisons are off at that point 😉

    molgrips
    Free Member

    I’ve yet to find a steep road that I cannot ride up on my road bike

    Depends on gearing, for me. I’ve got a few locally that are pretty close on 30/25… and as for 60rpm.. I’m down to about 25.

    Scienceofficer
    Free Member

    This should be easy to measure using a power meter and a fixed time and level of output.

    andyl46
    Free Member

    My 2p worth; it depends on what you weigh. I ride a lot of road, and a fair bit of MTB. I’m 205lbs, 6ft5 and I know my strengths are on the flat on a road bike where I am strong and can push on. Introduce hills, and my weight means I start going backwards. So for me, I’d take 100 flat road miles over the 30 hilly mtb miles. For someone carrying less weight, I’d imagine the equation may be reversed. I can hold my own for the first few hundred metres of a steep climb then the lightweight whippets disappear into the distance! Just had a look on garmin, 81km road ride, 950m climbing average 29kph. MBR trail at coed y brenin, 18km, 491m climbing, average an embarrassing 12.6kph. I’d do the road ride before 2 loops of the MBR route every day, far easier for me personally 🙂

    njee20
    Free Member

    The question was about riding, not walking and I suggested that something that makes you get off and walk is arguably harder. Getting off is “giving up”. All bets and comparisons are off at that point

    Well alright, there are 1 or 2 hills locally (Surrey Hills) that I find **** hard on the road bike, considering stopping for a rest hard. There aren’t really any on the MTB, except for one or two which are so steep that cleaning them is between marginal and incredibly unlikely. Therefore, in an average MTB ride I won’t encounter any hills I’ll find particularly difficult, whilst on the road it’s entirely possible I will, making road riding significantly harder.

    This is in part due to gearing differences, the same road hills are easy on an MTB with a 32-42 bottom gear. But because the MTB has that low gear climbing isn’t necessarily any harder, indeed I’d say it’s easier.

    This should be easy to measure using a power meter and a fixed time and level of output.

    Which will compare those two scenarios, on that day. Go back after heavy rain and the MTB ride will likely get harder, and thus the comparative measure changes. Ditto introducing a 50mph headwind on the road.

    I stand by my 0.62 conversion rate as a guide though!

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    Interesting thread

    Surely you’d want to pick a route each of you can ride in a similar time (maybe that is the 100 vs 30). As an aside my roadie mates are fitter as they tend to ride flat out without stops. I rarely ride more than 30 mins without stopping. Also roadies are obsessed with time, I’m out to enjoy the countryside and ride downhill trails for enjoyment not speed.

    ghostlymachine
    Free Member

    First time out i reckon it’ll be close, second time he’ll smash you to pieces……

    Thats my experience of roadies who’ve switched to mtb and the other way round. Basic mtb skills aren’t that hard to pick up, but fitness takes months and months.

    sirromj
    Full Member

    I swear to god right that there’s some people that ride for hours on their mountain bikes without stopping.. God… what is they do???… Ummm I think they pay to enter some sort of thingywotsit. Oh. I don’t know.

    What I mean is there seems to be a lot of characterization of road vs mtb. There’s nothing stopping you from riding with a consistent pace on the MTB other than technical trails – but technical trails aren’t they be-all and end-all of MTB. Actuall cross country is allowed, where you ride from a to b to c and back, and cover a large area rather than a small tightly packed area. Wind can have more impact on the MTB than road on a road bike (not that I have one).

    From my doorstep I’d say a 60 mile mostly off-road MTB ride with road links would be equivalent to 100 miles pure road.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    If I want to go out Solo I can do a 20-40km loop from the door with good 1000-1500m of climbing, sort of loop on your own you can hit at a good solid pace, stopped to take a pic or 2 and that was it. Plenty of technical trails in it just keep riding. Group times always vary.

    As for skills, it actually takes some to ride a road bike quickly, once the roads get twisty etc you need to be able to keep the pace up, being able to carry momentum also wins out.

    In general I could probably pick a route that would give me the win on a MTB by being a bit of a dick about it, much harder to do that on a road bike unless you put in a hugely demoralising section of flat headwind or rely on a killer final 1/3 for when plucky MTB rider has gone out a little hard.

    When it comes to races it’s easy to spot the “roadie does MTB” normally as you catch them up after a while and wonder why they are all track standing in the singletrack…. Others who ride both are some of the faster ones and generally bank the long cardio work with good tech skills to destroy the rest of us.

    Anyway just get on with it have your fun race and see what happens

Viewing 12 posts - 81 through 92 (of 92 total)

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