MTB vs Road Bike. How much faster on the road?

Looking at buying a house in the country. I road out there yesterday afternoon on my mountain bike and according to the GPS it was 21km and it took 56mins. So around 22km per hour. I was wondering how much quicker this would be on a road bike? I was not really pushing it and it is all pretty flat but it can get windy. I am not going to be really going for it everyday on a road bike so no racing speeds please.

My commute is 6 miles on road. Takes me 40 minutes on an MTB, 25 on the CX bike. Road bike with proper thin tyres would be a bit quicker than the CX, I reckon (28mm tyres on the CX)

lots, more fun too

That would really depend on the bike. I ride my Uzzi with 2.4" Rubber Queens at under 2bar air pressure to work in about 25 minutes. I've ridden the same road with my road bike in about 15 minutes being more exhausted on arrival. There are sections (with crossings and uneven pavement) where the mtb is actually faster, but most of the way the road bike is clearly quicker.

I would imagine you can get fairly close by getting a pair of well rolling tires (or separate wheelset for them) on the mtb, but all in all it depends on the roads and what kind of mtb you have.

Regarding your average speed of 22km/h, I think it's not uncommon for road bikers to have an average speed of over 30km/h even on far longer trips.

I thought we lived in the UK where road distances are marked in MILES not some Euro babble. 🙄

Oh, maybe you just wanted it to sound like a longer ride.

Used to do a 13 mile commute – it took 55 minutes on my mountain bike and 40 minutes on my road bike.

Yeah, no idea what your fancy kilometres mean but a reasonably fit rider on a roadbike on the flat should be able to maintain a 20mph+ average pretty much all day.

For 21km though (what's that in sensible distances, 13 miles?), you should be trying to offroad all of it. 😉

Jag bor i sverige 🙂

I used to have a 10 mile each way commute and switching from a slick tyred mountain bike to a proper skinny tyred road bike took 10 minutes of my each-way time.

So around 40 mins sounds ok. Worth investing in a road bike then.

One of the papers tested out different types of bike for commuting. Road bike was considerably quicker, but a hybrid wasn't that far behind, and the guy riding the hybrid wasn't so sweaty and minging. I certainly find that being on the road bike encourages me to go all out.

Road bike will be quicker, even than a slicked up mtb. My mate usually destroys me when we are on a MTB, when however he puts 1" slicks on his MTB and I take my road bike not only am I quicker on climbs (which normally never happens) also on flat when I put the big ring on he just doesn't have a gear low enough.

18-20mph average on a flat road without any traffic lights etc is doable on a road bike (for me, plenty of quicker guys), but You would have to be reasonably fit to maintain it on a longer ride. I can get about 28km/h (18mph) on a 90km ride but I spoke to epo-aholic from this very forum and he can average 33km/h (20-21mph) over 100km. That is quick. Also pretty much hard to do with all start-stop traffic etc. But if You're planning on taking it easy, You had a 22km/h average on a mtb than I would say 26km/h taking it easy on the road bike will be easy peasy. Different position will also help with head wind, just get on the drops and go.

Road bike is fun and I ride mine more often than my mtb, also saves the wear on my mtb, no forks/shocks to service, put on a new chain every now and then, pads and that's about it. It was supposed to be my commuter only but I got hooked up kept on upgrading to a nicer bike.

[edit] what he ^^^ said it's very hard to keep it easy on the road bike, it's sooo easy to get it up to speed etc. Every time I'm planning to take it easy it ends up with me trying to see how quick I can get to work on my short commute 🙂 [edit]

A couple of thoughts:

On a steep downhill near home I can manage 40mph on a road bike 35mph on the mtb. Partly that's because I can keep pedalling to a higher speed on the road bike.

I normally commute on my Peregrine; gears, 32mm tyres. Came in today on my single speed: lighter with 23/25mm tyres. 9 minutes faster over 1hr/60 minutes.

I think that on a road commute the lighter bike with narrower, higher pressure tyres will be faster.

IMO a roadbike's about 1.5 times quicker – assuming good roads, of course. If the asphalt is less than ideal you can lose quite a lot of time, I imagine a CX bike would be more appropriate in that case.

Don't forget to make sure you can fit mudguards and a rack – which might make finding a suitable roadbike harder.

Dibbs – Member
I thought we lived in the UK where road distances are marked in MILES not some Euro babble

Rule 24 :-)[/url]

Plus, if you're lucky, you'll find a lot more people to race on the road.

All of the route is either on good but small roads or cycle roads so no traffic lights and good surface all the way.

Land Rover versus Ferrari, each has their use.

Dibbs – Member

I thought we lived in the UK where road distances are marked in MILES not some Euro babble.
Miles for mountain bike and kilometres for Euro-roadie-ing, innit? 😉

Possibly not just about weight of bike and contact patch: My wife is bang on about as fit/fast as me (but getting faster from one month to the next -ulp!) and she has a kona smoke. Despite having wider (slick) tyres and weighing a good deal more than my town bike (slicked up normal 22-32-44 chainset rigid mountain bike) she is faster and arrives less sweaty. I guess this must therefore be down to the size of wheel (29"/700c) and the larger chainset (28-30something-48). She says its a PITA to get up to speed compared to her mountain bikes but easier once you are moving quickly.

My commute is 6 miles on road. Takes me 40 minutes on an MTB

Blimey. My commute is just over 7 miles, and I can do it in under 1/2hr easily on the MTB and have done it in 22 mins on a road/hybrid bike with 28mm tyres. I do it now on a Cararra Subway (MTB with slicks basically) in about 27 mins these days, and I'm not that fit and ride in normal clothes and sandals!

I think I might get a road bike. Just for going to work. It's 15 miles & the best I've done it in is 53 mins, slowest was 68. Not hilly but usually a good breeze one way or the other.

I've just started commuting some of my commute (12.4 miles/20km), parking the car up in a village & cycling the rest of the way.

I did it for the firs time on Monday and taking a few wrong turns on the way in, stopping twice to check my route and probably doing closer to 15 miles took me 56 mins.
On the way back to the car, it took me 42mins dead on – so an average of 17.7mph.

The commute is almost entirely up on the way there and down on the way back (about 250 feet over the 12.4 miles) and I think on the way back there was a slight tailwind. My normal road pace is just over 16 mile/hr.

The bike I use on the road is my On One Inbred with a 'slick' set of wheels & Schwalbe City Jet tyres. I suspect a road bike would make me a couple of minutes quicker.

I use 5 of my 7 bikes on my commute, and they each allow/ encourage different routes. I’ve been commuting by bike for 15 years, and variety is usually more important to me than speed on my hour long ride. Having said that, my Ti hardtail is only a couple of minutes slower than my Ti road bike if I stick to the (very hilly) tarmac route. That probably says more about my (dearth of) road biking skills, but when you're spending so much time in the saddle, a detour down a rocky bridleway is really good for the soul, so a MTB, either FS, Ti HT, Steel HT or fully rigid, is my choice 99% of the time.

PeterPoddy – Member

Blimey. My commute is just over 7 miles, and I can do it in under 1/2hr easily on the MTB and have done it in 22 mins on a road/hybrid bike with 28mm tyres. I do it now on a Cararra Subway (MTB with slicks basically) in about 27 mins these days, and I'm not that fit and ride in normal clothes and sandals!

you;re obviously a better rider than me then 🙄 After all, I only ever wear tight fitting lycra and cane it all the way to work in an attempt to beat my best time, arriving in a sweating, stinking mess, so if you can go farther then I do in normal clothes and do it fatsre without being fit, then you should probably think about training and doing that tour of france thingie

My point was the difference in times on MY commute – same route, same rider, different bikes. Same journey in the car usually takes about 25 minutes too.

Same journey in the car usually takes about 25 minutes too.

So your not only a rubbish rider but a slow driver with a crap car! 🙂

avdave2 – Member

So your not only a rubbish rider but a slow driver with a crap car!

😆 and a tiny **** too 😯 😛

At least you might actually see the view on a mtb

BTW, I found I was getting quite a lot more neck aches if carrying a heavy (laptop etc) bag with the roadbike (more bent down) vs. the mtb (more upright). Getting a good bag helped things slightly, but not entirely.

Ti hardtail is only a couple of minutes slower than my Ti road bike

There must be something very slow about the set-up of your road bike (or fast about your HT)

Depends on the MTB innit. Are we talking Scott Scale with 23mm slicks, say, or Giant Reign with 2.4 stickies?

comparing a mtb with 23mm slicks is a bit meaningless tho innit.

On the speed front, I do 26 and a bit km in a hilly area, and that takes under an hour, 54 minutes is my fastest yet. On a touringish road bike (saddle bag, mudguards) with drop bars and race tyres. On the flat on a road bike, 30km/h is not a hard speed to keep up at all.

BTW, I found I was getting quite a lot more neck aches if carrying a heavy (laptop etc) bag with the roadbike (more bent down) vs. the mtb (more upright). Getting a good bag helped things slightly, but not entirely.

If you carry weight on the bike it is much more comfortable – either panniers or big saddlebag (carradice make ones big enough for laptops etc).

Joe

Top gear steady pace on my road bike I cycle at 19.5 mph

13 mile ride = 40 mins

Top gear steady pace on an a hardtail MTB with slicks I've rode at 15mph

13 mile ride = 52 mins

CP

comparing a mtb with 23mm slicks is a bit meaningless tho innit.

Not really – if you stick with the MTB, thin slicks would be a likely alternative to a new road bike. I have some 23mm slicks and tubes, barely used, if anyone wants?

It's worth noting btw that if you do get a full road bike, even an entry level one, it probably won't have rack mounts.

When I had a long commute I went for full road bike and gear, and used a super light Camelbak octave with minimal stuff in it – left my shoes at work and so on. Didn't need a laptop for that job.

MTB vs Road Bike. How much faster on the road?

A road bike is 26.729% quicker. Give or take.

Blimey. My commute is just over 7 miles, and I can do it in under 1/2hr easily on the MTB and have done it in 22 mins on a road/hybrid bike with 28mm tyres. I do it now on a Cararra Subway (MTB with slicks basically) in about 27 mins these days, and I'm not that fit and ride in normal clothes and sandals!

What a guy!

My commute: 7 miles on road bike = about 24 mins, 6 miles on MTB = 24 mins

The bike I use on the road is my On One Inbred with a 'slick' set of wheels & Schwalbe City Jet tyres. I suspect a road bike would make me a couple of minutes quicker.

Funnily enough my MTB based commuter was also an Inbred with Schwalbe City Jet tyres on. Changing from that to a Giant OCR3T road-bike took 10 minutes off my 10-mile commute.

Interesting. I was in Red Kite (Solihull) recently, listening in on the schpiel that the salesman was giving a woman who was interested in buying a road bike. He claimed that a road bike was 3x more efficient than an MTB, on the road. Even accounting for tiddly wheels and knobblies, it seemed like a big difference! Seems like he may have been exaggerating a tad…