Yes I used to get stuck behind them when I did a several Gorrick XC races a few years ago before I had kids. On the plus side it was probably due to their lack of riding skills I finished mid pack
A crucial tactic for me was to sprint up to the entrance to singletrack sections, as I really didn't want to be stuck behind anyone unable to pass!
Lolz at scotroutes...ERG 😀 😃
Just about anyone can wear baggies without looking like a Tuesday Wednesday And Thursday.
I find it hard to agree with that - the typical UK mountain biker in his knee length baggies (which aren't very baggy, must be said), pale white legs, geeky shoes, fox racing top and a helmet... not exactly a style god.
Anyway I love road cycling: cruising along, chatting with your mates, making it to the top of a tough climb, the joy of nailing a fast technical descent...
I find it harder to chat to your mates when road biking than MTBing, though.
If you are basing joy on whether someone look like they are enjoying riding on the road that is where you are going wrong. I really enjoy cycling to the point I ride all years round in all weathers but woudl you know I am enjoying it by looking at my face - No.
I find it harder to chat to your mates when road biking than MTBing, though.
Is that because you're always stood around waiting for someone to go first?
Or always on double tracks so you can have a chat.
Sounds dull 😉
Impossible to have a conversation round here as 80% of it is single track.
On the road, it's double file (and no traffic worth speaking of) so conversation is easy.
Until i start wheezing...
The Standard UK riding position was at risk due to sweeping EU legislation, that’s the real reason Brexit had to happen. It’s well known that Nigel Farage and the ERG (Ergonomic Riding Group) are all dyed in the wool Audaxers.
😀 😀
Yeah, I like all sorts of cycling. Just did a 100miles ride on the road at the weekend, able to chat with folk on the way round, draft behind them, go fast downhill. Different from MTB, which I did at the weekend too, chatting while stopped then blasting for a while, chatted a bit more.
Different fun 🙂
IME not that anyone is interested.
I ride a Stumpjumper HT with 1.5" slicks for training on and pootleing about on the road. Same issues with back pain, uncomfortable ride, etc with road bike set up and thats after a bike fit and other measures to improve the ride. MTB is so much more comfy.
The roadies I see and that is most days tend to be uncommunicative, self absorbed, arrogant so and so's.
It really doesn't take much to say hello. You can keep your carbon aero fancy pants, look at me, all the gear no idea bollox and shove it!!!
Is that because you’re always stood around waiting for someone to go first?
Or always on double tracks so you can have a chat.
Wind noise, and having to go single file on narrow bits, passing cars etc.
IME the interesting road rides need to have a challenge of some sort, or be done in a super casual toruing mindset. 200km over night, point A to point B a long way away, a large set of climbs can be interesting due ot the challenge. Local loops are dull for me if done with a rodie mentality, however if taken with a more touring mind set, a poodle, stopping for a snooze and some cake, not dressed up in horrible lycra but casual dressed.
I find it harder to chat to your mates when road biking than MTBing, though.
I guess it depends on the pace. On our Wednesday ride I normally spend the whole 5 hours chatting to whoever is next to me. Didn't go this morning as still a bit wiped out after a > 200 km excursion to the seaside on Monday...
Has anyone overtaken a roadie on their mountain bike yet?
Is road biking as fun as mountain biking, probably not. But if you only partake in a pastime for fun you might as well be wearing fluffy pants. Satisfaction, nostalgia, being part of something with a rich history, fitness etc all probably rank higher. If you are more competent at mountain biking or vice versa then your results may very.
The roadies I see and that is most days tend to be uncommunicative, self absorbed, arrogant so
and so’s.
You would think that if your saw me,but that is more an issue with you being judgemental than whether I am enjoying myself (which I will be).
Just realise that not everyone will be smiling and wanting to say hello to you.
The roadies I see and that is most days tend to be uncommunicative, self absorbed, arrogant so and so’s.
That's interesting, because that's how mtbers tend to be, in my experience. Maybe it's a tribal thing, or maybe they're all out of breath from hauling their beer guts up a modest incline, and need to save their energy for the one mile ride back to the car park.
@kerley kind of reinforces the point. What a miserable lot.
And yes it could be perceived as judgemental but this tends to be the rule rather than exception when out and about, not many roadies enjoying themselves, otherwise they they would be smiling and enjoying themselves?
I can't equate not smiling to enjoying myself!
I've long seen riding a road bike in the UK as training towards being able to actually enjoy the riding when escaping to another country. Riding on properly made and maintained roads with a low volume of considerate drivers, in inspiring scenery is something easy to find in France/ Spain/ Italy etc...the Alps, Dolomites, Pyrenees, places where there's a culture of respect towards cyclists. Riding in places like Mallorca seem like a kind of heavenly cyclists theme-park in contrast to standard issue UK. Some of the most pleasurable rides I've ever done have been winding up deserted wide smooth tarmac climbs with the sun on the back in the Pyrenees, where it seemed you could ride for hours without encountering a car..and it felt so safe because it was so quiet and peaceful you could hear that car coming a mile off. There are only a few remote spots in the UK that can get close to an imitation of that, always with a far crappier road surface, and an irate oversized car driver potentially around every corner. I love road riding but in my local neck of the woods I spend more of my riding getting off the road as much as possible, mostly to get away from the drivers whose standards and aggressive attitudes have become noticeably worse in recent years.
I'm with ransos on this one. I seem to get blanked by mtbers far more than roadies.
Even way out in the sticks and I haven't seen anybody for hours and an MTB appears but it's rider completely ignores my friendly greeting.
I put this down to me being too old and too uncool.
and having to go single file on narrow bits
You mean like, errrr, most mtb rides?
(And wind noise? I can hear and be heard perfectly clearly up to about 28-30kph without even having to raise my voice. Just a little turn of my head and i'm set. Maybe you have a noisy helmet, or need your ears looking at.)
And yes it could be perceived as judgemental but this tends to be the rule rather than exception when out and about, not many roadies enjoying themselves, otherwise they they would be smiling and enjoying themselves?
Think you've got rule and exception mixed up there.
I can’t equate not smiling to enjoying myself!
I find people who just smile to themselves with no one else around are deeply disturbing.
I find people who just smile to themselves with no one else around are deeply disturbing.
Hiya! But why? Do you never have smiley thoughts? How miserable!
@kerley kind of reinforces the point. What a miserable lot.
And yes it could be perceived as judgemental but this tends to be the rule rather than exception when out and about, not many roadies enjoying themselves, otherwise they they would be smiling and enjoying themselves?
You are still completely missing the point. It is not for you to decide whether I am enjoying myself or not based on what you think 'looks' like enjoyment. You may very well ride along with a permanent smile on your face for the duration of the ride but I don't and maybe all those roadies don't either.
Try and understand that not everyone is the same as you.
Purely for contrast and compare... Is there any joy in football?
The only time that I get any joy from a road ride is when the weather is warm, dry and not windy, but at the end of the ride I'd always feel that I'd rather have been riding my mountain bike. I choose not to ride the road bike now.
If I don't feel like going out on my MTB because of the weather, I tend to just sit on the turbo trainer and watch a film, going out on the road in bad weather is just a grim experience.
Is there any joy in football?
Watching?
Very little from what I can see. the only happiness seems to come from the team you follow (not support, as that implies you are contributing to them somehow) wins or scores one of the few goals in a game. A few moments elation per week for a lot of time and effort exerted.
Playing - even as someone who hates professional football (see above) I occasionally fill in for a work fiveaside evening. as you can guess I'm athletic but not very skillful. Its still good fun in an endorphin and camaraderie kind of way.
Traffic is the thing that spoils road riding and in Hertfordshire where I live, drivers also tend to be very aggressive.
During the pandemic I started using my road bike a fair bit, but this year I have only been mountain biking . On every road trip there seem to be near misses from cars and that takes away the enjoyment for me .
Sometimes very joyous sometimes not 🙂
@radioman - similar experiences here in my Surrey to London commute. I love road biking so go out super early to avoid.
All biking is good is it not?! 🙂
If I don’t feel like going out on my MTB because of the weather, I tend to just sit on the turbo trainer and watch a film, going out on the road in bad weather is just a grim experience.
Proof of how different we all are and what we find enjoyable. I enjoy going out all year round whereas I would never use a trainer indoors - I would rather just not bother cycling than do that
I like riding bikes, I like road riding, not sure why some need to get upset by or question this.
I'm currently on the train to Prestatyn to see family, standing by my road bike in the silly provision in the carriage isle for two bikes.
It's a bit of a faff, but the road riding up there is better than my South Down lanes, well maintained tarmac up bigger hills right from the doorstep instead of being 7+ miles away and less traffic to deal with.
~13 miles to Denbigh for a 1200 foot climb (Road To Hell), might try and get to Stwlan Dam this time and maybe try jumping off the train in the way home at Ruabon to try the Old Shoe (this year's national climb) and new Horseshoe Pass.
Hiya! But why? Do you never have smiley thoughts? How miserable!
I have many many smiley thoughts. Why would i not, i ride a road bike. And a mountain bike.
I don't however ride around, on my own, in the wilderness grinning like some sort of deviant.
Low traffic and easy access to good roads makes a big difference.
I like riding bikes, I like road riding, not sure why some need to get upset by or question this.
But are you getting real joy from it and more importantly is it clear to others that you are.
Proof of how different we all are and what we find enjoyable. I enjoy going out all year round whereas I would never use a trainer indoors – I would rather just not bother cycling than do that
Yep. I bought a turbo years ago, and have used it twice. Good, warm clothing and mudguards take care of all but the very worst weather.
Never really been able to do road cycling, it's just a different mindset, i've never had that ability or discipline to do so, so stuck with XC and then Enduro. I've known a few who have tried to switch and gone back to MTB or Road, change isn't easy!
Someone up-thread said Yorkshire roads were busy. Not round this part of Yorkshire it isn't! I've done several rides of 100-150km out the door this summer, all on a variety of minor roads, hardly seen a car. The off-roading is good too, but I don't cover the same sort of distances. It's been a glorious summer, just a bit too hot occasionally, but I'll put up with that for the 4 months of great riding that we've just had.
Has anyone overtaken a roadie on their mountain bike yet?
Standard. But depends what you mean. After an away from usual haunts MTB ride, hooking on the back of a tubby group out for an easy Sunday, to ending up being thanked for towing them back into town? (As they pootle off and I cough up my lungs once out of sight.) What do I win?
Or some tanned shaven-legged god, out for some z2 recovery and refusing to be goaded? (Doesn't really happen other than in theory, but hey.) Let's be clear: it is a race yeah?
I think there’s some joy / buzz from road cycling, but it doesn’t calm the soul like being in the woods on your mountain bike
I like it, but nowhere near as much as mountain biking. Great as a ride to do from the front door and good for building and maintaining fitness. I live in a busy place, so if I want to do 30 miles from the house, it's 10 miles dodging traffic, 10 miles of nice riding, and then another 10 back through the traffic. That is not an enjoyable part of it.
I enjoy going out all year round whereas I would never use a trainer indoors – I would rather just not bother cycling than do that
For me that depends if I am trying to gain or hold fitness. I care about my fitness and don't want to lose a training opportunity because it's blowing a gale or snowing or whatever. I never used to train indoors at all, but now I have a smart trainer I can either race or watch Netflix on the laptop I installed for the purposes of Zwift. Both of those things take my mind off the shitness quite well.
I do a bit of everything (I wonder how common that is?). Probably about 50% gravel bike, 30% road bike and 20% MTB at the moment. I've been MTBing since the late 1980s but I tend to get more joy out of road riding than MTB these days. I like making the solid effort of a 50 miles and feeling I'm getting fitter and faster. And I prefer the sensation of speed: carving down a proper mountain road at 40mph+ for 20 minutes is as close to flying (or skiing / surfing) as I've experienced. I think it's called the flow state - I don't live in Colorado or anywhere with mammoth singletrack descents so I don't get it as much on the MTB. But I'm luckily that in my part of the UK I can be on very quiet lanes from my front door - sometimes I'll get passed by fewer than five cars over 50 miles, which makes all the difference given that many drivers are absolute arseholes.
Bikes are fun full stop. I've had the pleasure of racing the Mega one day and the next riding the road bike down and up the Alpe.
I like riding bikes, I like road riding, not sure why some need to get upset by or question this.
This +1
Moaning about how dull road cycling could be, is like moaning that MTB is boring because you could get more corners and airtime just doing laps of the BMX track.
There's an awful lot of people here conflating "people on bikes" with "cyclists" as though we're all supposed to be biking enthusiasts...
I bet 50% plus of people of bikes in urban areas are just commuters or similar and aren't aware of the stupid "rules" that cycling enthusiasts adhere to...
