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though I got back into cycling through Mountain biking, my father had been a keen road cyclist and I rode a road bike in my youth when MTB were starting to appear, and he had taken me to the kelloggs tour etc, so there was always a love of road cycling there.
In the ten year haze of drinking and partying, I kind of forgot about it.
I moved to stafford for my first job and thought it would be an idea to save money by buying a mtb to get to work and i could also ride over the chase.
Which i happily did, then the mtb fascination kicked in, met great friends, great rides, etc.
Fast forward a few years, and i was once again in the position of being handily placed to cycle commute to work, so i got a vintage, cheapish, steel bike and did that, that is the moment i realised what i had been missing.
I find it more convenient just to get on the bike and go ride on road, much less hassle, doesn't cost anything etc etc.
My mtb wheel has been in the shop almost 4 weeks, it is most likely done by now, but i'm in no rush because really my passion is now road cycling.
I've mountain biked once this year! 😕
but i'm doing an old Marin up for the missus which may kind of be rideable for me also so that may well reignite the off road in me.
I haven't quit MTBing, but like half the rest of you, available time, work/family commitments and location make road and CX/gravel riding the more obvious choice 80% of the time...
I ditched bouncy bikes as they just weren't getting the use, so I am back to a single HT which serves my current MTBing needs...
One thing I do perhaps wish is that #Enduro had taken off a couple of years earlier, I enjoyed DH but wasn't exactly awesome at it, Enduro seems like it would have suited me better, but I don't have the time, post kids, to commit to a season of racing now, maybe in a few years, when they're older I can have a crack at Vet's, hopefully all the road miles will help with fitness till then... 😉
Health reason for me, had two big operations on my spine when I was 19 & 23 disc's fused etc. very messy 🙁
Broke my ankle 10 years ago and the physio advised me to take up cycling, so I bought a Hard Rock and fell in love with it. Upgraded that to an Orange G3 then a Cotic Soul which I rode all over Peak, Lakes & Wales until in 2014 my back went pop again at Cannock.
Luckily they could cure it with an injection at the Claremont in Sheffield, where the boffin specialist advised me strongly of any rough and tumble on my bike. Sold the Soul and now I ride 50/50, I've got a Genesis Croix De Fer for (Sherwood Forest) fire roads and a Cannondale CAAD 10 for the road.
Miss my Soul evertime I fancy a spin 😕
Dipped a toe in to 'proper' roadying this year - entered the Fred Whitton on a whim so spent the Spring doing road rides. Enjoyed the change but not rushing to do it full time. Noticed the weather a lot - seemed to find bad weather on the road more mentally taxing than on the MTB for some reason. The FW event itself was a glorious day and felt like the first time this year I'd ridden in prolonged sunshine. Saying that, riding on the road in fine weather and beautiful scenery was pretty special, so maybe I'll make a fair-weather roadie.
Feels like road cycling is as hard as you want to make it, like you can bimble along in a way you can't so much off-road, there's like a higher base line of effort on the MTB. I had thought that famous road climbs like Holme moss or Snake pass would have you breathing out your aris, end of. Obv you will be if you're throwing a dig into them, but I was surprised how easy they are if you just want to pedal up them. Just a different rhythm - but saying that the standard of fitness on the road seems far higher than on the MTB.
I wanted it to say Cat2 and Vet on my racing licences.
I went the other way, after 20 years of racing on the road I realised I just didn't enjoy it as much anymore, so I borrowed an MTB at the end of last summer and can't get enough of it now.
I'm way behind the curve in terms of skills, but the challenge of picking these up is what will keep me interested on the mtb for years to come.
I also love the look on people's faces when they wave at me and I just blank them. Makes me smile inside.
... I see what you did, there. A meta-comment! Grumpy sod. 😉
Feels like road cycling is as hard as you want to make it, like you can bimble along in a way you can't so much off-road, there's like a higher base line of effort on the MTB.
That may well be true, but I find myself pushing myself hard on the road bike in a way that I never seem to do on a MTB. On the MTB, if a big effort is required to get up a difficult section then I will give it everything, but for 95% of climbs I tend to dawdle. Whereas on a road ride I seem to be able to grit my teeth and keep the hammer down.
As a result, if I want to go out and feel like I've done some proper exercise / effort, then it's road bike for me. So I definitely 'get' why some people love it. That said, if I'm riding for pleasure, 9 times out of 10 it's on a MTB trying to find stupid things to jump off / over - you can't do that on a road bike 🙂
Never ever saw myself becoming a roadie. Have very decent off-road and on-road rides right from the door, so it's not really about lack of choice. I just made a slow transition from riding mountain bikes, to riding mountain bikes a bit further, riding them on the road, putting slick tyres on, etc...
At first I loved the challenge: How far can I ride? How fast can I do it? What places can it take me? It satisfied a thirst, and it still does. I love the challenge of cycling and the adventure it brings. Riding round a trail centre is great fun but it doesn't tick the same boxes for me. And whilst I still love an epic MTB ride, the really epic ones are few and far between, and a mountain bike feels so inefficient for day to stuff. The road bike is my go to tool for adventure.
Off road riding is really poor where I am, there aren't any trails which aren't farm tracks, but I'd still rather do that than ride a road or gravel bike. Even while living on the coast I can go off-road and still be riding on concrete or tarmac. BUT I'm still discovering fun stuff to ride to potentially injure myself on right from on my doorstep (had a fractured wrist and broken tooth in the 3 years I've lived after moving from village to town) so MTB always! Fast rolling hard pack tyres, and triple up front, helps on the roads.
If I now lived where I grew up I'd probably mostly ride a CX bike, as there isn't much technical challenge in Northamptonshire but lots of bridleways, footpaths and quiet country roads. Fortunately the South Downs are a lot hillier and there's lot of quality unofficial singletrack and steeper jumpy stuff in the woods.
I still think of myself as a mountain biker, but since I started cycling to work I've gradually edged over to the dark side. As other people have said it's much easier to get a quick 50km in on the road bike and then get on with the rest of your day than it is round here on the mtb. Having my brother being into road cycling and living just down the road doesn't help either.
I still love riding the mtb, and have recently pulled my finger out and started going down to the Surrey Hills (from west London). Nothing gives me the same buzz as mountain biking, and I just figure that all these road miles are helping my mountain bike fitness.
When I move out of London, one of my pre-requisites is decent riding straight from the front door.
Hand injury meant no thumb use for a few moths, so a road bike with flight deck flappy paddles was sourced. Found I enjoy the simplicity of riding out the door and 3hrs later be home having done 40 odd miles.
The faff of having to put the mtb in the car to get anywhere reasonable is offputting.
Less maintenance , things dont wear out as fast or get broken on the RB.
Downside is the roads near my house are awful.
Had a fantastic week in the Pyrenees rin some classic TDF climbs Hautacam , Tormalet, Aspin etc and had a great Neilson trip to Greece and was surprised how good that was.
You definatly loose a skillset by not spending as much time on the mtb , but in fitness terms and for weight loss a road bike is excellant.
Started off serious riding on a road bike but mainly a lack of any real decent off road riding with out chucking the bike in the car. On the plus side miles of quiet country roads around me. Can easily do 50+ miles without hardly going on any major roads. Though last year I did trade my Supersix in for a Diverge so I could fit wider tyres in for a bit more comfort.
For me it went like this:
1. Quit my job and gave up company car.
2. Got given a commuter with 26" wheels, for the shop run.
3. Wanted something faster so sold the (free) commuter and bought a cheap road bike
4. Wanted something faster so upgraded the tyres & wheels on said road bike.
5. Wanted something faster so upgraded to a carbon road bike with new shiny bits on.
6. Wanted something faster so...... you get the idea.
I still ride MTB but the feeling of being able to hit 50mph with the wind slapping me in the face is just awesome, and i found out that i'm actually pretty good at it in the grand scheme of strava times. Now i'm into minor gains and aerodynamics and all that stuff, it's addictive. It's also about the convenience and simplicity of it compared to mountain biking - I can just throw on my bib shorts, pump up my tyres, fill my bottles, grab some gels and head into the hills for a few hours and when I get back there isn't half of Calderdale that needs cleaning off my bike.
And i think being a MTB'er makes me a better roadie, and vice-versa.
Most of my mileage is road commuting to work
I'm a pootler, not a racer. I don't mind going fast and putting in proper-effort-sections, but I just like riding
My off road riding is relatively poor, it's riding not on the road, not real off road, but it's fun. I do it on a single speed rigid bike to make it even more fun.
It's not that road riding is horrific, it's just than riding on non-road surfaces is more fun!
Guilty!
1) Practicality - much easier to fit a good road ride into the daily routine (the commute, lunchtime laps etc) than a good MTB ride.
2) Different highs - the appeal of thrills'n'spills adrenaline started to wear off but the endorphins and satisfaction of a decent road ride still does it for me
3) Different bikes - I like a bike which barely needs looked after or any expensive spares. Partly why I don't even want discs on my road bike.
4) Different perspective - I guess I just changed, even when I lived in North Vancouver and had a selection of amazing trails on my doorstep, I just ended up feeling like I was spending my time riding in a very small patch of forest on the side of a mountain. You see so much more on a long road ride. Same reason I'm going off Munro-bagging in favour of long distance backpacking.
5) Injuries etc. I can't be arsed with the sort of terrain I used to love i.e. tech, rocky, rooty, hard going, especially after a few different back problems leave me less inclined to wrench the bike about, and I never developed the necessary smoothness to ride tricky terrain smoothly.
Mountainbiking just seems too slow, too awkward and too much hassle these days! 8)