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how much easier is it too ride a road bike on the road than say a 7 inch freeride bike? say over a ten miles distance how much faster would i expect to be? i can average around 10-12 mph on the 7 inch bike on the road doing a lot of ups and downs. the basic question is how much easier would i expect it to be IF i did convert to the darkside!? sorry about the rambling post and the bad spelling and or punctuation! thanks tony
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well it's a lot easier to go the same speed, but you won't be doing that.
it will be just as hard as it is right now, but you will end up further away.
it will be just as hard as it is right now, but you will end up further away.
That. It never gets easier, you just go faster...
ok then i will rephrase my question.
60 miles on 7inch mtb on road is = xmiles on road bike? please value x
x = 60
i don't think this is a useful rephrasing.
no now i have re-read and thought about it..... but im sure you know what i mean
60 miles on a 7" MTB is probably 6-8 hours depending on terrain. On road bike its about 3 - 3.5 hours, depending on terrain.
15mph is easy enough average speed for someone who rides bikes more than a couple of hours a week.
16mph is probably a reasnoble average if you rode more than twice a week, beyond that it's just a case of more training/suffering means you go faster. I used to average 20mph+ on a 15mile commute twice a day, but I was fit, and the 'course' was flat. It was epicly painfull though as what it lacked in hills it made up for with some arrow straight flat sections, there's no such thing as an easy section, just faster!
I'd give myself 7 hours to do 100 miles including a propper stop for cake and a couple of quick stops for food on the go.
It isn't easier, you either go faster or further. You don't get one to make life easier....60 miles at 12mph on a hilly road route on a 7inch bike? There's a race going through Yorkshire in 2014, sign up for that.
lots faster. road bikes do beg to be ridden hard with higher gearing, but on an uppy downy route most people with reasonable fitness would be averaging 18mph ish. too many many factors to consider, but essentially the answer to your question is yes. it will be substantially quicker.
lots faster. road bikes do beg to be ridden hard with higher gearing, but on an uppy downy route most people with reasonable fitness would be averaging 18mph ish. too many many factors to consider, but essentially the answer to your question is yes. it will be substantially quicker.
A 7 inch bike....
As a comparison. On my winter bike including spiked tires I'm currently lucky if I manage 20kph. The sun was shining recently and the roads were clear so I went out on the road bike over the same (gently rolling) terrain and managed close to 30kph on the road bike.
Hope that helps....
Distance in km on MTB = Distance in miles on Roadie.
i.e. - 100km = 100 miles.
lots faster. road bikes do beg to be ridden hard with higher gearing, but on an uppy downy route most people with reasonable fitness would be averaging 18mph ish.
Most people? I sometimes ride with a small group of 5-8 roadies and I class myself as the weakest rider with the rest of them a mix of cat 1/2/3's we ride for 60-70 miles around the north downs and don't shy away from the ups, I get dropped if i have had any time off the bike. Only in the summer do we hit 18mph averages and I wouldn't consider them 'normal' riders when there's a few strava KOM top 10's up some of the local climbs shared amongst them.
The last 18mph ride I did with them was with an elite joining us having a few days off from racing on the continent, this involved him giviing me a push at 29mph when the hammer went down on the flat and I ran out of legs.
I doubt 'most people' on here of average fitness would be able to keep up.
I'm nothing like as fit as most people on here, but I have overtaken mountain bikes on the road when riding my road bike. Some of that, I think, is that lycra is simply more aerodynamic, some of it that the road bike has bald tyres which give less grip at the expense of more speed because they are slippery. All other things being equal - if you wore lycra, took off your helmet peak, and put road wheels on your freeride bike to make it an All Road rig - I don't think you'd be that much slower, if at all, if that makes sense?
No, it doesn't make sense. Even doing all that, you'd be at least 40% slower than on a road bike, Lycra or not.
Well, if that's the case, why do pro Tour riders and the like wear Lycra? It wouldn't make any sense unless it gave significant gains. Same for shaving your legs. I reckon those two things alone make a considerable difference and that's what a lot of keen mtb racers do the same thing.
Thing is, people like to pretend it doesn't make a difference because it gives them an excuse for their own inadequacies - if you bite the bullet and get aerodynamic, you can't blame anything else when someone on a road bike is faster than you.
I'd try the lycra and leg shaving first, then put road tyres on your mountain bike and only then, if you can't keep up with road bikes, consider getting a more aerodynamic helmet.
lots faster. road bikes do beg to be ridden hard with higher gearing, but on an uppy downy route most people with reasonable fitness would be averaging 18mph ish.
Hahahahaha. As per MrSmith above, I ride on both road and MTB twice or 3 times a week and it's only the hard rides I will get even close to that. 15mph is the bench mark for me, certainly when I'm riding solo.
To answer the Op's question (sort of) I reckon I average 10mph on my mtb and 15 on the road bike. If you're doing 12mph on the mtb (which I think is good going) assume you're going to do 18mph on a roadie (which as mentioned above, is also good going).
Has this thread degenerated into a mixture of trolling and people taking crap?
Some of that, I think, is that lycra is simply more aerodynamic, some of it that the road bike has bald tyres which give less grip at the expense of more speed because they are slippery.
And road bikes have bigger gears than mtbs. And bigger wheels than most mtbs. And are half the weight of an mtb. And the rider is in a more efficient position on a road bike. And the 'bald' tyres are less than half the width, and are usually harder compound on a road bike.
But yeah, most of it is Lycra. 🙄
Has this thread degenerated into a mixture of trolling and people taking crap?
I don't think so, no.
Don't forget shaving your legs..... Or you could try waxing them. it's almost as good.
Has this thread degenerated into a mixture of trolling and people taking crap?
Not quite how I was going to put it but... 😆
Has this thread degenerated into a mixture of trolling and people taking crap
No degeneration, it's been that way since sentence 2.
i can average around 10-12 mph on the 7 inch bike on the road doing a lot of ups and downs
Tomhoward +1. Lycra is a gain, yes, but a marginal one. The bike is the difference, not the clothing. I always thought the leg shaving was for quicker and better healing after a tumble? I may be wrong.
I'd say it would be at least 1/3 faster, maybe more.
always thought the leg shaving was for quicker and better healing after a tumble?
That and it makes massage easier. Nothing to do with aerodynamics.
Mrsmiths post implies a point: your average depends on the terrain route. You can't compare 2 riders average unless the ride the same route at the same effort.
I'm desperate to achieve 20mph average this year. But with 2-3 rides per week I've been stuck at 17.5 to 18 regardless of distance (30 to 70k rides) - can't work out how to get faster, but at the moment I'm working on riding through the pain / lactic barrier as my instinct tells me I'm not pushing myself hard enough.
This ^^ is how getting a road bike has affected my mentality - I'm 41 in and 18 months in, yet 13 years on mtb's.... Scary eh!
i wonder why your riding on the road at all on a 7inch bike, never mind doing 10+ mile rides. Not only that but a proper xc bike at your fitness you probably would average 15-16mph at that pace ( if its proper up n downs as you suggest), so in that case you would be hitting 22-23 avg on a road bike. I though would like to think that you are actually only doing 8-9 mph avg on that type of bike ( the ups you'll prbably be down to about 3-4mph, sometimes less). Putting it another way, i dont actually believe you can do the same pace as a pro mtb'er does offroad, on road on that bike.
But....... generally its probably 1km to 1 mile rule as said before
Whatever way you look at it, you [i]will[/i] notice a massive increase in efficiency. It makes the ride feel more productive, like the power you're generating isn't being lost. It can be felt through your bike as it transfers to the road. And for that reason it becomes a very enjoyable way to travel.
My average speed on mountain bike: 6 mph.
On road bike, solo and just pootling: 14.2 mph.
QED
Its bloody hard, suffering on the lactate threshold for 2 hours on a training ride is not easy.
If its easy you want get a shopper
djglover - Member
on the lactate threshold for 2 hours...
Really? Without a rest period?
It seemed like it the last fast club training ride I was on. 19mph average up into the Yorkshire dales, but ultimately I wasn't at the front the whole time so I did get a rest!
I find it difficult to have an easy ride on my road bike. It just begs to be ridden hard. But, since having a road bike, riding my mountain bikes on the road feels leaden. If you ride on the road anyway, a road bike is just more fun, but not easy.
If you're canny and riding with others you can make it sort of easy'ish.
This Sunday I'll need to be cannier than a canny thing from canny things are us dot com.
Name dropped the field to a club mate, 'you'll get smashed' 🙁
This Sunday I'll need to be cannier than a canny thing from canny things are us dot com.
Name dropped the field to a club mate, 'you'll get smashed'
That sounds daunting. I'm guessing you're racing against professionals and stuff? Will it be televised? Post up the times so we can watch if it is. Oh, and good luck! Sounds like you'll need it. Tight lycra could save vital seconds, ditto some judicious shaving of body parts despite some of the disparaging comments above.
ditto some judicious shaving of body parts despite some of the disparaging comments above.
As said, leg shaving is nothing to do with aerodynamics.
Stretch your nan's shower cap over your helemt too, looks properly pro.
Badlywireddog, back under your bridge with you.....
I did a 58 mile ride on Tuesday, averaged 17mph, followed up the next day with a 15 miler at 18mph, find it helps a fair bit when you get out on the mountain bikes!
Talk of average speed on a road bike is pointless without considering the circumstances. On a flattish route in a group, I can average 17-18 mph for 100 miles, but going solo on narrow, hilly lanes is more like 14mph, over a shorter distance.
I can only ever get my road bike average above 17-18 if conditions are absolutely perfect and there's no head wind. If there's a head wind I'm usually down to about 15mph. Annoying as I have a mate who can easily do 20mph averages over longer rides than me, seemingly no matter what the conditions!
i can average around 10-12 mph on the 7 inch bike on the road doing a lot of ups and downs
You'll be flying on a road bike. Seriously.
I'm not the fittest in our road club, nor am I the slowest, but if I head out on the Peak District hills by myself for an hour or two I don't get much above a 15mph average. Sure, I'm not riding on the limit, but nor am I cruising.