Going down a hill really fast on a road bike is scarier than on a mountain bike

Discuss

Entirely dependent on the hill or what you class as a hill. I find going down anything really steep, rocky and never ridden before on a HT a much more intense proposition than going quick on a nice, smooth, predictable road. If you were to go down an off road hill on a road bike though…..that could be proper frightening!

agreed

especially when it starts to ‘wobble’ 🙄

Bit scary descending the Burway with a sharp frost!

I’ve been pretty scared going quite fast on a road down a hill on a mountain bike. I definitely don’t fancy the inverse.

Only if you start thinking about how much skin you’ll lose…

Agreed, was out on the road bike tonight just hitting 40 mph on a straight road decent with my hands on the hoods was deeply uncomfortable. Daren’t even put my hands on the drops either. I have clocked myself ona hardtail at over 45 mph and was still wanting to go faster.
I dare say that if the mountain to road bike useage ratio was reversed then I think I would be telling you I didn’t know what all the fuss was about and I could hit over 50 mph non handed 😉

Definetly if that Doris from girls aloud is behind you.

just pull on the little levers until the scared feeling goes away – works on mud and tarmac

I saw two blokes yesterday approaching the end of a fairly mild two mile road descent near my house.. I usually hit about 30mph coasting on a fat tyred rigid SS mountain bike down there, so I guess they could have got a fair old chat going on their road bikes..

Not typical serious faced stick thin lycra roadies, they looked more like maybe Aussie Rules footballers..
They were looking pretty ecstatic and stoked etc.. perhaps a new breed of adrenaline roadie..?

just pull on the little levers until the scared feeling goes away – works on mud and tarmac

Unless in the wet, they don’t work at 50mph with a sharp left coming up fast!!

perhaps a new breed of adrenaline roadie..?

The DH’er in me can’t help pushing it on every road DH. Still trying to break 60mph on the run down from princetown.

I think the uncomfortable truth is that by the time you feel uncomfortable with your speed on a road bike you’re already going a good bit faster than you normally could on an MTB. (Provided you’re not just bad at riding a road bike).

perhaps a new breed of adrenaline roadie.

I still fancy building one of those cafe racer style “gravity bikes” and going out to get the real tarmac fear next winter

50+ easily round the alpes last year. Very scary and really fun all at the same time. I was doing 30+ down cut gate when the rear tyre decided to pop. That was just as scary.

The worst I have had on a road bike was in the Yorkshire dales last year when touching 45mph the front end stared to wobble. I was clenched. 😯

faceplanter, have you tried descending using the drops ? It’s much better as you have better control over the brakes and straighter wrists give better balance

Riding on roads is damn scary, with all the idiots driving these days.

last year i crashed at the bottom of a fast descent on my road bike and knocked meself out for a while. im a bit scared of downhills now even tho i upgraded the brakes, road bikes just dont stop very well

i’ll happily go as fast as possible on my MTB tho, which is exactly why i want discs on my roadie

Hmmm most scared is a difficult thing to quantify.

I remember doing 45mph on a steep downhill road in the wet – that was quite scarey but I was so focused on getting down alive I didn’t think much about it until after. In fact it wasn’t until the next morning when I was in my car following someone else on a road bike doing the same speed in the wet!

It looked a lot more scarey from the driver seat of my car 😯

I’ve done 90kph (56 mph?) on a road bike quite a few times – Pyrenees, Dolomites. Because I’ve never come off a road bike I still think I’m invincible and therefore don’t get too scared. Let’s face it anything above 30 mph is going to really really hurt anyway, so best not worry.

On an MTB I’ve crashed a few times, and almost crashed many many more. I know therefore that I’m not invincible and tend to be more scared.

Edhornby, I know, I need to just man up I suppose.

I also find it worse.

Last year I did the Route d’Avoriz climb & then rode back down. Slower than I did on my MTB.

I get a real fear when approaching ~70kph. The thought of a blowout & resulting pain is too great.

Let’s face it anything above 30 mph is going to really really hurt anyway, so best not worry.

Or indeed barely hurt at all.

road bikes just dont stop very well

There is just not enough rubber on the road. Are the new fangled disks that are emerging really going to make a difference.? Maybe in the wet but again I think the lack of rubber on he ground is the issue.

i am fairly tall and quite light and find i get fit hard by cross winds. 30+mph and suddenly finding your 3-4 feet left or right of where you were isn’t the nicest experience. More weight in MTB wheels i guess so they never seem so affected

I’ve done a bit of DH racing in my time and now ride road bikes a lot. Descending on both is brilliant. Road just edging it for me in terms of scariness, however there is a distinct lack of massive road gaps and other stunts on a road bike ride.

At the extreme end they both have their challenges and in either one, the consequences of misjudging something are severe. However I think on a road bike they are more likely to end up in death.

So road wins.

I don’t find the hill a problem but hitting cattle grids at speed always makes me wince a bit.

hitting cattle grids at speed always makes me wince a bit.

Hop them.

it’s the bit when you see the 90 degree bend coming up and start to brake hard and it feels like the bike is hopping off the road

When I was 13 I wiped out at 35-40mph on a road bike on a strange concrete/pebble road surface and lost a fair amount of skin from my butt and elbows. The road had a sort of polished pebble top to it and although that caused the crash it did ease the gravel rash. On regular tarmac you can lose a lot of skin and if you are doing over 50mph its gonna get hot too.

I rode the Kirkstone Pass the other week on my tourer and it was fun but I was not that fast. Those drystone walls look unyielding

Hop them.

No thanks, i’m not the best when it comes to hopping on a mtb never mind a road bike with 23c tyres doing 40 odd mph.

I’ve hit 60mph+ a couple of times with a strong southwesterly tailwind on a very steep short downhill section of road nr to Kirkcudbright before but more often than not i kinda chicken out at 50mph+, it is not a nice place to be especially as the road surface leaves a bit to be desired and taking the corner at the bottom necessitates hugging the left hand side of the road on entry then hoping you have the courage to hold it on line enough to get round the corner without either washing out the front end or crossing the raised white lines in the middle of the road that make the bike leave the ground for a split second. Every time i take the ss road bike down there i imagine the amount of skin graft’s i’ll need to repair the damage if i fall off at that speed on such a shit road surface.

This is the fastest that i have proof for, green line is altitude, blue line is speed

Note at 3.35 my speed drops to zero – i usually need to sit down on the seat nr the waters edge to compose myself after making the corners.

And this is the speed demon machine, it only has a front brake so i tend to avoid pulling it on when going downhill.

Record on road bike was 52mph according to my olde worlde avocet bike computer. That’s when the wheel wobble was starting.

Record on MTB was here…

Edit: don’t like steep descents on my CX bike. mini V brakes have sod all power after using disc brakes!

It’s a combination of factors that make fast descents on a road bike unnerving.

-Geometry – the bike is designed to be efficient for chopping along on the flat and climbing, but even “relaxed” road bike geometry can feel twitchy pointed down at high speed.

-Tyres – again that thin highly pressurized strip of rubber is intended to be most efficient in nominal conditions. Really high corner speeds especially with adverse camber, moisture, grit or dirt on the surface can be extremely sketchy.

-Braking – It’s not that road brakes are “Bad” it’s that you need to read ahead and use them early and taken off enough speed to account for the acceleration you get through the corners where you really can’t get away with touching them…

-Environment – we have already mentioned some of the things that can get on the surface of the road and affect grip but then there’s the other aspects of the environment around you, pot holes come up faster and you and the bike feel them. And you’ll be conscious of what you are liable to hit should you run out of road; kerbs, walls, fences, trees, houses and various items of road furniture are not very nice ways to abruptly decelerate a human being.

All of these things coupled with the prospect of skin loss should you “just” tumble and slide will play on your mind and make the road suddenly feel quite narrow.

Road bikes don’t descend like MTBs less rolling resistance means they accelerate under gravity far faster and will get to much higher speeds far quicker not really being designed for this sort of operation means that a road bike feels unnerved and scary to use at 50mph+…

Best advice is to read the road ahead, act carefully and deliberately, use as much road as you can and use your brakes early in a straight line not through those 35º corners that now feel like deadly 90º bends and stay as relaxed as you can, tension will not help

topping 70kph on the road bike was fine, 50kph on the mtn bike on a gravel road not so clever, 75kph on the mtn bike down a lakeland pass, no issues at all.

It’s all about what you are used to and how much control you have.

Somafunk – not sure about your bike but the Rocco looks sweet.

Agree. Going really fast downhill on my hard tail wasn’t scary at all.
Waking up at the bottom of the hill with some broken bits WAS scary though.

Yes

I find the thoughts of “what if?” really pray on my mind on the road bike, not helped after a double blow out in a corner at the bottom of a downhill last Autumn. The collarbone is OK now 🙂

If I turn right out the house I’m at 75kph in 20 seconds.

Much much scarier on a road bike for me. I can without doubt descend quicker on my MTB even on roads.

I’m the total opposite. Going fairly fast on a road bike (or recumbent!) is fine as long as you remain relaxed and don’t do anything crazy. On the other hand, as a mountain biker newbie I’m not yet able to convince myself that any downward off-road slope is a good thing. In fact, I’d almost certainly walk down any hill!