I'm now doing some road work to increase my base fitness and wondered what sort of speeds people are averaging on say a 3hr ride. Full 2.2 winter tyres.

This afternoon it was lovely weather for a change so I rode 41 miles in 3hrs 10mins around the N, NW, W, SW of Watford, so not seriously hilly, but enjoyable.

Bl££dy Hell. I wouldn't have fancied it on a road bike as the tarmac is in ver poor condition. Looks like a mtn bike would be the weapon of choice right now on the roads.

34:17 SS 26" wheel average about 14mph

I know what you mean about the roads at the mo (post all that bad weather)I'm commuting in on my Rocky Ridge with Huuuuge panaracer 2.3 slicks on! I wouldn't want to be on the old singlespeed roadie

Road bikes aren't fragile you know!
I commute (sometimes) on a cx bike – 18 miles an hour, undulating with a couple of steeper climbs.
Riding road on big knobbly tyres (without the promise off some decent off road) would be frustrating.

thats not bad going really, average 13.5mph ish. Roads can be tough work and draggy on an mtb.

In perspective, alot of local 'roadie' clubs might only hit a 12mph average on a slow day and maybe 16 on a training day
I done a 45 miler today on the road bike in just under 2hrs 30 although my original intentions was an easy spin day, which was fine until about the 25 mile mark when i upped tha pace a bit
Think your speed for a mtb is quite a good pace really

>3hr ride. Full 2.2 winter tyres.<

Jesus that's purgatory – go and do some proper riding or get yourself some skinny tyres / an old road bike

I've recently started doing some road riding on my new Boardman hybrid (yes, i know it's not a PROPER road bike :roll:) and now i really notice how difficult it is on the road on my mtb.
Maybe i'm drifting to the dark side?

Slippery slope there MD, soon you'll be breaking out the lycra 🙂

Seriously though, going quick on the road is fun. And the closer to a road bike you get, the faster you go…

For three hours @ 14mph on Continental semi slicks – plodding along and getting the base miles in. Full MTB tyres would cause too many pins and needles for that length of time on tarmac.

I have the knobblies on simply because the trail conditions are so poor at present and I'm tubeless so can't be bothered to swap them for the RRalfs.

Besides, it's just training.

My legs did ache when I got back something rotten! I kept walking around the house for 20 minutes and massaging them as I thought I was going to get cramp, but they just felt sore really rather than cramped, it was an odd and new type of muscle ache / pain! I might have to look at my ride position again and tweek it a little as I want to up the time-on-bike by an hour every session every month, so in March I'm managing 4hr sessions, April 5hr rides etc etc.

I'm about to buy a little cycle computer for that very reason.
I don't have a road bike yet so I have to make do with the mtb for roadtraining/commute.
I bet you don't use the 2.2 tyres on the road often.
I did it once with fat tyres on me commute.
(forgot to change them night before).
54 mile round trip
(one way takes between 1hr50 to 2hr20 depending on wind and/orlaziness) and I wanted the world to end.
At the moment I use 1.8 Dred Treads,which allow you to explore more than slicks.You may need another set of wheels for your ralphs.
Either way it will get you fitter.
J.

Sounds like the dreaded ice bath might have been required!!

The road riding is just whilst the trails are so vile, although now I've done 2x 3hr road rides this week, I'm coming 'round to the benefits of mountain bike training on the roads since it's not the distnace travelled per se, it's the base fitness, aerobic and overall riding benefits I can see it brining to my riding.

I have a road bike (gathering dust), but since I'm booked in to some mtn bike events starting with the first Merida / CRC in 50+ days, I thought I'd best get some distance / time-on-bike training under my belt on the bikes I'm likely to use.

It might even make the Montane Kielder 100 manageable! ❗

ICE BATH: isn't that iused for bring down swelling and body temperature?

With a set of 2.3 Kenda Nevegal DTCs on I lose about 4-5mph average speed on the road over a set of 1.5 road tyres.

Over 3 hrs, 15-18mph average is good. If you are doing it twice a week even better.
Big frustration of grinding against the tyres all the time (and wearing them out) but it does help with training.

I try & aim for 26-28kph for a 2hr ride on a hardtail with Nobby Nics.
That's about 17mph or so.

IF i ride my mtb to work instead of the road bike my average drops from 17-18mph to 13-14mph this is from both the knoblies and the riding postion/wind resistance. Mind you if i take my daughter in the trailer then ther is still the same difference between the 2 but the speeds are even lower. If you want to do some really good resistance training then get a trailer to tow behind you you can really feel it plus you can't get out of the saddle to do the climbs.

I average about 14.5mph over a 30 mile ride on my mountain bike.

I used t use knobblies on the road, but got fed up of that draggy feeling and the fact that my tyres weren't lasting long.
LBS sold me a pair of wheels for £80 & they are now my 'road' wheels with Schwalbe City Jets on.

I only noticed about a 0.5-0.75mph increase using the slicks, although that is an estimate….the main thing slowing me down seems to be the ridiculous wind that howls across the local flatlands….

Are we saying that on a mtn bike ride on winter tyres, I could reasonably expect +5mph from a road bike with skinny slicks were I to try it at some point?

The first 2hrs were a tad quicker than the last hour!

I did Woking to London Victoria on monday this week on my SS road bike, mixture of thames path, wey path, road, traffic lights etc. averaged 15.4mph

took 1h 50mins

though going back was slower… at 2hrs slighty uphill on the way back 😉

reckon if i just stuck to roads it would be quicker, though more traffic to deal with..

Not being funny but there's going to be wild variance for folks' speeds on mtbs – hilliness, tyre pressure, wind & fitness all varying.

Most folk who are really fit are likely to be using a road bike on tarmac in any case.

this came up quite recently comparing road bike and mtb on road speeds.

went on for a couple of pages, have a wee search for it.

Get a road bike for riding on the road

Light SS 2:1 with XC tyres = 12 ish mph unless its really hilly
Heavy 6 incher with big soft tyres = well I've never bothered even measuring
Road bike = 17 mph or 20 in a group

18 mph is pretty good on a slicked MTB I would say. Either that or its flat.

Cheers.
Is this the begining of my slide to the Darkside?

Seriously though, the road bike has been ridden maybe 5 times and last about 3 years ago.
Good fitness training this 3hrs-non-stop-cadence. I was spent!

Put on some sticky DH tyres if you want a real workout.
I can go along around 20mph on the HT on 2.3 slicks. Nevegals on the remedy and it's more like 15mph

never thought id do it, but been riding more and more road as a recovery from injury. better bike position, full leg extension etc. just much more settled for me dodgy knee.

getting fitter thanks to road riding, can maintain 26 ish in a group on the flat for as long as its flat and people are sharing the work! on my own i tend to top out at about 24 ish, any more than that and the tears streaming down my face make it too hard to see!

xc bike (5 inch FS with nobblies etc.) on the road is prob 15mph at the most on the flat. no comparison really.

are you lot all cat 1 racers? or is the ego telling porkies?
only i don't race but ride with a few 3's and 4's and have done a fair few 17-19mph rides over 3-1/2 hours in groups of 2-4. but averages in the low 20's for a 3-4 hr ride? and some of those average speeds on mtb seem very high.

If it's a training ride surely speeds irrelevant? Thought the idea was to ride for a given time span in a given zone? 😕

Okay, using a road bike on the road means you can attain a higher speed, but speed isn't really the issue in this case.

I can tell you I came 46th out of 59 in the vets class with 4:43hrs on the bike at the Merida Brass Monkey, race 3, some 4 weeks ago.
Makes me an average rider I'd say, all things considered.

Next up Merida / CRC / Exposure night ride Followed by the main day race the next day.

Not fast but competative I think would be a fair assesment! 😉

I ride 22 miles out to Hamsterley on a MTB with 2.2" knobblies. There's a fair height gain from home to there with a couple of bigish hills. Takes me pretty much exactly 2 hours, but that's keeping enough in reserve for a group MTB ride and having to ride home again.

Proof: http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=1882126

It's a SS, with 32:17 so I spin out at about 12.5 mph.

**** me that's determination Mike, I've done simlar to GT from Edinburgh (when fit!) 1.5 hours hard to get there (same distance) then ride, always accept a lift home.

Must have kness make of Ti too!

mines an average of 14mph approx with 2.35" nevegals front and rear, something more road friendly will be coming soon as im sick of the drag

Bigger tyres = resistance training.

Of course we all know that all other things being equal, wider tyres have less rolling resistance.