[Closed] Why Choose a Road Bike For Winter Road Riding?

Simply put, you can go further and go faster on a road bike than you ever will on a MTB with slicks on. Ive recently bought a road bike and I'm loving it, yesterday did a 31 mile loop from my door in 1:46:35 its simply much more fun on the right bike for the job.
My experience is that road riding on even a slicked up hardtail is dull, slow and unpleasant, that will put you off so you simply don't go out. Get a road bike and you'll have the incentive to ride that comes with a new bike!

You can ride the FS bike and it will be more of a work out due to weight but you won't enjoy it.

You'll end up riding more on a road bike simply because it's the right tool for the job.

If you're not sure get a cross/all road type bike so you can throw some bridleways and single track in with the right tyres? Bit of a compromise for pure road, but not by much if you get the right bike.

Yep, it's not a well known fact, but alot of the French pros train on the road on 30lb full sussers over winter. Come Spring, they're still no faster than anyone else.

Road rides are a lot more fun in a group, but there's no way you'll keep up on a FS (at least, I couldn't).

Yep, it's not a well known fact, but alot of the French pros train on the road on 30lb full sussers over winter. Come Spring, they're still no faster than anyone else.

Same with the Mexicans.

To my surprise I found that my [recently bought] road bike is comfier than my FS bike.

Riding either on the road is just as dull, but dull and comfortable beats dull and uncomfortable. And... there are less expensive bits to wear out.

I wouldn't get a road bike for winter commuting now. I'd get one of the new cheap boardman disc CX bikes and stickk full guards on it. I'm actually half tempted to sell my carbon road bike now and get one. I hardly used it this year, spent all summer on my MTB.

prawny - Member
new cheap boardman disc CX

It's all relative I guess.

let's be honest, heaving a mountain bike through a head wind and hub deep puddles, over an exposed moor can be be fun in summer, but in winter? yuk.

on a road bike, you'll be up an over the hill in minutes - i find there's less exposure to the worst of the weather.

When the sun does occasionly shine, the trails will still be 18" under water. Even in good weather a mountain bike ride will mean hours of cleaning and maintenance.

But the roads dry out surpisingly quickly, so even fair-weather roadie can get a lot of riding in.

Riding either on the road is just as dull

You just need to ride the road bike faster.

and/or ride somewhere nice?

If you ride country lanes or roads with poor surfaces in the dark there's a bigger risk of hitting holes and the like. Your FS would obviously cope OK and feel more secure; lightweight road bike, not so much. => suggestion of a cheap CX bike seems a good one to me.

If you want to train all winter for riding your mountain bike in the summer, get don't get a normal road bike, get something with brakes that work well-ish in the wet and full mudguards. Disc equipped road/touring or cyclocross bike or even *shudders* a flat barred road bike. It really is a surprise how wet you don't get and how much less dirty your road bike gets with proper mudguards. And it really is a surprise when it is raining how long any rim brakes (ie v's cantis or road brakes) take to start slowing you down if you are used to disc brakes.

You just need to ride the road bike faster.

Put simply, if you take a FS on the road, you'll spend a long time going nowhere fast. If you take a roadbike on the road (there's a clue in the name) you'll have loads more fun, go loads further and conversely get loads fitter. Mountain biking is a very stop/start form of cycling, on roadbikes you get superfit because you're able to cycle and cycle comparatively vast differences without a break. I guess that another way of putting it is you very rarely see a fat roadie, but there's a good few mountain bikers out there working those big hit FS bikes in not perhaps the way that was originally intended... 🙂

If mountain bikes are fit for purpose for road riding, how come road bikes still exist, years after mountain bikes were invented? 😀

All good advice flowing here and adding weight to my thoughts that it would just be more fun and encourage me out more. Ill be looking to get one through a cycle scheme with work i think. Was thinking around £700ish to get a decent starter bike?

Thanks all!

Not a very balanced opinion here, as I don't own a road bike, but I do a lot of winter road riding on my xc bike, either running skinny slicks or usually summer tyres, which allows me to add in the occasional hard (as in not muddy) bridleway into the ride to mix things up.

If you're doing it just for a bit of fitness, and don't plan epic road rides, just use your MTB. Yes it's not the right tool for the job, but it's adequate (to keep you fit) and will save you a few quid too.

I'm not poo pooing the advantages of a road bike btw, I just get the impression that you just want to keep your fitness up and aren't that bothered about road riding, it's more a means to an end??

An mtb is perfectly adequate but for me at least, it's much more enjoyable on a road bike.

Mountain biking is a very stop/start form of cycling,

I disagree, this very much depends on the individual and their fitness levels. We generally complete most of our rides without stopping, unless we're doing silly mileages.

Cadence wise it's more stop start than road though, which in terms of fitness makes a big difference. After a few months riding exclusively on the road the MTB as a fitness tool was pretty redundant.

Cadence wise it's more stop start than road though

Yes, put like that I agree.

cbmotorsport - Member

I disagree, this very much depends on the individual and their fitness levels. We generally complete most of our rides without stopping, unless we're doing silly mileages.

would you accept that there is a chance, that this is perhaps, unusual?

i've been on lots of mountain bike rides, lots of them involve stopping for: tops of ascents, end of descents, punctures, crashes, photo's, faffing with mechanicals, etc.

I have an alloy Synapse as a winter/foul weather bike. It has 'guards, decent 25mm winter/wet weather tyres and "good" brake pads (SwissStop). Terrific fun and much faster than the slick-tyred MTB that it replaced.

a "Winter road bike" should be cheap IMO, Cheap means different things to different people, but you will struggle to find even the most basic disc braked CX machine anything like as cheap as a basic (Triban 3) road bike...

You can easily spend a lot of money on a "Winter" bike and start eyeing up discs(I've don it myself, but eventually talked myself out of it) but that sort of misses the point IMO, it's a cheaper sacrficail bike to save your nicer kit, so long as it works and is safe it doesn't need the bells and whistles...

You could go with a bargain bin (disc braked) MTB and some slick tires, but again I don't think the compromises quite balance, those cheaper cable discs are not a patch on a BB7 and probably perform about as well as a cheap caliper brake in the long run and a proper drop bar and road bike geometry suit road riding far beter than an MTB, or flat bared roadie ever would...

As nice as it would be to have discs on the road, I've not found many situations where having them would actually have made that much real difference to me, I consider them a [I]Nice to have[/I] rather than an essential, it's a different environment, you tend not to be braking in sudden intense bursts as much you do on an MTB and hence a basic caliper brake is actually perfectly adequate IMO...

Spend £300 on a basic road bike and ride it through the winter, save your MTB from some wear and tear, but keep the miles up, then make the judgement for yourself, keep that bargain bike as it is, upgrade it a bit, buy a posher road bike or just stick it on ebay and sack the whole thing off... The only real way to tell if it is for you is to gove it a go...

all IMO of course, YMMV, etc...

I wouldn't get a road bike for winter commuting now. I'd get one of the new cheap boardman disc CX bikes and stickk full guards on it. I'm actually half tempted to sell my carbon road bike now and get one.

The ONLY reason to choose a road bike is for speed. However does it actually matter ? If you do 2 hours and complete 25 miles or 35 miles, does it make any difference ?

cookeaa - Member
a "Winter road bike" should be cheap IMO, Cheap means different things to different people, but you will struggle to find even the most basic disc braked CX machine anything like as cheap as a basic (Triban 3) road bike...

It's a valid point. I'll counter that by saying that riding a nice bike is more enjoyable and motivating that riding one that isn't, for me at least. If having a 'nice' winter bike means actually riding it rather than being put off by having to ride a bike that feels a bit crap then that's probably worthwhile.

Besides, I find that if you stick with fairly cheap cassettes and chainrings then the cost of wear and tear is pretty minimal.

cbmotorsport - Member
Not a very balanced opinion here, as I don't own a road bike, but I do a lot of winter road riding on my xc bike, either running skinny slicks or usually summer tyres, which allows me to add in the occasional hard (as in not muddy) bridleway into the ride to mix things up.

If you're doing it just for a bit of fitness, and don't plan epic road rides, just use your MTB. Yes it's not the right tool for the job, but it's adequate (to keep you fit) and will save you a few quid too.

I'm not poo pooing the advantages of a road bike btw, I just get the impression that you just want to keep your fitness up and aren't that bothered about road riding, it's more a means to an end??

Sums it all up for me perfectly. I'm considering a cheap £200 HT for winter, just to save wearing out the nice FS 29 instead, but i actually couldn't care less about speed or distance. 1 hour at lunchtime of hard riding is good either way.

Put simply, if you take a FS on the road, you'll spend a long time going nowhere fast. If you take a roadbike on the road (there's a clue in the name) you'll have loads more fun, go loads further and conversely get loads fitter.

This pretty much sums it up for me. I used to ride my mtb with slicks on the road all the time and thought it was fine til I got on a road bike. Now my "fitness" rides are 2-3 times longer and much faster. After having a go on a road bike there's no incentive to push yourself on an mtb on the road (imo) as it's still slow, uncomfortable and sluggish compared to a proper road bike. So whilst the road bike is lighter and has less rolling resistance it still ends up being a better workout than the mtb.

I find I ride more if the bike is pleasureable and efficient to ride.

A proper road bike just rolls along in comparison to a slicked-up MTB - thinner tyres, lighter wheels, more efficiently-sized wheels, more efficient position, frame better designed for putting the power down.

So if you want to maintain fitness through winter, get a bike you'll enjoy riding, and then you'll ride it more.

But as above, don't spank a load of cash, winter bikes have to deal with a lot of grime which can take it's toll

I'd echo the above, you think you'll ride the mtb, it'll be harder work etc etc, but it's just no fun and you end up not wanting to ride.

I picked up a flat bar road bike (Land Rover), 12 months old, barely used, for £200 - ok it's pretty heavy as road bikes go, and it's flat bar, but stuck some bar ends on, and it's easy to munch the miles, low maintenance, and cheap!

I initially only had one bike; my old Stumpjumper FSR and so to get out on the road in the evenings for a quick ride I bought a cheap pair of wheels and stuck slicks on them. It worked fine. Looked a bit stupid, but it was OK.

When I got my Inbred I used that for my road rides instead fitted with the same wheels and that was better as there was no rear suspension to bob about.

Now I've got a road bike as well and I was surprised how little speed difference there is between the Inbred and the road bike. Yeah, a headwind really highlights the relative aerodynamics of the different positions so does give the road bike a decent advantage. But the Inbred with 1.5 CityJets pumped up to about 80psi is surprisingly quick.

cbmotorsport - Member
Not a very balanced opinion here, as I don't own a road bike, but I do a lot of winter road riding on my xc bike, either running skinny slicks or usually summer tyres, which allows me to add in the occasional hard (as in not muddy) bridleway into the ride to mix things up.

If you're doing it just for a bit of fitness, and don't plan epic road rides, just use your MTB. Yes it's not the right tool for the job, but it's adequate (to keep you fit) and will save you a few quid too.

I'm not poo pooing the advantages of a road bike btw, I just get the impression that you just want to keep your fitness up and aren't that bothered about road riding, it's more a means to an end??

^ That sums it up very well.

Thinking of getting a mountain bike for 1-2 hr evening rides over the winter for fitness but have been thinking what are the reasons to do so rather than just delicately ride around on the trails with my road bike as that bike is going to provide a better skills challenge surely...or am I missing something here?
Thoughts?

It's a valid point. I'll counter that by saying that riding a nice bike is more enjoyable and motivating that riding one that isn't, for me at least. If having a 'nice' winter bike means actually riding it rather than being put off by having to ride a bike that feels a bit crap then that's probably worthwhile.
Besides, I find that if you stick with fairly cheap cassettes and chainrings then the cost of wear and tear is pretty minimal.

AND... (Without spending the OP's money for him)

As you're buying a bike on the C2W scheme, you're saving a lot of money anyway... You could buy an buy an uber cheap bike yeah, or you could buy a nice one (still with clearance for guards) that as clubber says, you will want to ride more as it's more enjoyable. Properly maintained, all you should be wearing out is the usual consumables anyway, and then when spring comes, treat the bike to a full service, new cables and some new (faster, lighter) tyres and take the guards off, and you'll want to ride it through the summer too!

I will add though that despite this being my winter road bike
[img] [/img]

I also have this third road bike that lives at my inlaws, which cost just a bit over £200 (as it was 9 years old) and is very nice to ride.
[img] [/img]

You could get more workout on the same route by riding a FS, but it would be better to get more workout by going further and faster on a road bike. Much more fun.

'more workout' is a meaningless phrase. It's different, not inherently more or less.

I use a road bike for my commute, as it's a lot quicker than my FS. But saying that I don't enjoy riding it half as much, never had the feeling of the miles flying by on it.

Mountain biking is a dying sport - the introduction of 650b wheels proves that. Get out while you can and get yourself a road bike.

Buy a road bike, it makes the road come alive under your wheels.

I use a road bike for my commute, as it's a lot quicker than my FS. But saying that I don't enjoy riding it half as much, never had the feeling of the miles flying by on it.

I used to love going out for long Sunday morning road rides (60+ miles) on nice country lanes. Now the only time I really get to ride my road bike is commuting 17 miles on fast A/B roads and getting buzzed by cars doing 30-70mph. It's monotonous, sometimes scary, and almost always boring.

Buy a road bike, it makes the road come alive under your wheels.

We have a winner 😀

And... there are less expensive bits to wear out.

hahah... you're doing road bikes wrong then surely? 😉

weeksy - Member

The ONLY reason to choose a road bike is for speed. However does it actually matter ? If you do 2 hours and complete 25 miles or 35 miles, does it make any difference ?

I was gunna point that out as well atlaz, but then he also said:

5thElefant
I ride welsh mountains. Road bikes aren't much faster on steep climbs

🙄 😉

If you do 2 hours and complete 25 miles or 35 miles, does it make any difference ?

Yes. Depending on your FS bike there could be more than 10 miles difference for starters, but otherwise how far you ride affects your choices of where to go.

As you increase the distance from your house, you include more possibilities of nice places to ride. For a 10 mile ride, I have about half a dozen lanes I can use. For 20 miles I have some nice flat blasts along the coast or a couple of classic hills. For 50 miles I have loads of choice, including some lovely peaceful Monmouthshire countryside and at least one UK classic route. For 80 or 90 miles I have a choice of a several epic UK classic climbs or a lovely ramble through the Forest of Dean.

yes it does, for the same reason I never stick with running. Doing 2 miles down the road then 2 miles back every day is boring. Being able to ride 100+ miles without really much effort allows for an almost limitless choice of routes. Dont underestimate how valuable comfort and variety are for motivation on long rides

you're assuming people have that sort of time spare though. 100+ miles and that's 4 hours of your day, likely 5, maybe even 6.

That's probably about 3 days a year i have 5 hours for a ride.

For me, my rides are an hour or so generally and durning my 'lunch hour'. So to think that doing it on a MTB or a road bike, it's pretty irrelevent.

Yes. Depending on your FS bike there could be more than 10 miles difference for starters

But why does 10 miles matter ? why does that make you fitter ?

Surely 2 hours ay 85% MHR is 2 hours, the distance you travel is of little importance isn't it ?

almost certainly true.

but riding a mtb on the road is crap and demoralising - like eating soup with a fork.

you're assuming people have that sort of time spare though. 100+ miles and that's 4 hours of your day, likely 5, maybe even 6.

That's probably about 3 days a year i have 5 hours for a ride.

For me, my rides are an hour or so generally and durning my 'lunch hour'. So to think that doing it on a MTB or a road bike, it's pretty irrelevent.

Even our 'steady' (aka slow 16mph) group does ~80miles on a Sunday morning. And that's pretty average all over the country.

And in an hour you could still cover 5-10miles more on the road bike, infact it probably makes even more sense on shorter rides, as there's less options (limited number of roads and junctions within a 5 mile radius) so being able to get a little bit further expands that.

But why does 10 miles matter ? why does that make you fitter ? Surely 2 hours ay 85% MHR is 2 hours, the distance you travel is of little importance isn't it ?

but riding a mtb on the road is crap and demoralising - like eating soup with a fork.

Get a cheap Alu Road bike. End of. Hit the roads. Out the door for a spin and back. Quick clean. Job done.

Get a cheap Alu Road bike. End of. Hit the roads. Out the door for a spin and back.[s] Quick clean[/s]. Job done.

If it's lucky I'll strip and clean the chain once a month. Other than that it stays as it is untill something comes loose or it gets a bit of love arround Easter. Keeping it clean this time of year is just a loosing battle.

But why does 10 miles matter ? why does that make you fitter ?

Cos of what I said in my post. It won't make you any fitter, but it'll be more enjoyable because you'll get to see more stuff and you'll have the option of going to more nice places.

For me, my rides are an hour or so generally and durning my 'lunch hour'. So to think that doing it on a MTB or a road bike, it's pretty irrelevent.

You just have more choice of route.

Admittedly the difference is less if you are on a rigid 29er with 23c slicks, but if you are on a 32lb trail bike the difference is huge.

I can't understand why so many folk buy themselves a race bike when what they're actually looking for is a 'road' bike! There are so many other options that are safer (better handling, braking, tyre grip), more comfortable and almost as fast. If you're not actually racing regularly, a proper race frame with great rigidity, steeper angles and drop bars is more of a hindrance than a help. Most roadies spend 90% of their time up on the hoods anyway, so why not get a bike that's actually built around that more comfortable upright position?
A CX, a proper fast hybrid like the Boardman, a steel 29er with faster wheels; all sorts of ways of being just as fast as the roadies and all capable of staying in their fast group, yet with lots of other plusses. And much less back-ache...
My 'Road' 29er has a narrow flat bar, longish flipped stem and a pair of old skool bar ends. That latter position is longer and lower than many road bikes on the hoods and with good wheels (Hope & Mavic Open Pro) and some relatively porky 28mm tyres, it's fast enough to do everything short of full on racing. You do get some funny looks at sportive events mind...

I have two 'road bikes'
Boardman Sports hybrid, flat bars/bar ends, 28c tyres, hydro disc brakes, 50/36 compact on a 9 speed mtb 11-32 cassette.

MEKK Potenza SL5.0 carbon road bike with MEKK's 'endurance' geometry. Compact drop bars, compact 50/34 chainset on a 11-28 10speed set up.

The Boardman is comfy, reasonably quick but doesn't accelerate fast. Low gearing is great for hills and bigger tyres means all day comfort, rode the C2C in a day on it.

The MEKK isn't a 'race' bike, it has a shorter top tube and taller head tube than the racebred versions that MEKK offer, its designed for longer distances and a little more comfort than a race bike.
Its MUCH quicker than the Boardman as it weighs a lot less, the gearing is slightly taller but still gets me up hills. Its completely different and actually more comfortable than the Boardman - maybe due to the damping effects of the carbon frame.

I never used to like drop barred bikes but actually riding one was a revelation - drop bars don't necessarily denote race bike.