as others said it’s about pain and suffering, if you aren’t hurting yourself (or just pootling enjoying the scenery) you aren’t doing it right.

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.

I’m not a fan of road descents either, too much chance of the wrong sort of pain. Presumably something you get used to but switching from slack angled full susser with tacky tyres to a nervous handling, head down road bike with bugger all road contact and crap brakes doesn’t fill me with confidence. neither does the lightweight gear, >30mph I’m always sure something will break.

watch out for the 80 year old on some old beaten up 531 bike

Yes. Best thing for a newbie is to find the oldest rider on the most decrepit bike and tell them, at length, just how good you are. Then you’ll have the fun of discovering they’re a former national TT champion, as they ride you into a state where death would be a welcome release.

I’ve got into road-riding recently after the gauntlet was thrown down to ride the LEL in July.

So I got a cheap road bike, had a blast at the Northern Cyclone last year. That bike is now for sale (Hora) and I’ve built up something that wil be more suited for the LEL.

I’m absolutly loving it. The distances you can go, the things you see. I rode home from Essex to Northumberland (600km) last bank holiday weekend. This saturday, I’m riding 400km to Edinburgh and back.

The only problem I have is the sheer time it eats up. I can’t be bothered going for a 2 hour ride as it does nothing for me. Go large and then go home. 🙂

And road descents are a blast on the right bike. Mine’s actually s cross bike, with disc brakes, so I’m very confident of its handling.

That said, the MTB comes first and these recent dry conditions I’ve been avoiding the tearmac as much as possible….

Presumably something you get used to

Definitely. The first time I got over 30mph I thought I was going to die. Perversely, my first road bike crash was hitting a pothole at about 5mph. No blood, lots of embarrassment.

Might have to search out some long decents that does sounds appealing. Any around the Staffordshire area?

I rarely look forward to a road ride like I do a mountain bike one but afterwards I actually more likely to be buzzing after a road ride.

There is no point in you carrying on. Give road bike to SaxonRider.

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

I did catch myself making motorbike noises riding down Yad Moss into Midlleton-in-Teesdale the other week…

I don’t think I ‘get’ the enjoyment thing on a road bike, either….

I bought one at the end of last year to try and get out on the road a bit more and get my fitness levels up. I haven’t ridden it that much, but I just don’t enjoy riding on the road. I can manage a couple of hours, but I find it boring.
It is a good way to get miles in and fitness up, but enjoyable; nope. Not for more. It’s more like an outdoors gym session.

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.

Bollocks.

Ross, I’m not too far from you and get out on the road bike a fair bit. I don’t think there’s any massive descents, but I’ve found sone nice roads out towards the Leicestershire countryside starting from Tamworth. I like them because they’re generally pretty quiet. Only downside is there always seems to be a bit of a headwind.

I’m not massively quick (average around 16.5 miles an hour) but feel free to drop me a line if you fancy a spin out. You might think that it’s still crap, but you mind find the roads ok.

Personally I prefer MTB’s but I’m much fitter since getting a road bike and the lack of faff is ace. I like being able to ride from the front door after work etc.

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.

Then you are in the minority. Off all the people I know who are skilled bike handlers none of them would rather go out on a road bike unless it is pissing it down and the trails are a bog.

Lets face it, when you can bunny hop, manual, drift round corners, pump and jump, road riding is almost always going to be a poor relation.

If you are poor at bike handling then I can see the appeal of road.

kudos100 – Member

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.

Not in my experience, road riding’s just a different buzz. Speed is fun. 🙂

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.

Bollocks.

You need a big set yes.

For me, road riding is for fitness and catching up with my road riding friends. It’s easy to keep the bike clean, efficient, can cover long distance comfortably and good for a quick ride after work without any faff.
Road riding makes getting fit a lot easier than mountain biking.

However… mountain biking is the closest I will ever get to being 8 years old again.

kudos, i think your missing a huge detail, why people ride. IF you want to be good you need to be fit, which means road miles, if you enjoy getting out in the country road/mtb, doesn’t really make much difference. If your one of the new school MTBers for whom the point is riding downhill then maybe your right.

An Kudos i suspect your “skilled bike handlers” aren’t really that skilled… i find there are a lot of riders who think they are far better than they really are. Seems to be a trait of mtbers!

Mostly been said, but road riding is more fun the faster you get.

Also sort yourself out some decent loops with a lot of variety. Find some good climbs and descents. That route you posted looks pretty flat (was your max speed really 56.8 mph or was that a gps glitch?)

If you don’t enjoy it then you just don’t enjoy it. It probably has nothing to do with bike handling or fitness. There are many things I don’t enjoy that thousands of other people do, I just accept it and do the things I do like.

Having said that I do really like riding my road bike so I must be dull and crap on an MTB.

I’m also in the love road climbing (and mtb climbing) over descending camp. But then I don’t have the physique of the typical MTB-er 😉 .

I suggest the OP goes out on a CTC or other club Sunday run, sociable, fat-burning, fitness boosting, cake foraging. I went out with the beginners in or club last night for some ride leader practice, and if you can’t sing or chat, then you are trying too hard. A couple of the guys were of the just-bought-a-road-bike camp, but all but one took to riding through and off just fine.

Road riding can be just as sociable as MTB. As long as you don’t go out with the fast group – then it’s a world of pain (in a nice way).

There’s nothing magic about road biking that makes you fitter than MTBing. If you want to get faster you can perfectly well do it on the trails whilst having fun at the same time.

I find road riding more fun if I have big monster climbs to do, but you may not 🙂 The reason I do it is that when it works out well it allows me to get a sustained workout and enter a sort of meditative state (I think endorphins are involved) without being disturbed by trail obstacles, mud, dog walkers etc. It’s also quite nice to be able to cover a lot of ground and feel like you’ve really travelled, instead of going round in circles in your local woods. Of course MTB can be lik that too, and is ace when it is, but you’ve got to be lucky to have that option where you live without ironically doing miles of road or driving.

Don’t get me wrong, I still prefer mtb overall, but road has its place in my life. I wouldn’t say that needs to be the case for everyone though.

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

+1 riding down shit roads is shit. I spend ages planning out road rides, using online route planners (current fave is ridewithgps) to find the best climbs/descents and google streetview to check the road surface, width, visibility (hedges etc). And make sure the halfway town/village has a good bakery.

Then you are in the minority. Off all the people I know who are skilled bike handlers none of them would rather go out on a road bike unless it is pissing it down and the trails are a bog.

Lets face it, when you can bunny hop, manual, drift round corners, pump and jump, road riding is almost always going to be a poor relation.

If you are poor at bike handling then I can see the appeal of road.

It’s funny, because some of the gobshite roadies have a similar sort of thing to say about MTB but revolving around fat pie eaters who can’t go up hill without uplift or getting off the bike. They’re as wrong as you are.

I think what you’re saying is YOU don’t like road bikes which is fine, but it doesn’t make you right about anyone who does.

kudos, i think your missing a huge detail, why people ride. IF you want to be good you need to be fit, which means road miles, if you enjoy getting out in the country road/mtb, doesn’t really make much difference. If your one of the new school MTBers for whom the point is riding downhill then maybe your right.

What does good mean to you? To me it means bike skills. You don’t need to be amazingly fit to ride a bike with skill. It helps, but it is not the be all and end all.

An Kudos i suspect your “skilled bike handlers” aren’t really that skilled… i find there are a lot of riders who think they are far better than they really are. Seems to be a trait of mtbers!

A number of them race Dh and do pretty well, so I’d say they were pretty decent bike handlers 😉

But what I, and presumably others above me, are saying is that we have the “rad skillz” you’re talking about and love riding MTBs for that reason.

However, I love riding my road bike too. Choice is good.

It’s funny, because some of the gobshite roadies have a similar sort of thing to say about MTB but revolving around fat pie eaters who can’t go up hill without uplift or getting off the bike. They’re as wrong as you are.

I think what you’re saying is YOU don’t like road bikes which is fine, but it doesn’t make you right about anyone who does.

Never said I didn’t like road bikes, its all bikes at the end of the day. What I said is that people who I know who are decent on a mtb (and by decent I mean can ride proper DH, jump and flow) prefer the mtb every time.

I will be getting a road bike this year, as I cannot stand another winter of riding in a quagmire. Soon as it drys out I will be back on the MTB.

Mindmap thanks for the offer, I’ll keep your address in mind for when i’ve got some free time.

I think I’m going to keep at it for a bit longer. I don’t think i’ll get the buzz some of you guys get but I’m ok with that if my fitness increases so i’ll enjoy my MTB more. I think when i’ve got more free time next week i’ll plan a longer ride with a nice stop half way, Maybe Ashbourne.

nervous handling, head down road bike with bugger all road contact and crap brakes doesn’t fill me with confidence

It’s in your head, the only things that scare me on road decents are oncoming cars and diesel. Road tyres are incredibly grippy compared to off road ones.

What does good mean to you? To me it means bike skills. You don’t need to be amazingly fit to ride a bike with skill. It helps, but it is not the be all and end all.

I think what someone else said up there is true, some MTBers have far too overinflated ideas about

a) how difficult riding mountainbikes is
b) how good they are at it

The way you make MTBing a challenge is to ride hard up or down, cos it gets more exciting that way. I suppose the preferred way to make a road ride a challenge is to make it longer. 100 miles is epic in different ways – the first time you end up 50 miles from home and think ‘f me, I am all the way out here without my car, I have to rely on my own strength to get home’ is a good feeling, I reckon.

There’s nothing magic about road biking that makes you fitter than MTBing.

[i]generally[/i] a 3hour road ride is 3 hours of pedalling whereas a 3hour mtb ride is maybe 1.5 hours pedalling with a load of chat, faff, gate, style and other stops. So on a time basis road is more efficient for fitness gains

It’s in your head

oh yeah quite probably, I can maybe (rough guestimates) get 50% out of what my mtb is capable of, road bike probably only 20%, there’s a lot more grip there but I haven’t got the skill or bottle to use it. If i did a lot more road riding I would no doubt get better but I’m mainly an MTBer and find the only occasional switch to skinnies hard to manage. Road (as with CX I’m finding) there’s a lot less margin for error when the front/rear goes it’s gone and you’re into a whole new world of pain.

Choice is good.

Amen Brother.

Thing is kudos to me a good rider is one who can get from a to b. uphill and downhill. I know a few riders who are good downhill but show them a technical climb and they haven’t a clue.i know other riders who are ok dh but can climb, so who are the better riders?

Different skills, and very different ideas of acceptable risk.

generally a 3hour road ride is 3 hours of pedalling whereas a 3hour mtb ride is maybe 1.5 hours pedalling with a load of chat, faff, gate, style and other stops.

Speak for yourself. That’s not intrinsic to mtbing or road biking, it’s a characteristic of the kind of riding you do. Seems unlikely that a casual cake-stopping bimbler on the MTB will suddenly turn into a Team Sky candidate on the road bike. If want to get your head down off-road then go out on your own.

Do both and I love both.

Road biking is fun in a group and on my own for me. MTB is more fun with my mates.

I think the reason I enjoy it is because I can fire up the map, look at a place 200km away and go “I could ride there”. It’s freedom. and it’s completely under your own power.

Plus with the road bike you have all the training metric geekery. Simpler to measure your improvements on it too if you ride solo a lot.

I don’t get all the angst and disagreement about how others expresses thier likes and dislikes of each discipline – surely it’s each to thier own?

Personally for reasons mentioned previously I’ve found it much more convenient / pleasant to get the road bike out during the winter slop, using the mtb singlespeed to break things up a bit.

This summer has brought a dilemma though, because I am enjoying the road bike club rides enough to ignore the mtbs, although I’ve enjoyed several MTB rides over the last couple of months.

That’s why I’ve loved the road bike the last year. Moved to a new country and I already know it better than people who’ve been here for a decade or more. The reason? Road bike and the fact there’s not much of the country I’ve not covered (it’s a VERY small country).

I did the same with cyclocross. I bought a cx bike so i could mix it up abit and ride something different, but whenever I rode it, I was wishing I was on my mtb!

It didnt get me any fitter, was slower on the dh, not as much fun, and was generally Very uncomfortable. Lesson learnt for me.

For me road riding is much much better for fitness than offroad. If you follow a training plan it is much easier to stay in the right heart rate zones for the right length of time.

There are few trails where I can do that. Mountain biking is quite start / stop by nature whereas road is constant.

Anyways, got to say I was a hater but was driven to the road by trashed trails. Now love it.

And you don’t have to spend a fortune, my carbon sram force rose cost £1800 and is perfect. Not sure I would notice spending more…

If you follow a training plan it is much easier to stay in the right heart rate zones for the right length of time

Yeah, if your training plan involves constant HR or power efforts. If you want a series of short max efforts then I reckon MTB is actually better. I find it far easier to properly bury myself for short efforts off-road cos it’s just more fun and I don’t focus on the pain. Also on steep climbs when you have to give it 100% just to avoid dabbing.

Watch American Flyers, spend every road ride afterwards humming the theme and thrashing along pretending to be Kevin Costner with trademark tash, Lycra and a Stetson…. Close thread.

Even without that I love road riding.

A lot of MTB pros train on road bikes. Wonder why?