how does climbing compare MTB vs Road bikes?

Oh you wont find a difference in ease, youll hurt and breathe hard on both. You just cover more distance on a road bike.

I’m not sure if I buy all this ‘climbing out of the saddle’ on a road bike…. unless it’s a *really* short snappy climb and you want to hold your speed, you use the gears progressively and stay seated, keeping the gears spinning – out of the saddle really is a rare occurrence for bursts of power

if you are on the hoods with your bum in the air for long periods and the bike rocking underneath you then you are wasting power

i find climbing much tougher on a road bike, you have to get out of the saddle more and also your handlebars are different you cant bring your elbows in when climbing on a road bike..i find it hard to climb when road riding……. MTB is easier for me, get your elbows tucked in and you can really pull on the handlebars…… IMO. anyway

Before I started doing more mtb’ing than road biking I used to love climbing on a road bike. The position is better on a road bike and you don’t waste as much energy. It’s also easy to get a rhythm going.

Now I find road climbs very difficult as my legs have got used to all those nice gears on an mtb.

It’s both easier and harder at the same time.

It’s more efficient but gears on even a low geared roady are less friendly.

Find a decent roady bunch to ride with and no hill will ever be easy physically again.

The extra fitness you get from that will help your MTB riding no end.

Roadying uphill is never technical or thoughtful like climbing on an MTB can be though, it’s all power ( and tactics if you’re racing) – never a skill.

I’m not sure if I buy all this ‘climbing out of the saddle’ on a road bike…. unless it’s a *really* short snappy climb and you want to hold your speed, you use the gears progressively and stay seated, keeping the gears spinning – out of the saddle really is a rare occurrence for bursts of power

if you are on the hoods with your bum in the air for long periods and the bike rocking underneath you then you are wasting power

It may not be the most efficient way but road riding is about getting from A to B quickly, i.e. turn the biggest gear you can as fast as you can. If this means in the saddle then in the saddle if it means out of the saddle then so be it.

I rode mountain bikes for 23 years but two years ago I got a road bike and TBH I have hardly touched the MTB since; road riding has made me so much fitter and faster and my biggest regret is that I didn’t do it sooner; I’d have done better at mountain bike events like Polaris that I used to do. The mountain bike is so sluggish and heavy even with rigid carbon forks that I’m seriously thinking of Ebaying it and spending the lolly on a crosser. Specialized Tricrosses with discs are about to hit the shops.

On a road bike you will have the speed and fitness to blast up many shorter hills maybe dropping only a gear or two. On longer hills the road bike is lighter and stiffer and the gearing taller so you will still beat a mountain bike.

I did the Cairngorms 100 road event the other year on a mtb. On the downs the road bikes went past me, but on the climbs I would pull them back in.

find climbing much tougher on a road bike, you have to get out of the saddle more

Would say less personally. Certainly if comparing road bike up a road, and MTB up a rocky, rooty bit of singletrack where you need to power over obstacles.

handlebars are different you cant bring your elbows in when climbing on a road bike

rest hands on the tops close to the stem. less “pulling”, and very little energy being wasted on unwanted steering.

MTB is easier for me, get your elbows tucked in and you can really pull on the handlebars

erm… why waste energy pulling on anything? I want to go uphill, not pull a wheelie with every pedal push. only need to pull on a short snap or to regain momentum.

road is way easier, unless there’s a head wind too.

needs a bit of mental strength too – my trick is to count 1-2-3 with each pedal push, so you vary the “lead” leg, and don’t look up! If you see the next bit of road/track or can see there’s loads more to come, or you’re nearly at the summit, but not quite, your brain goes “oh bugger”, and you lose momentum.

WOWSERS!

i am geniunely still in shock about this thread, i expected tonnes of replys arguing about which is easier, (and genuinely thought it would be road)…but clearly its not as easy as it would appear!

the mate in question though, does 50-100miles on a sunday with another lad….no problems really, never heard him say he struggles or it was horrid and painful….

yet when we go out mtb and do say 30 miles off road up peak district, hes absolutly fooooooked! and im still feeling like ive got plenty of energy left…..not boasting at all, im lighter than he is and i like off road climbing so do it quite often, but it just made me think all along it must be pretty easy on a road bike…

how wrong was i?!?!?!?!

the mate in question though, does 50-100miles on a sunday with another lad….no problems really, never heard him say he struggles or it was horrid and painful….

yet when we go out mtb and do say 30 miles off road up peak district, hes absolutly fooooooked! and im still feeling like ive got plenty of energy left…..not boasting at all, im lighter than he is and i like off road climbing so do it quite often, but it just made me think all along it must be pretty easy on a road bike…

how wrong was i?!?!?!?!

it might be thathe is telling fibs or more likely that when out on a 50-100miler (big difference!) he is doing most of the ride without maxing out on his effort whereas when you go out on the mtb you might be dipping into max output more often and that is killing him..

you could of course get a road bike and go out with him and see…

yeah guess it could be a mix of the above rootes – thing is its hilly around by us so i cant really see how he would be taking it easy…..maybe not super fast pace but hes not slow on the mtb either, just struggles on longer rides…

ive got no interest in riding a road bike TBH, if i commuted id get one, but i enjoy MTB and everything that goes with it….. i may ask to borrow his one weekend though when hes away to see what its like

Having ridden same routes on both many times, road bike is quicker on everything. In Alps I can do about 800-850m ascent an hour on a road bike and about 600m/ hour on an MTB on tarmac – both where it is basically a long climb.

We rode the Joux Plan (HC Tour climb) from Samoens twice in the same week, all way up on road bikes and about 2/3 of way up on MTB in similar sort of time. Road bike was clearly faster, both pretty hard work, MTB gave an awesome descent, road bike a great circuit.

Hardest climbs I’ve done have all been offroad though – roads tend not to do much more than 20% for any length of time but offroad all bets off.

Theres more you have to do in climbing on a mountain bike
and the terrain is much harder opposed to sweet smooth tarmac
and including lighter bikes, shaved legs and arms and the lycra 🙄

Going back to the OP. Road climbs. A road bike is way easier. Weight, drag, position are all in your favour. Chuck in gearing as weel. yes, you can create road gears by using the outer or maybe middle ring on you mtb and staying half way down the block but the bike just doesn’t work like that. So you end up riding in gears that are way to low for effective climbing. I am a fat unfit rider but I got up Rosedale Chimney, 1 in 3 on a 28/25 ratio on my CX bike. The main feature was that I wasn’t twiddling like a humming birds wings. Its short so you can stand. (bloody well had to!) Gearing is the key. Around here, the FoD we don’t have big hills, but when I am out on my SS MTB I find that my mates on their geared bikes are in the way on the hills. Deliberately half the time. Why? Because they select the granny gear and twiddle. And I have no choice but to go for it or fall over. At the top they are no better off. So back to the Op. On road hills a road bike is easier and more effective.