Mate lent me his spare road bike to try before deciding if I wanted to buy one
So had first ride last night .
First impressions were a bit strange .
loads easier to pedal along and faster also than the MTB so surly this must mean less of a workout for the same miles covered than the mountain bike .

it also tried to kill me with useless brakes the first down hill where I normally brake late with the mtb and throw it round the tight right hander applied the rim rubbing devices at the same time as normal and then crapped as speed took me on to the verge .

forearms now stiff and aching from the bars , Back aching also

higher gearing than the mtb so harder up hills ( better workout )
slower down hills as braking earlier and no trust in the tyres tiny contact patch and no desire to find its limits .

all in I strangely enjoyed the experience and will give it another shot tonight rain permitting

loads easier to pedal along and faster also than the MTB so surly this must mean less of a workout for the same miles covered than the mountain bike .

But for the same time you travel far further.

it also tried to kill me with useless brakes the first down hill where I normally brake late with the mtb and throw it round the tight right hander applied the rim rubbing devices at the same time as normal and then crapped as speed took me on to the verge .

You get used to it,

higher gearing than the mtb so harder up hills ( better workout )
slower down hills as braking earlier and no trust in the tyres tiny contact patch and no desire to find its limits .

Road bikes are far faster downhill, it really is how big are your balls, mid 40’s mph is going some on a mtb, it isn’t difficult to get to 50mph and over 60mph on a road bike on the right hill. There is far more grip than you think there is. Just avoid the road markings, tar bands, man hole covers, etc!

What mrmo says, road bikes are generally a lot faster downhill. And there’s something really satisfying about stringing together a load of curves on a nice smooth bit of tarmac. You just need to get used to it. One thing you need to do: get your weight over the front wheel, don’t try and hang off the back like you would on a mountain bike.

As the posture’s different your core/back needs a bit of time to break in to the shape. With regards to achy arms, unless it’s really lumpy around where you’re riding you may need to be more core than arm supported.

If you do cross over to the dark side, make sure you get fitted or get nerdy and read a lot about how it should fit. If you train based on time instead of distance you can have a decent workout to negate the efficiency.

It’s odd how well the tyres work, unless it’s a sudden stop in the wet…then not so much! As mrmo said, you get used to it and pretty soon.

How similar in size to your mate are you? What was the bike?

Yep I realise its different hense the aches and may need to do some position tweaking .
Mate is 1 inch shorter than me .

bikes a Trek pilot 1.0

Enjoy riding your bike without getting (too) dirty 😉

In the dry road brakes should be pretty good. Certainly good enough to lift the rear wheel if you are on the drops.

Hi Trout.

Road cycling is great, pity though we’re not having better weather this summer. I’ve some set-up material, I’ll get it on an e-mail to you. If you take to it, but want better braking, perhaps consider a CX bike with cable disc brakes ?.

Cheers James
saw a few bikes with disks and wondered how good they are

this must mean less of a workout for the same miles covered than the mountain bike .

Much like any sport (including mountain biking), you get as much as you put in. Road riding can be an effortless cruise – and it’s certainly easier to cruise on a road ride than off road – but put some beans into it and you’ll get as good a work out as you will ever need. I generally feel much more exercised for an hour on the road bike than an hour on the MTB.

thing with a road bike is that there’s rarely an excuse to stop pedaling for a bit.

Road riding is much better training than mountain biking for the simple reason that you don’t stop at the tops of hills, fall off, mess around, admire the view and fix punctures and breakdowns. You can just ride your balls off for an hour or two and come home absolutely shelled. Riding with a mate of similar fitness makes it even better.

Go and buy a little book called The Escape Artist by Matt Seaton, it only takes a couple of hours to read and it will give you a good insight into the allure of road riding as well as some of the lore and traditions of the sport. It also has a shocking twist at the end but I’m not going to spoil that for you.

loads easier to pedal along and faster also than the MTB so surly this must mean less of a workout for the same miles covered than the mountain bike .

No, I find that it makes me work harder if anything. When riding the mtb I just get sick of it being draggy, slow and shit so I usually don’t bother putting as much effort in. With the road bike it feels like nothing is holding you back so you feel more motivated to push harder. Just my experience but I’m sure I’ve read others saying the same.

loads easier to pedal along and faster also than the MTB so surly this must mean less of a workout for the same miles covered than the mountain bike .

You just ride further and faster in the same time, On a MTB you spend about 1/3 of th time doing usefull training in a usefull HR zone. On a road bike this can be 2/3rds, on a turbo it can be 100%. The downside of this is you have to do interval sessions on the road if youre doing it for training, whereas on an MTB you tend to do somethign pretty similar naturaly.

it also tried to kill me with useless brakes the first down hill where I normally brake late with the mtb and throw it round the tight right hander applied the rim rubbing devices at the same time as normal and then crapped as speed took me on to the verge .

They’re not that bad, and theres a lot more cornering grip than you imagine, you just have to learn to trust the bike and pick lines like you do on the MTB (outside inside outice, avoid anything that isn’t pristine tarmac).

forearms now stiff and aching from the bars , Back aching also

Whats the position like, you should keep your elbows bent if nececary raise the bars to achieve this. Otherwise you’ll get roadies elbow (like tennis and golfers elbow at the same time, and a lot more painfull).

higher gearing than the mtb so harder up hills ( better workout )

Depends on the gears/hill/rider, but buy a HR monitor and learn what your zones are, and if you cant stick to them with the current gears considder a compact or tripple chainset.

saw a few bikes with disks and wondered how good they are

No better than good rim brakes IME, I can lock both wheels on dry tarmac if I’m feelig brave.

The point of road bikes is to go fast and keep going anyway, so the “bad brakes” argument is stupid. And they’re not even that bad. You don’t need to lock your wheels and can get away with going faster round corners than you’d think.

No need to brake earlier, just lean it over further.
Re posture – maybe consider flipping the stem over while you get used to it?

Road vs MTB is a bit ying/yang – it’s the same thing, but different.

IMO also the training is very complimentary, MTB is great for short fast bursts of power (up banks and so on), and bike handling. Road is excellent for getting in the groove and powering on for long periods. Add these together and you have a strong rider.

_tom_ – Member
When riding the mtb I just get sick of it being draggy, slow and shit so I usually don’t bother putting as much effort in. With the road bike it feels like nothing is holding you back so you feel more motivated to push harder. Just my experience but I’m sure I’ve read others saying the same.

Same thoughts here too.
Last weekend I did a 3hr mtb ride with some mates. Good ride etc .. but when I got back home I just didn` t feel as if I had a good workout.
So a bit to eat and went back out on the road bike for a quick hour .. pushed hard on some strava segments … and had that post-workout glowy feeling by time I got home.
The mtb tends to be a social ride plod thing nowadays .. but the roady gives me far more enjoyment solo or riding in a good group.

looking at the pics, it’s quite bum up head down for first foray into road riding – you would be more comfy with something a bit bigger, or flipped stem

Problem with road biking is that its bloody boring.

The only times I have found it remotely enjoyable is when I was close to dieing.

The best time was when I hit a big roundabout (in Tamworth by Sainsbury’s) at about 25-30mph racing the cars round and I managed to find the limit of the tyres. Luckily I managed to powerslide the bike round rather than fall off but it was bloody scary. I got rid of it not long after that, MTB is much more fun and trees don’t move about on the trails.

I would much rather get my exhilaration from a bit or reasonably safe DH than going out and playing with the traffic. If your just plodding along on a road bike its safe bot boring, plodding on an mtb and its still interesting because the trail isn’t a 30ft wide bit of tarmac.

Go and buy a little book called The Escape Artist by Matt Seaton, it only takes a couple of hours to read and it will give you a good insight into the allure of road riding as well as some of the lore and traditions of the sport. It also has a shocking twist at the end but I’m not going to spoil that for you.

+1 great read

forearms now stiff and aching from the bars , (…)

That might also just be because you’re tense, make sure you’re not locking your arms when you’re doing the downhill bits, and move your hands around regularly.

Luckily I managed to powerslide the bike round

🙄 😆

^^^ ditto sefton 🙂

The Trek Pilot isn’t a bum up head down bike. Just checkout the tall headtube. Might I suggest its actually the wrong size for you?
As for MTB vs road – I doubt any top XC MTBer doesn’t do a significant amount of training on a road bike.

I would much rather get my exhilaration from a bit or reasonably safe DH than going out and playing with the traffic.

Me too, but I’d much rather be ragging the quiet country lanes on my road bike than plodding around on a relatively easy MTB trail. The kind of trails/roads on your doorstep is a huge factor in whether you enjoy road riding more than mountain biking or vice versa.

Good tips there Ta will flip the stem tonight but can’t see me getting out into monsoon
only one ride so far but will persevere as need to get bike fit as off to lake Garda in September
and offroad trails here are mush and crap .

I see mtb as a social thing where as the road is only social when your at the cafe 😀

just takes a little time – I was terrified at first!

stilltortoise – Member

Me too, but I’d much rather be ragging the quiet country lanes on my road bike than plodding around on a relatively easy MTB trail. The kind of trails/roads on your doorstep is a huge factor in whether you enjoy road riding more than mountain biking or vice versa.

Its lucky for me that I have good trails on my doorstep then.

I can 100% see the point in them for getting/staying fit and fast. However I ride bikes to have fun and fitness is a fortunate side effect. Granted you can have more fun on your mtb if you are fit and can ride fast but riding isn’t a means to an end, it is the end.

I see mtb as a social thing where as the road is only social when your at the cafe

TBH you do a whole bunch more chatting out on a road bike than you’ll ever do on a MTB
We were out as a group of 10 or so last weekend, riding in pairs – non stop chatter with whoever I was next to at any particular time.
Usually the only thing that lets you know there’s a group coming up is the talking from them.

I’d seriously try a cross bike. opens up the option of bombing down some singletrack if needed.

As said above you can get discs if you really want but decent rim brakes can be very effective.

I’d seriously try a cross bike. opens up the option of bombing down some singletrack if needed.

If you want a road bike buy a road bike, if you want a mountain bike buy a mountain bike, and if you want pain buy a cross bike and race it.

Tools for the job, and there is nothing to stop you using a road bike off road occasionally. But the gearing on mtbs, cross bikes and road bikes will be compromised if you try using any of them for a different niche.

“In the dry road brakes should be pretty good. Certainly good enough to lift the rear wheel if you are on the drops.”

Definately this, I think rim brakes offer more feel too. In fact I did this without expecting to when some d!ckhead pulled across me as I was coming down the big hill in to Trouts village doing about 45mph.

I’ve been getting back on the road bike of late too as the local trails are so mashed up.

The big difference for me is the gearing, and that you have to use power to get up the hills instead of using the gears.

The other thing I notice about road riding is how dangerous it is in the Aire valley/Wharfe Valley areas!

However I ride bikes to have fun and fitness is a fortunate side effect

There’s plenty of regular road riders who say exactly the same thing about road riding. If I didn’t enjoy it I wouldn’t do it. I also agree about road riding being social. When on the MTB the social bit seems to be on the (many) stops during the ride rather than during the riding. To be honest – as I suggested above – it’s as much about where you’re riding as to (a) how much you get out of it (b) how social it is (c) how much fun you have. I’m sure I’d have a good chat to fellow riders whilst pootling around Ladybower, but get me slogging up to Cut Gate and I go a lot quieter 🙂

“I’d seriously try a cross bike. opens up the option of bombing down some singletrack if needed.”

Thats what I want to do when I get some spare cash.

Road vs MTB is a bit ying/yang – it’s the same thing, but different.

IMO also the training is very complimentary, MTB is great for short fast bursts of power (up banks and so on), and bike handling. Road is excellent for getting in the groove and powering on for long periods. Add these together and you have a strong rider.

Agree. Uses surprisingly different muscles and as above, it’s important to get the right size and fit.

Had a serious off overestimating the power of road brakes. Went over the bars, back first into a dry stone wall. Completely destroyed it. Walked away with a minor graze. Now take it easy down hills!

Stay smooth, shouldn’t need to be grabbing big handfuls of brake on a road bike.

(emergencies aside of course)

Thats what I want to do when I get some spare cash.

+1 there are quite a few lanes tound here that degenerate into tractor tracks, then back into lanes then back into roads, they’re rideable on the road bike, but it does tend to do more damage in one ride than an entire wet weeks commuting.

The big difference for me is the gearing, and that you have to use power to get up the hills instead of using the gears.

The other thing I notice about road riding is how dangerous it is in the Aire valley/Wharfe Valley areas!

Imo if you’re needing to use power then you’ve got the wrong gear setup. I can still spin quite happily on all but the steepest hils (climb out of Sutton) round here with a compact and a 13-29 cassette.

If you think it’s bad round here you want to try riding in a major city, even York and the surrounding area was worse in my experience.

To Trout, you’re welcome to borrow my 52cm Ribble to try for size if you want as I’m only in Cross Hills.

I wouldn’t necessarily agree that you just have to get used to the pain and discomfort.

Bike fit is super critical in road bikes. There are more things to adjust, and it all has to fit your body quite closely. I borrowed a road bike from a made who has longer arms and a shorter body than me, and I could barely even ride it.

It takes a fair bit of fiddling and faffing to get right.

As for cross bikes – yes, they are nice for mixing it up but they are not as fast on road so you get a diluted experience a bit.

As for the brakes – mine are 105 and they are so-so in the dry, but if it’s really raining then nothing happens at all for the first 10m or so – and I am not exaggerating. It’s very scary.