Borrowed a road bike for a 35mile spin around Skiddaw
Bl00dy h3ll, it’s fast! Going to get me one!

But how on earth do you cope on skinny tyres, and with drop-bars when charging down a really steep, twisty, bumpy road with blind bends? Really missed slack-angles, wide bars, fat tyres and big brakes! Hat goes off to the Pros charging down the Alps.

how on earth do you cope on skinny tyres, and with drop-bars when charging down a really steep, twisty, bumpy road with blind bends

badly, in my case.

best bet is like the mtb, keep your weight on the outside pedal but, unlike the mtb lean the bike right over and, on a dry road, trust the tyres to maintain their grip.

oh, and remember you’re on the road and that there could be anythign around that blind bend…

Always thought you can’t really appreciate the tour until you try riding up a mountain, or sprinting in a bunch.

Also,

http://www.velominati.com/blog/the-rules/

Everything else you will get used to fairly quickly.

on a dry road

It was wet, gravelly and full of pot-holes.
Really scary, and frustrating not to be able to keep the speed up to get up the other side.
I guess route-planning and conditions come into road-riding too…

wet, gravelly and full of pot-holes

‘Gingerly’ would be my advice for descending then.

Borrowed a road bike for a 35mile spin around Skiddaw
Bl00dy h3ll, it’s fast!…

…But how on earth do you cope on skinny tyres, and with drop-bars when charging down a really steep, twisty, bumpy road with blind bends? Really missed slack-angles, wide bars, fat tyres and big brakes!…

if you do get one, once it’s ‘yours’ and you’ve set it up how you like it (which may not be the same as ‘comfiest’), it’ll be a lot less weird.

‘Gingerly’ would be my advice for descending then.

Yeah, +1. Wet + gravel + pot holes = crashes. Take it easy on stuff like that. Remember the descents in the tour are nearly all perfectly tarmacked recently, smooth as anything, not particularly steep, and mostly in the dry. So don’t expect to be doing similar speeds.

descend on the hoods rather than the drops?

I guess route-planning and conditions come into road-riding too…

Yep. Unless you’re talking about the A66, the roads around Skiddaw aren’t the best for “charging” around on. In fact I can’t think of many places in the Lakes where you can really let it go on the descents, the roads are generally just too steep, narrow and blind. Whinlatter is pretty good, though.

I posted this on a local forum back in the spring;

Havent ridden a road bike for 20 yrs. Recently borrowed one, and went out with Munqe Chick today for a 50 miler. Well, that’s saved me a grand. WTF do people see in road riding? Maybe I have too short an attention span but theres none of the pay-off for all of the effort. The act of riding itself is boring, theres no skill or technique at taking a bend slower than I can on a 500lb motorbike,so there’s no mental stimulation to distract from thinking “this bike is uncomfortable”, “I hurt”, “I’m hungry” “f*ck me this is tedious”…theres no reward from conquering a climb as any thrilling speed on the down is lost to headwind. You expend all your energy slogging into wind as youre more exposed than you are on tree lined singletrack and travelling at higher speed (drag goes with V squared, so power needed to overcome drag goes with V cubed, and yes you have time to think about this sh1t).
And this is before you end up on some busy A-road microns away from articulated death.

Now I know why I went 20yrs without riding a road bike. Funnily enough the roadie mate we broke on the “jalopy” seems to essentially agree, as he cant get to grips with mountain biking as theres too much happening too quickly and no time to switch off.

I used to describe myself as a cyclist. I’m not. I’m a mountain biker.

Egg on face punchline?- since posting that I recently bought this 😳

Nice one crashtestmonkey – I got my first proper road bike this year and love it. I Don’t really get the negatives you listed there, you obviously weren’t trying hard enough 🙂 I wish I’d got one years ago!

Colour scheme goes with the last line of your post too 😆

it was posted after a 5hr ride from hell. Had other more positive experiences since! I’ve bought a non-baggy jersey and non-peaked lid, but at the frustration of my road-biased mate persist in using my MTB SPD pedals and shoes (even left the studs on) and my legs are a Bic-No-Go Zone.

Started to do more road miles on my hybrid in the last few weeks. Got up to 50-60 miles around the trough of bowland in Lancashire and have to agree with crashtestmonkey, god its so boring!. I only do it so I can improve my fitness so to enjoy my mountain biking more.

my legs are a Bic-No-Go Zone

I’m getting Bic curious but I’m scared the wrath it may invoke!

Hmmmm tarmac

I’d say if you’re not enjoying it, you’re on the wrong roads. I wouldn’t consider riding on busy roads into headwinds etc. I was amazed how efficient it was. Going uphill without half your energy sinking into suspension and big soft tyres. Really like the idea of being able to churn out a hundred miles in one go (relatively easily compared to say the K100) and see the world from a saddle.

Descent in question is here heading south-west.

descend on the hoods rather than the drops

Is that the done thing? Feels more comfortable (I barely used the drops) but doesn’t feel like have the same braking power and control

I think it’s a completely different discipline and I get a completely different sense of satisfaction from it. I completely disagree that cornering and descending are dull – the higher speeds make for a real adrenalin buzz, and there’s no greater feeling of satisfaction than absolutely nailing a bend, inch-perfect at 60mph.

Rather than concentrating on control and crash avoidance – as you would on a mountain bike – you start to think about things like road position, cornering precision, and how to eek out a few extra mph.

You start to see your body more as an engine too, and work out exactly how much power you can put down before you hit threshold or bonk.

And I think you can learn an awful lot that can carry over and improve your off road riding.

Most of my road decents are 8-12km long, full of hairpins and up to 55mph – hands on hoods are fine if you have the brakes set up properly

I really enjoy riding on the road as a change. It’s taken the best part of 500 miles to get comfortable on the bike and with the change in speeds/handling. The speed was one of the hardest things to be honest and letting go of the brakes on some descents was really difficult at first as it feels wrong to be doing 50mph+ without only a bit of lycra for protection against the road.