Mountain Bikers Who Ride Road Bikes

Neither round here Dez, don't worry, my point was merely that anyone who thinks that a road bike doesn't handle as well as an MTB needs to watch a video like that!

They have to handle well – dodging all those moronic motorists! 🙂

To find a STWers true average speed, you need to take claimed speed and minus 1mph per stone overweight. 😉

I think those narrow drop bars really scare me!
Surely a nice wide MTB bar gives you better steering control than those?

Yes if we had lovely smooth deep black tarmac like the euros, I might consider one…but as Dez says, we don't.

Road bikes are steered much more by leaning than steering so wide bars aren't necessary for decent handling unless you're planning to ride singletrack 😉

You don't necessarily need wide bars for decent handling off road either.

Surely a nice wide MTB bar gives you better steering control than those?

Different geometry and you don't really turn the bars on a road bike, you steer by leaning or pushing. Try riding along at a decent rate on the drops. Then push your left hand forwards into the bar. The bike will initially nudge right then very quickly move left, almost without the front wheel moving. Using that countersteer technique can shift the bike around amazingly quickly, use it in conjunction with a bit of lean and the bike will rail corners far beyond the limits of what you thought were possible.

OK, but it gives you finer control. Probably not necessary on most roads I admit.
Made me laugh on the TDF when they described the stage round Monaco as "very technical" – you can fit a F1 car round there FFS!

er – Member
You don't necessarily need wide bars for decent handling off road either.

I know – I actually hate wide bars offroad but really couldn't be bothered to challenge it on a thread about road bikes…

Made me laugh on the TDF when they described the stage round Monaco as "very technical" – you can fit a F1 car round there FFS!

Try riding it on a TT bike, on the tribars, when doing 30+ on super hard, skinny tyres. I'll bet it feels plenty technical 😉

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen the F1 cars go up a big climb like they had on that TT.

Made me laugh on the TDF when they described the stage round Monaco as "very technical" – you can fit a F1 car round there FFS!

If you don't find a section of trail technical you're not riding it fast enough. Unless you're on a motorway pretty much any section of trail or road can be technical given sufficient speed.
TT bike, low position, high speed and a bike really not designed for going round corners and it's technical!

Made me laugh on the TDF when they described the stage round Monaco as "very technical" – you can fit a F1 car round there FFS!

Never ridden fast on the road have you? 🙄

Hello all.

I ride both. On road I ride a new Specialized Allez Sport.

I'm using the road bike for a daily commute as I prefer it to the Scott Sportster I've ridden for the last few years which is now about knackered.

The Allez was £600 and got £60 worth of free goods from Minster Cycles in Beverley.

cp

I think those narrow drop bars really scare me!
Surely a nice wide MTB bar gives you better steering control than those?

Different. But not better. If anything my roadbike dances around better than my MTB. As already said it (steering) is not done by heaving on the bars alone: bodyweight and an element of finesse comes into it.

Yes if we had lovely smooth deep black tarmac like the euros, I might consider one…but as Dez says, we don't.

The way many bang on about the supposed state of the roads, you'd expect legions of roadies to be lost down giant potholes and chasms: a veritable compost heap of bodies, lycra, buckled wheels and energy gels. Can't say it's ever troubled me, however. Besides, you're supposed to be rufty-tufty gnar-core well'ard mountain bikers, non? What's a little bump every now and then?

Well I seem to have upset a lot of people on this forum I had better back up my mouth then.

I am off wednesday and weather doesnt look to bad so I will pop the slicks, 10 speed block and Easton carbon bars on the Scandal and have a blast to Glasson and post the time door to door if I cant do it in 2 hours then I will bung a twenty to the RNLI. I wont claim to do the journey back in the same time because I will be pooped but I will give it a go. Will post times weds night.

How on earth is a 10 speed cassette going to help? And do you really change handlebars to go for a ride?

Too much spare time some people…

And how will we know your times aren't a bit um "creative"..?

Seems to me this is all totally subjective to terrain, distance and road condition.

My current average round a 15 mile local loop door to door is an hour on the RB and + 5 mins / 1mph on a MTB with semi-slicks. But I can 'sustain' >20mph on the flat bit for a couple of miles near the end relatively smoothly.

It's not that easy making up for 8mph climbs with the state of the back roads where I live even on the downhills.

And do you really change handlebars to go for a ride?

If he's putting a 10 speed block on he's presumably also changing the shifters 🙄

While you're at it you could change the frame for something a bit lighter. You might find you need some bigger wheels as well and thinner tyres. In fact you could call it a "road" bike…

😉

crazy-legs – Member

While you're at it you could change the frame for something a bit lighter. You might find you need some bigger wheels as well and thinner tyres. In fact you could call it a "road" bike…

😆

Are some people trying to say an mtb with slicks is as fast as a road bike?
Because it's not. Fact.
I recently had to do my commute on my mtb and it was hard work all the way. I missed the fast rolling, lack of resistance of the 23Cs, i missed the 52 big ring, I missed the drop bar geometry. Had to pedal for nearly the whole 12 miles – even downhill.
I must say its the only time I did miss my road bike!
There's more to life than going fast you know. 😉

Had my road bike 'bout a year – really love it – soooo fast – corners like it,s on rails – just give it a lean over – Has made me realise how fast i can take a corner – on road or my fave bit of singletrack.
Everyone should give it a go – i was a "dyed in the wool" mtber (since back in the day – 1990 ish!!)now i ride both & wish i'd started earlier.

I am off wednesday and weather doesnt look to bad so I will pop the slicks, 10 speed block and Easton carbon bars

Sorry to bring this one up again but I'm a bit confused here. How do you get a 10 speed road block to work with, I presume, 9 speed shifters? I thought you would need to use some sort of flat bar hybrid type shifters to run 10 speed. You're also swapping the bars? Crazy, what will this achieve?

I do know where I'm going wrong though now so I'll try some easton riser bars on my road bike and see if I can up my average speed.

Looking forward to Wednesdays creativity.

Bonkers.

Spending £1000s on a bike that can only go on tarmac….that's really bonkers 😆

Averaged 20mph into work (though traffic as well) this morning INCLUDING stops at lights, junctions etc.

If it wasn't so windy I'd be claiming my Prophet with 36 Floats weighed 25lb as well 😀

Spending £1000s on a bike that can only go on tarmac….that's really bonkers

Not if you've got the money to spend, it's all toys.

"Spending £1000s on a bike that can only go on tarmac….that's really bonkers"
Perhaps you underestimate the amount of technology & engineering in road frames these days
IMHO a road bike probably needs to be better aligned than a mountainbike.!!??

Averaged 20mph into work (though traffic as well) this morning INCLUDING stops at lights, junctions etc.

If I push it on my SS road bike I can get that too on my commute into work. Unfortunately the ride home is all uphill and my average speed drops quite dramatically! 🙁

WARNING! Anti-fashion post

The reason I'm posting this is to share my own experience as a MTBer riding a road bike but also to protect you and other people from sheep-like fashion nazis lacking their own confidence (fitness?) and style.
Use and wear the stuff you really want and need, not the one what fashion dictates.

TYRES
Forget 23mm tyres and go for 25-28mm instead. In real life (bad roads) you'll be as fast or faster but with plenty of comfort and reduced risk of pinch flats. Nothing reduces your average speed more than punctures:)

PEDALS
Go for MTB clipless pedals if you don't want to walk like a duck and want to clip in quickly and reliably. With stiff shoes there wont be any noticable difference in power transfer.

HELMET
Instead of a cool looking (?) peakless helmet use an MTB one with adjustable visor. I find a peak very usefull on a road
as it protects your eyes not just from the sun but also from car lights. You can always adjust it if you spend more time on drops.

HYDRATION
Your Camelback doesn't care what bike you ride so if it works well offroad than there's no reason why it wouldn't work on a road. When you really hammer it at your treshold on a bad busy road, the last thing you want to do is to reach for a bottle.

CLOTHES
Wear what's comfortable not what fashion Gestapo wants you to wear. If you have legs and speed to show, no one will care what shorts you wear. If they do they are t***s

GEARS
Compact double chainset is the way to go. There's also no shame in using larger cassettes like 12-28, 12-30 as it allows you to spin nicely. Hammering up the hill feels macho but you'll be more efficient spinning.

I hope that helps. Good luck with your purchase 🙂

Hi

I've got 5 road bikes and four MTB (yep super bike nerd). I love riding both, it just gives you a different kind of buzz. It also give you a chance to do so many different things. I've done for instance 5day stage road races, La Marmotte, Belgian classics (Paris-Roubaix sportif x3), track racing, 10000 people mass start Fondo's in Italy. All great experiences. Plus all things that MTBing can offer. Bike's I love'em!

Tony

Crazylegs, downhill with a tailwind is the only way I get up to "quite slow" by STW standards as well 🙂

Obviously we'll ignore the ride home on the average as that will be about 14mph at best unless the wind drops.

Obviously we'll ignore the ride home on the average as that will be about 14mph at best unless the wind drops.

Lol, I know the feeling. 20 mile ride home last night into a 20 something mph headwind across an exposed moor, got blown all over the place, haevy rain, average speed 13.9mph. Still loved it though. Was a fair bit slower than the morning 19.6mph.

"Yes if we had lovely smooth deep black tarmac like the euros, I might consider one…but as Dez says, we don't."

which is why some road bikes don't have 73 head angles and 23c tyres, they're like mtb's and come in different styles.

a road bike can be the most fun thing on a fast descent.. i'd go as far as saying that 55mph or so during a 20km + alpine descent is about the biggest buzz i've ever had on a bike. get the bike set up well and feel confident in the amount of consistent grip available and it makes the climbs more than worth it. UK roads aren't as smooth in general, and the hills are smaller, but they're usually steeper too 🙂

almost every mountain biker i know has a road bike – i got one years back after noticing that the guys who'd bought one were way faster after a winter of road miles. and then you realise how much fun they can be, just in a different way to mtbs.

I'm sure they are. But for the financially constrained like myself, a pair of slicks for the HT is a significantly cheaper & more versatile arrangement.
If I'm on the road and see an interesting looking bridleway, I want to be able to ride it fast! The roadies I sometimes follow seem to have to avoid every manhole, drain, rough section of road etc.
Maybe a CX bike would be as close as I'd get 😕

Yeh a cx bike is good for trail finding – it works like this, I see something interesting whilst out on the road bike, if its a fair distance from home I'll go out another day and check it out on the cx bike. No point struggling on the road for 15 miles on the mtb to ride a 100 metres off road.

Avoiding potholes isn't really that much of an issue.

ooOOoo – Member

The roadies I sometimes follow seem to have to avoid every manhole, drain, rough section of road etc.

They don't have to, they choose to for comfort and to avoid punctures. If you've got a set of slicks on your MTB it'd probably be sensible to do the same…

CX bike is not the way to go IMO. If you ride to work on the road then buy a road bike with mounts. I agree with Dez about riding on the road, its good to save money on juice and be green. Its not so good when lorrys and women drivers are cliping your bars! at 50-60MPH. I don't mind riding a road bike to get to work or to get from A-B. I just find it hard to motivate my self riding on depressing country lanes and busy dual carriage ways, for no real reason but fitness. I prefer to see rabbits, owls, horses, various other wildlife and stroking labrador retrievers and chatting to walkers and bikers. As opposed to tossers in cars shouting and piss taking out of there Saxo or Clio windows as they drive past giving you an inch of room, grumpy stuck up roady riders and feeling like a second class citizen!

I think its Marmite thing! I hate Marmite

Road riding is just like mountain biking but WITH OUT the fun!