bored musings.

If you say had a mid range road and mtb (say around the £2k mark and 3 years old) and had a hefty £5k to spend on a new bike (yes I know they go up to £10k now but that is just silly, who spends that?)

Which bike would flatter your skills / fitness more?

The road bike or the mtb bike?

Not sure, but it would be shiny titanium as opposed to steel. I honestly can’t see how you could improve on most £2k bikes other than more bling.

Mtb

The MTB, surely?

I can’t imagine road bikes have changed much in the last 3 years, maybe you’d get something a kilo lighter and with disc brakes. It might make a difference of 0.5mph average speed on a ride…

Whereas a 3 year old, 2k MTB (aka bottom/mid range FS bike, probably heavy, with semi budget suspension) vs a full carbon, top of the range FS bike. Also the 3 year old suspension is probably getting a bit tired cmd in need of a proper service, vs new suspension with big negative chambers and buttery smooth damping. Not to mention geometry changes…

Hell, I notice a big difference on a 1 year old £1800 FS compared to a £4800 FS bike.

gut feeling answer:
If you want to compete (race, within your group of friends, strava) then a reasonable few percentage points increase in speed would be better found on a road bike; whereas off road that may be lost in your skill, trail conditions, etc.
Going out on your own (or with people, but considering your own enjoyment rather than figures and stats) then a super duper mtb is going to have a much greater improvement to enjoyment.

Assuming for the mtb its a full sus as opposed to a xc hardtail then think you would get some gains there although I doubt anything amazing.
That said electric shifting and discs might help the road bike out a bit but doubt it would really be noticable.

ebike…

Also – (I’ll admit to being MTB biased, road bikes are for fitness and commuting in my mind) – we need to know what the 2016 £2k mtb is, and what ‘sort’ of mountain bike you are potentially looking to get.

ok.

road is a carbon ultegra 11 speed jobby with relatively ok wheels, something like krsyiums
mtb is a 120-140ish full sus with 11 speed SLX and something from RS as suspension

I’m leaning towards the mtb, as they do seem to have progressed much more (though not sure ‘new’ geo is better, or just different). Suspensioning being worn is a good shout.

I think it would depend on the rider. An experienced and fit roadie would get a reasonable gain from moving to a 5k bike that’s stiffer, aero wheels, faster tyres, etc. A decent mountain bike rider would benefit from better suspension and better performing tyres.

Mtb without a shadow of a doubt.

My road bike is 15 years old this year and still doesn’t feel outgunned on a club run. It has been extensively upgraded but only to shed some weight. improve ergonomics and fit tubeless tyres, it’s still 10speed. That’s not to say there’s not gains to be made but remember what MTB’s were like in 2004?

Having said that, you could probably make bigger improvements spending the money on other stuff. £1k on getting the suspension serviced and tuned properly, coaching days, new tyres etc probably exhausts the things that are going to offer the most bang for your buck off road.

On road I’m going to contradict myself and say get a new bike. Disk brakes, 50mm aero rims (because carbon and rim brakes suck) and a proper bike fit. But again that’s £2.5k and anything above that is even more marginal gains. I’m thinking Allen Sprint disc and some Chinese wheels, should make something as fast as any mere mortal will be able to notice whilst riding.

It might make a difference of 0.5mph average speed on a ride…

That’s a big difference on a road bike. Hanging on the back of a group or being able to actively do a turn.

My biggest performance boost this year has come from buying a dedicated commuter bike s/h for £100! Amazing how much fitter I get when every journey can be biked, not just ones with fort Knox levels of security at the end!

I’ve since spent about £250 on new wheels and dynamo lights but it’s still a sleeper in the bike rack.

Upgrading from 2K, 3yo and you’re already well into diminishing returns territory so wouldn’t be seeing substantial differences. I mean you can in microcosm but take a step back and they’re next to nowt.
Drop it sub 1K, say, and a high end FS MTB might be game-changing as it could take you from ‘I can’t ride that’ or ‘I’m frightened to ride that’ to ‘I can ride that smooth like a Boss’.

Mtb without a doubt. My yeti ascr was faster than the 3 year old anthem it replaced round my local loop without even trying

On the road my 5 year old ultegra built road bike is still within 200 grammes of the uci limit, and I doubt I could buy anything for less than 5k that would be faster up a hill. An aero bike may be mildly faster on the flat, but you could cancel out those gains by slamming the stem a bit, and buying an aero helmet and shoe covers for 30 quid combined from planet x.

Aside from the difference between current and upgraded bikes, I’d also be looking at how much use each will get, and look to a year or 3’s time if this will be the only new bike you’ll buy for a while. Would you be happy still riding the MTB in 2 years?

If you only do 200 miles a year on the mtb but do 2000 on the road bike, and are likely to continue that, then that’s a big deciding factor.

Soneone mentioned the ‘E’ word but it might be an option, £5k is proper ebike territory.

And there’s always the option of upgrading some bits on the road bike to give it a new lease of life, some new wheels, carbon bars etc. A few hundred quid and then £4k on the MTB, you’ve got the best of both worlds…

MTB, no question. A 2K road bike will get you 90% of a pro machine and sub 8 kilos. A 2K FS MTB is really entry level it appears.

Road, because you can afford deep section carbon rims which are much faster than bog standard wheels on mid range bikes. You also get an aero frame which saves a bit.

Suppose it depends what you want to do on a bike.

Just riding around on either road or trail, I suspect a mtb would give you more gains per pound.

However if your existing mtb is ok and not stopping any smiles when riding but, you want to progress in the hill speed / TTs / triathlons etc etc, then money is likely better spent on the road bike.

All things being equal and if you just want a new toy, buy whatever you fancy the most as if you don’t you’ll regret it.

I’d also say mountain bikes.
I’m a roadie who mountain bikes. Road wise I’ve had bikes ranging from £7k to £750. My current bikes are £4K,£3k and £1500.
Very little difference between the £1500 and £7k bike. The £7k bike was awesome but in performance terms not massively different to the £1500 bike. Lighter frame, fork and better more aero wheels, better looking groupset, but 105 with hydraulic brakes works fine. Prob 2kg weight difference. I find the biggest difference in performance is the £4K aero bike, again only marginal, but it’s faster than the £7k super light bike.
On mountain bikes the performance difference between my current full sus and my first entry level full sus are enormous. Notice it exponentially when riding down fast rocky sections. Gentle trails not so noticeable.