Mountain Bikers Who Ride Road Bikes

I'm with you there Seth. Roads are for cars these days! Too busy out there for it to be fun. Plus you can't stop when you feel like it, which I do often on the MTB. Even on my commute I'd rather take the longer, cycle path route as the crossings give me something interesting to ride through!

And you don't need to dodge anything on 2.3 slicks 😛

I aim to average 10mph on the road. Usually means I have lots of nice long stops for a cup of tea and a look at the view. (Average based on total journey time including stops)

I don't like speedos – they keep tempting me to go faster than I want, especially when it's hovering just below the 50mph mark*

I only have one so I know the distance covered for navigation purposes. Are there any like the old mileometer type which show only distance covered?

I prefer a cross type bike for the road because it means I can poke my nose up any interesting tracks I see. I just have a single speed because I have not yet worked out what gears are for. Maybe when I'm old and frail…

*slight exaggeration, but with so many TdF riders on this forum, I don't wish to embarrass myself by admitting my real top speed. Let's just say the world hour record is safe from me.

I just have a single speed because I have not yet worked out what gears are for

Gears are for not having to coast down hills slowly 😈

Thats a highly original thing to say Whos_Daddy, if you're not enjoying it then you're obvioulsy not doing it right. Why do you say it's not any fun?

It's all bikes, its all fun.

Interesting thread, it's inspired me to do this: http://www.singletrackworld.com/blogs/2009/09/road-is-all-the-rage

Gary_M – Member

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.

Gary I have only got 2 gears on the scandal at the moment stood up pedalling and sat down pedalling it also doesnt have bars that will fit 10 speed shifters (mary bars) I would like to fit some gears if only to get me up all those massive 10 foot climbs I need to do..

I really have upset you havent I cant think why all I can say is I am sorry but If its okay with you I am going to have a go at backing up my big mouth it will probably go completely wrong but at least I am having a go.

I bought a relatively cheap road bike (focus vario) about just over 18 months ago, really just to stick on the turbo, rather then waste a perfectly good MTB. Then as the weather got better I took it out on the road. The fact that I enjoyed it took me by surprise. Over this last year I have spent nearly as much time on the road bike as on MTBs.
I guess I’m lucky as I can be up in the Yorkshire Dales in less then an hours ride. Careful route planning enables me to ride an quite back roads so other then heading out of the suburbs of Leeds I tend not to have to deal too much of traffic
Its taken me time to get the bike set up correctly and learn to ride it properly, and understand that they are very different to a MTB – but I love the speed & response of the road bike and how hard you can push them through corners and downhill.
I still see it as a training tool, it means I can ride my MTB faster and harder and have more fun on it – at the end of the day all riding is good

I had one of my toughest days on a bike today and it was the one with 700mm wheels. Visiting my parents in Scotland, rode solo up into the Highlands from Perth and what felt like a hurricane. By the time I crested above Kenmore the bike was barely moving….first 45km took 2.5hrs, did another 100km after that. I swear I almost cried. Good though, harder than MTB I reckon……nowhere to hide on a road bike, especially with a speedo screaming "Nonce!" if you come off the pace.

Of all the riding i've done in the last year, highlands camping trips, Innerliethen downhilling, Edinburgh singletrack, a Merdia marathon, a WHW end-to-end attempt and some long road rides, I have to admit the most fun i've had is on the road bike sprinting up a long winding climb outside of Inverness, in the drizzle, while listening to the Black Angels.

Scottish scenery + epic music + a bloody fast bike that won't stop till your heart does = a pretty potent combination!

</heresy>

should re name this thread road riders who ride mountain bikes.

maybe we should do a big STW road ride, film it and give it to the big teams to bid for us, or even better entr us into a road race event 😉

pantsonfire I'm not in the slightest bit upset, all I asked was what 10 speed shifters are you using – simple enough question I would have thought.

I just thought it was a bit crazy to swap bars to go on a road ride, but now I realise as you ride the bike as a singlespeed you must also be fitting front and rear mechs as well then I find it even more mad.

So what shifters are you using?

and a longer chain! and some gear cable and a rear cassette!

I went from riding a road bike back to a mtb. Even did a few TT back in the day.
I find riding on the road boring – its not a challenge and dislike being in traffic.

I commute daily on my hardtail mtb to liven it up a bit – at least I can manual and muck about.

Gary I have only got 2 gears on the scandal at the moment stood up pedalling and sat down pedalling it also doesnt have bars that will fit 10 speed shifters (mary bars) I would like to fit some gears if only to get me up all those massive 10 foot climbs I need to do..

I really have upset you havent I cant think why all I can say is I am sorry but If its okay with you I am going to have a go at backing up my big mouth it will probably go completely wrong but at least I am having a go.

Punctuation would go a long way. You can fit 10 speed flat bar shifters to Mary bars if you want surely?

Are you really going to rebuild your bike just to go and do one ride? Or are you going to come on here, cock in hand, and say you did it at a 45mph average and actually your chain snapped and you severed your legs in the resulting fall and had to crawl the remaining 75 miles on your face?

Owwwwwwwwwww that hurt the pain the pain booohoooo I have bust my ego 😥

2 hours 27 mins for 39.6 miles

I am going to have to face it my mouth is faster than my legs 😆

Oh well £20 to the RNLI so it was in a good cause and I had some nice beer and a big bowl of ring sting chilli in a pub in Garstang on the way back

Now then where was I

I can do 17ish for 40 miles and about 12 mph on the way back

Have you been thinking in KPH by any chance?

Oh – and well done for being such a man about it…

Of course if it hadnt been for the wind
.
.
.

Only joking 😆

2 hours 27 mins for 39.6 miles

and good job for being honest, but the wind does play a big factor 😉

Good effort! 😀

2 hours 27 mins for 39.6 miles

By my calculations that gives an average of around 16.3mph, a fair way off 22mph as I'm sure you will agree. Good on you for being honest this time though.

I still don't know why you won't say what sort of 10 speed shifters you're using though as I really am interested to know. I remember Steve Worland writing in what mtb about a 10 speed set up he had, wondered if it was the same set up.

Shimano SL760 groupset its the one for flat bars and they do not fit on mary bars unless you have thumbs wuith an extra joint

They are about the same level of quality as LX I reckon look similar but have a different lever feel hard to put it into words closest I can get is they feel creepy like the cable is stretchy. Mega smmoooth though

Oh by the way I didnt claim 22mph on a MTB that was a racer. I can do 20 miles in an hour I just have to do the next 19.6 in an hour and a half 🙂

I can do 20 miles in an hour I just have to do the next 19.6 in an hour and a half

To be fair if you're on a ride thats not really the way you work your average out. And a 17 average for 40 miles them 12 for the next 40 is 14.5mph in my mind.

And you did say So I compromised and got 1.5 slicks for my hardtail best of both worlds can average 20mph plus on the road

I think Steve Worland used some sort of campagnolo set up btw. I think sl760 is xt level but I thought it was 9 speed.

Gary give it a rest mate you won I lost I look like a dick but your starting to sound obsessed

Oh by the way mea culpa mea culpa it should be SL770 happy now 🙄

And who says roadies are obsessive types

lol, so you were talking bollox.

I'm sensing some anger from you though.

pof, good effort for owning up! quality thread this one 😀

😆 I'm guessing you originally meant to say "can average 20mph plus on the road for a short distance on the flat".

I'm impressed though that you went to all that effort to try and prove a point, when you could have just claimed to have done the test 😉

Fairly sure Steve Worland used Shimano flat bar shifters – probably the same as POF, bearing in mind we're taling road kit, where 7 series is supposedly equivalent to top of the range DA stuff (in practice it seems to be somewhere between that and Ultegra).

Yeah, credit to you for actually being honest on this one, as this thread has shown it's all too easy to sit there and talk big in front of a faceless screen!

FWIW, Worland just used a road flat bar shifter with 10 speed road cassette. You can get the ultegra level RH shifter for about £50 so it's perfectly doable.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=35084

respect to pantsonfire
We are just like fishermen with our averages. I can average 22 mph on my hilly commute home…. well I did once and puked at the end 😳