On the road, how much slower do you think a decent full suss mountain bike is compared to a decent road bike,assuming same rider? obviously there will be lots of variables, but in terms of an orders of magnitude, how much slower would a full suss bike be?

or to put it another way, if a person could sustain a 20mph average on a section of road on his decent road bike, what sort of average do you think he could sustain on the same section of road on his full suss mountain bike?

Depends on the bike and the tires, but I’d say a good third faster unless the MTB was set up for the road. And less fun too, but good for training.

Too many variables to be definitive. Slick tyres or knobolies? Specialized Epic-like or Big Hit-like? Lycra or baggies?

17mph

On a 10 mile commute,

Racing bike (an Allez) 30 minutes.

Specialized Globe hybrid 35 minutes

On one 456 40 minutes

Specialized enduro 45 minutes

on one single speed 50 minutes.

Three factors at play – rolling resistance, drag and weight.

A road bike has less rolling resistance due to wheel size and slick tyres; combined with a less upright riding position this means less energy is required to accelerate and maintain speed. Weight is less important on the flat, but does have influence going up hill (unless it’s really steep, in which case lower MTB gearing becomes a factor).

As above, I reckon on covering about 2/3 of the distance on my MTB for the same effort.

Andy

Days……. Slower

17.13 mph

what coolhandluke said, i was riding my rz120 to work for a while, it took me about 40 minutes or so, my allez i do it in about 20

Maybe not as slow as you think.

that compared a heavy road bike with alight one and not a MTB with a road bike
road faster by a long way. 1/3 ish?

Cheers all.

coolhandluke, exactly what I was looking for.

Just been out for a road ride on my mojo hd 160mm with strava running, but all the times are from people with road bikes so just wanted to introduce a bit of a handicap to see how I compared ish

Not full sus, but impressive nevertheless.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/mountain-biker-wins-road-race-on-his-hardtail-22736/

Just been out for a road ride on my mojo hd 160mm with strava running, but all the times are from people with road bikes

I’ve highlighted the bits in bold as the pointers.

Is this what bliddy Strava does to people?

1/3 is extreme.

I’ve ridden to Glentress from Edinburgh on an early Fuel with tubeless RRs, it wasn’t that slow.

Tootall , get over yourself. how very dare I ride a mountain bike on the road and compare myself to people on road bikes

I have only one bike, wanted to get out for 30 mins exercise and thought it would be interesting to see where I stood in the times,and roughly where I might have been if I had been on a more appropriate bike.

In the interests of science… I’ve got a one mile, 300 foot tarmac climb that goes straight from my front door. Takes me exactly one minute longer on the downhill bike than on the road bike- the major difference being that on the road bike, it’s the start of a 20 mile lap, and on the downhill bike it’s the start of saying I AM NEVER DOING THAT EVER AGAIN.

best time to work on the MTB (Scott Genius with RRs on) is about 35 mins, 23 mins is my best time on the road bike which is a cheap Evans special.

It’s about 6.3 miles.

Coolhandluke is not far off the mark. I ride a Cotic Soul with full knobblies and 1 x 9 on canal toe paths for 13 miles each way and it takes me 45 to 50 minutes each way. with better fitness in a month or so i recon i could take 5 minutes off those times.

I would say hugely. We used to ride slicked up mtbs and be pretty even.
When I briefly owned a road bike I had to keep stopping to wait for my mate to catch up.

I’m 5 mins quicker on road bike than full suss 29er with nobblies over about 5 miles

Surly Moonlander adds a whole new angle, chased a roadie on my commute last week and kept up until he found extra beans through fear of my tyre noise.

I reckon 1/3 is overstating it massively. 10-20% I reckon, again though depending what the bikes are.

Just been out for a road ride on my mojo hd 160mm with strava running, but all the times are from people with road bikes so just wanted to introduce a bit of a handicap to see how I compared ish

So how did you compare when you uploaded your ride?

Full sus was 8.5mph faster*

(top speed coming down the Keswick side of Newlands)

But definitive enough for here!

Depends on a multitude of things…you don’t notice extra weight much on the road and tyre pressures make a huge difference to roll resistance.

Try doing a one mile road climb on an MTB with 2.3″ Kenda SB8s running 38psi. Then try using the same tyres with 70psi. A road runs much narrower tyres at 120psi.

The geometry comes into play too.

On the flipside, can someone please tell me why my 8 year old Spesh Enduro on 2″ wide tyres is a whole order of magnitude faster downhill than my Wolf Ridge running soft tyres and 160mm forks?

If your spinning out a 42-11 on a mtb your certainly shifting a bit, but its the energy your expending to keep it up. Like doing 85mph in a Landrover, it will do it but by heck would it use some fuel to keep it there for long.
My road bike is an old Cougar & maintaining speed just seems pretty effortless. I recall riding back along the A6 once, on my old SWorks Enduro. Did 7 miles but it felt like 17 on a roadbike.

I stupidly rode my Nomad to work as I wanted to try an offroad route home once.

Just over 24k, I can do it in around 45 mins on the road bike. Took me an 1h12m on the Nomad & I was wrecked. It was so much harder to carry any sort of pace at all.

However that’s 2.3 knobbly tyres, 160mm travel, flat pedals, etc.

I was in the bottom 10% , whereas usually on off road uphill segments I’d be around the middle.

On a triathlon I did a couple of years in a row on the same course the times for the cycle leg on a road bike vs. my mtb with 1.25″ slicks on where within a minute of each other. It was quite a hilly course though

you don’t notice extra weight much on the road

What? My winter road bike weighs 5lbs more than my summer one, and feels awful in comparison! Particularly uphill! I’d say you notice it just as much if not more. Admittedly my FS MTB fits in between and is still slower than my winter road bike on the road, but even so…

Commuted on my anthem for month then picked up a cannondale bad boy, took about 5mins off my 8 mile commute straight away.

I’ve done a number of time trials on the old Spesh FSR set to full bounce mode and 2.1 Razors.

Last one was this 10 miler. I’m usually 6 mins or so quicker on the TT wagon on this course.

I know for me personally that a road bike feels more efficient and I actually think its a better position for riding so you are less fatigued.

After 1 hour riding flat out on the mtb I would be more knackered than riding flat out on the road bike.. although a lot of that might be psychological.

On my commute to work, if i use my full sus then the average speed at any given point (ie look down at the speedo) is 2 mph ish slower. This is over a 15 mile commuteand equates to about 5 mins or so at the end.

Racing bike (an Allez) 30 minutes.
Specialized Globe hybrid 35 minutes
On one 456 40 minutes
Specialized enduro 45 minutes
on one single speed 50 minutes.

those times seem awfully well rounded, were you using laser timing?

Pretty sure you could beat a roadie on a FS if you put the effort in, how much less efficient are they tho? Lots would be my guess

After 1 hour riding flat out on the mtb I would be more knackered than riding flat out on the road bike.. although a lot of that might be psychological.

Surely if you where riding “flat out” you would be equally knackered on both bikes, but probably traveled further on the road bike 😉

“Surely if you where riding “flat out” you would be equally knackered on both bikes, but probably traveled further on the road bike”

Ah but your more pyschologicaly knackered on the mtb too, as your constantly fighting all that in-efficiency

I know for me personally that a road bike feels more efficient…

I ride a hartail setup for the road with a big chainset and semi-slicks – haven’t quite ventured over to the darkside yet. And even on this setup, I’d say that statement is very true.

The figures don’t inspire me much. I can ride the 10 miles to work on my trail bike, and it doesn’t make any dramatic difference in time. But the experiences are poles apart. Once you get used to the slicks, a set of knobblies anywhere but proper off-road feel horribly inefficient.

7 slower

Once you get used to the slicks, a set of knobblies anywhere but proper off-road feel horribly inefficient.

now add in bigger wheels, skinnier tyres, better aero and pedalling position. Feels LOTS better/easier, actual speed v effort is gonna be tricky without a powermeter and controlled conditions.