Went for a tarmac spin this morning on my Boardman 'performance hybrid' (whatever one of those is!)
Anyway, ended up doing 44 miles in 2:38:46 with an average of 16.4mph and 2564ft of climbing.
Is this considered passable or am i horribly unfit – i certainly feel it as on the way back i tried to keep up with a couple of blokes from the West Pennine racing club and nearly blew my lungs out in the process!

Maybe i should ditch the SRAM 32-11 mtb cassette and invest in a roadie one… 😳

ditching that cassette will make no difference at all

given a hybrid thats not bad given you werent working in a group

I was near the bottom of the SRAM cassette and working hard whilst the two roadie blokes were still on the upper part of their cassettes!

I don't think i'll ever make a roadie, not a proper club racer type anyway – think i'll stick to my solo bimbling about the countryside! 😆

yep but the roadies casssette will have been 11 or even 12:23 so changing from 11:32 to 11:23 wont make you faster

you will have an 48 or a 50 up front and they will have a 53

also they likely spin alot higher cadence than you – ie except for a few old school die hards i know most folk run 90-100rpm cadences your average joe bloggs runs as hard a gear as they can push at about 75 rpm thinking it means they will go faster

What you need is a good aero sit position, hybrids won't let you do that.
But it's more comfy than a roadbike drop bars.

Depending on your goal-do you have the right bike/toy?

You did really well btw but not outstanding, but I beleive thats due to sitting high up, rather than a aero like a roadie on drops, maybe hitting 18mph at less effort.

If you're not buying a roadbike, try setting up your hybrid as aero as possible but don't sacrifice comfort.

(Got some handy cash-get a roadbike.)

what were they running on the front?

Is your hybrid 26" ?

Were the couple of blokes Pros? Ex Pros?

Too many variables……

It's a flat barred road bike in effect – 700c wheels with 28mm slicks, 50/36 compact chainset & a 32-11 cassette.

Reason i bought it was that i really don't get on with drops, my hands are too small for riding on the hoods and my arthritic elbow give me gyp.

I'm loving it actually, what was bought as a possible commuter/training bike has turned out to be a lovely thing to ride 🙂

I'm loving it actually, what was bought as a possible commuter/training bike has turned out to be a lovely thing to ride

Job done then! Enjoy-it's what it's all about.

Loads of manufacturers are making better comfy hoods now regardless of hand size

I'm planning on sticking some 32mm cross tyres on it for when i do the C2C/24hrs later this year, reckon it will stand up to it and be comfy enough. Attempting the C2C on a full-suss Marin is a bit silly….

zaskar +1

have you looked at ergon grips?

You can bend quite low (for the dropped effect) and still have a flat bar feel (I reckon)

Yeah, i'm thinking about the ergon grips with the bar ends.

I'm starting to suffer quite badly with my elbows and hands/wrists so owt that will alleviate the pain is worth the expense i reckon.
I've already dropped the height of the bars relative to my saddle and i'm thinking of trimming the length of the bars a little as well.

Why is it that i'm far more nervous at 30mph on the road than on the mtb?

Ergon bar-end grips (or similiar) are a perfect match for a fast hybrid… Bar position seems to be really important too, I put some Salsas on mine which makes it comfier but the more relaxed position just seems to switch off the "go fast" part of my brain. But with a wee bit more lean-forward going on, I just naturally ride harder.

Don't like drops either, sadly they're undeniably better when you're using them but I can't get on with them, or of riding on the flats or hoods (that just feels horrible) so a "performance hybrid" it is. And it's ace.

thats pretty decent.

horribly unfit cant cycle 44 miles and IMO if you are sustaining over 14mph on the road over that distance then you are above average for most cyclists. Its all relative i suppose, it will be slow for some but quite alot of roadie club rides often have their 'fast' group averaging about 17-18mph so you would be able to do that if you are getting over 16 riding alone.

as long as the sun is shining and you enjoyed it you did good

50/11 should be plenty high enough, you need to learn to spin more.

It's certainly not an embarrassing average though, but frankly, WGAS? As long as you enjoy yourself!