Why am I not enjoying the Dark side?

Picked up a road bike about 2 months ago to get some sunny day mileage on without using the car and things havent gone to plan. I find myself bored riding around lanes and roads just spinning away thinking about getting my trail bike out and doing some jumps. I’ve done a few group rides with mates but it’s difficult to talk with cars around all the time and i’m not fit enough to race them for 2 hours. Should I keep the bike for fitness or sell it and get a Cotic that i’ve been lusting over?

I think you know the answer…..

Your not doing it right…

Either it is a lovely pootle, relaxing, looking at the scenary, chatting and just getting out in the countryside

Or, it is a flat out pain fest trying to improve your strava time no time to get bored as your doing your best to not puke.

– most of my rides seem to be the latter.

Just think of the benefits when you get back on your mountain bike, I have seen a massive improvement in fitness in one year of road riding. More road miles = ability to do more off road miles.

I always aim to get one 2-3 hour offroad ride in a week, and 2-5 hours road depending on work

if you don’t enjoy it and you wont train to get fit enough then ditch it

For Clarity I am a darkside rider

I found the same thing. Bought a road bike for the commute. Hated it! Stuck with it for a bit as surely if so many people enjoy it, then I must be missing something. I wasn’t! They’re shite! Its only thinking of getting on a proper bike that stopped me dying of boredom. Then I had a think about it, and remembered that the roadies I know are some of the most boring, pompous, terminally dull people I’ve ever met, and it all fell into place

So I sold the road bike, bought a decent hardtail (P7) instead, commuted on that and opted for the longer off-road, infinitely-more-fun route home.

I’d cut your losses and do the same

Have you joined a road club yet? That’s probably your answer. Roads are like trails, the best (i.e. trafic free, nice views, nie climbs and a cafe at the end) ones are often a bit more hidden than slogging up and down Snakes Pass.

Slagging off road riding without giving it a propper go is like slagging off MTB in the Peaks after riding the Tissington trail.

Also it rewards fitness much more than MTB. There’s nowhere to hide it ‘being sociable pushing up hills’, if you’re unfit it’s chuffin miserable plodding round busy roads on your own at 13mph averages.

The advantages are huge fitness increaces, even the ‘steady’ (code for ‘slow group’) Sunday ride is quick by my standards, yet offroad I’m probably one of the fitter/faster ones in any group! And that extra speed makes MTB mroe fun.

Road biking is all about self-flagellation. Wimps need not apply. So get yourself a GPS, sign up for Strava, and get ready for the suffering 😈

Almost forgot – it’s also about drinking lots of tea and eating cake. Something roadies and MTB’ers have in common.

It’s still boring however, even having ridden in the Alps.

But it is good for fitness.

and i’m not fit enough to race them for 2 hours

Therein is your problem, you can hide a lack of fitness off road far more easily than on the road.

Either cut your losses and accept you are unfit, or do something about it and get fit. Personnally i find being road fit helps off road in that i can ride longer, further, faster and enjoy the MTB more.

Using the inaccurate thing that is Strava, i am mid list roadie and one of the fastest mtbers in the area! The difference in fitness is vast between an average MTBer and an average Roadie.

Stuck with it for a bit as surely if so many people enjoy it, then I must be missing something.

A set of balls 😆

or an extremely high threshold to boredom?

😉

I think DT78 sums it up perfectly. I found the same and most established roadies seem really good at hiding the pain they are going through.

However my fitness on mtb and ability to suffer has improved exponentially so much so that a painful road session becomes fuel for mtb capability IMO.

Edit: plus I found I enjoy the hard work.

Sounds like OP isn’t interested in the fitness aspect of cycling – which is allowed, of course – so buying a road bike was a mistake I suspect

If you don’t enjoy it don’t do it. As TINAS says, you need to find the better routes either by joining a club or trying a bit harder yourself.

I never really had time to commit to regular club rides so ended up plotting what looked like good routes through Google Maps, putting them onto GPS, and then riding them and diverting as I saw more interesting options.

It’s a great feeling when you’re chugging along at <whatever>mph down a lovely country lane on a sunny Sunday morning.

I find myself bored riding around lanes and roads just spinning away thinking about getting my trail bike out and doing some jumps.

Spinning? try a harder gear.

I’ve done a few group rides with mates but it’s difficult to talk with cars around

Find better roads.

Ignore all the crap about suffering and pain – some people obviously didn’t get hugged enough as a child. 😀

Buy a barbag & a huge saddlebag or some panniers.
Throw your bike computer away.
Take a good book, a camera, some decent food and go exploring. 🙂

It’s not a race, you know.
Avoid people who think & dress like it is.
They tend to be very boring, unless they actually are racers.
(And no, ‘Sportives’ are not racing – they are Audaxes for fantasists with too much money).

If you want to go for a ride with decent people, join the CTC.
They always know the best cake stops.

I think it can be fun
Picking a place 30-50miles away and riding there
Attacking a decent with some good corners really fast
Hanging onto the back wheel of a faster rider with the skin of your teeth
Getting a good tan while you enjoy the scenery

Avoid riding at rush hour and spend some time looking over Google maps for proper country lanes
Quick and easy to get out without the faff of mtb too

Must have the wrong bike.

You have two choices basically (and the pros and cons can be debated just as well as any wheel size debate the MTB’ers enjoy):

1/ Spend a ridiculous amount of money on some overly expensive, mass produced carbon tat that someone has stuck Trek, Scott, Cannondale etc onto the tubes and then adorn it with even more expensive ultra lightweight wheels groupsets etc and then never be happy that its still not as light as someone elses

2/ Spend a ridiculous amount of money on a beautifully crafted if somewhat slight heavy, hand made steel jobbie, spend a further ridiculous amount of retro NOS vintage bits and bobs and a nice Brooks saddle and grow a beard. You won’t care so much about the weight but will come out in a rash if you’re within 5 feet of anything made of carbon.

Once you have picked which camp to join you will get out and ride to prove that you are batting for the right side, push yourself way into the red uphills and generally laugh and sneer at anyone who bats for the other team.

Personally I am firmly in camp 2 (without the beard).

Cheers

Danny B

you need to find the better routes either by joining a club

Or if that doesn’t appeal, have a look at local clubs’ websites- mine has all it’s club run routes listed with bikeroutetoaster links.

Cheers,
Jamie

Enter a few crit races, they are only 40 minutes ish long so really easy (honest! :wink:)

It’s not that I dont enjoy the fitness aspect, I purposely sprinted a small steep climb yesterday to improve my Strava score and everytime I go out I try to increase my average speed and strava position however I can see that I wont be as fast as the top guys whereas when I get to the top of Upper cliff at the chase I get the red mist and really enjoy improving my technique like cornering and jumps to get a faster segment. I just don’t get that on the road bike at all, I’m going to MTFU after my exam on friday and do my usual route at an average that makes me throw up I reckon. Whats a good average for 20miles?

Ignore all the crap about suffering and pain – some people obviously didn’t get hugged enough as a child.

‘Tis true 🙁

There are 2 types of endurance athlete – those trying to run away from something, and those trying to prove something 😉

Roadies are bikers that can’t MTB.

And Mountain Bikers are just bikers that moan alot! 😉

I find myself bored riding around lanes and roads just spinning away thinking about getting my trail bike out and doing some jumps

It sounds like you know how to ride a mtb. Road is always going to be dull if you can jump a mountain bike and ride trails at a decent level.

Fire a few kids out, then you’ll be grateful even for a road ride on a rainy day

I must be in the very small minority, I enjoy beasting myself up a hill on the road bike as much as i like riding downhill on the mtb.

With anything the more you do it, the better you become and therefore enjoy it more 🙂

Fire a few kids out, then you’ll be grateful even for a road ride on a rainy day

Aye! Tis the only riding I get in now-a-days, easy to fit in a ride and meet the wife and little ‘un somewhere for a family outing.

Cheers,
Jamie

Whats a good average for 20miles?

20mph? Depends on your fitness as that’s the only limiting factor, I’d be happy at 17-18mph over an hour on my own, 16-17 over 4 hours in a group.

It sounds like you know how to ride a mtb. Road is always going to be dull if you can jump a mountain bike and ride trails at a decent level.

Naaaa, being able to jump/hop is almost as much use on the road, you’ve got 4 options when face with a pothole appearing under your front wheel.

1) trash your wheel
2) crash into the guy on the left
3) crash into the guy on the right
4) jump it

Given the state fo the roads this is a fairly ongoing thought process on some roads!

There are 2 types of endurance athlete – those trying to run away from something, and those trying to prove something

…never were truer words said on STW!

This made me laugh, for its veracity too:

Then I had a think about it, and remembered that the roadies I know are some of the most boring, pompous, terminally dull people I’ve ever met, and it all fell into place

I’m following the OP on this. I used to hammer it on the road compulsively each week as part of my endurance athlete ‘road miles’, but now I only use the road bike for short road sessions in the winter once a week when it’s too minging to ride off road. I think I’ve also turned into a ‘fair weather MTBer’ too now 😆 Strangely though, I also seem to be enjoying all of this two-wheeled stuff a hell of a lot more now… 😉

http://app.strava.com/activities/61180138

That was yesterdays ride which was fairly comfortable, certainly not sprinting all the way around. Too slow?

The one thing I loved about roadbikes was finding a cadence (doesnt have to be fast) and spinning it then dropping into a daydream/trance.

Try it- don’t bother with group rides. Make it a really early start so no traffic to keep prompting you. Enjoy the sights around you.

If you want to sell and you are 6-6ft2 – email me.

Looking at that I don’t think you need to worry about fitness – just get the Cotic! 🙂

I really enjoy road rides but only when in a group, gets bored quickly if out on my own. You need some goals though really, whether it’s a certain distance, sportives or races otherwise you’ll probably only want to get out on a nice summer’s day, of which there’s about 10 per year.

If you’re riding road just to get fitter/faster and you’re doing it on your own against the clock then it’s going to be dull and unsatisfying, unless you’re an anti-social masochist (also known as ‘time trialist’).
Join a club; you’ll get your motivation from comparing yourself with others and, despite what MTBers think, roadies are a friendly bunch who enjoy a good crack (they just haven’t worked out why those weirdos on overgrown BMX bikes keep waving at them).
Doesn’t have to be an out-and-out racing club, you’d be surprised at just how fit and fast the people are on a standard Sunday club run or CTC ride.

It sounds like you know how to ride a mtb. Road is always going to be dull if you can jump a mountain bike and ride trails at a decent level.

Don’t really agree. They’re totally different things and I have places for both of them in my life. I don’t ride the road bike to jump off things but I’ve had massive adrenaline rushes when descending off mountains flat out. I would defy any cyclist to get on a road bike at the top of a 15-20km descent and not have fun hooning down.

you’d be surprised at just how fit and fast the people are on a standard Sunday club run or CTC ride.

watch out for the 80 year old on some old beaten up 531 bike, riding along at 14-15mph, 12 hours later he will still be riding along at 14-15mph chatting whilst you are on the floor dying!!!

. I would defy any cyclist to get on a road bike at the top of a 15-20km descent and not have fun hooning down.

that’ll be me, give me a 20km climb and i am happy though…

went out on Saturday, 135miles, out to the Gospel Pass, lovely way to spend the day, not fast, about 9hours, just taking in the scenery and watching the world go by.

Plan your routes properly – search out winding lanes up silly hills, with good surfaced main road descents 🙂

I disagree about riding in a group. Yes, group riding can be fun with the banter flowing and a good cake stop but I love getting out on my own – nothing to think about but my own thoughts – bliss.

Cheers

Danny B