Originally Posted by dlester

After a few weeks of snow and wind storms, pretty much everywhere I ride (including the route to work) is littered with mounds of plowed ice/snow, and assorted tree branches and debris that has been blown around and ultimately made its way to the edges of the roads.

So, giving up on riding the road bike again any time soon, I returned to commuting today via the mountain bike until road conditions improve. I was absolutely stunned by the performance difference. I knew the off-road, meaty and squishy tires would provide higher rolling resistance, and I knew the gears were much lower, but I was not prepared for what my Garmin was going to show me when I got home.

My average speed, including all the assorted stops I can't seem to avoid, was almost 6mph lower (19mph down to 13mph) on the mountain bike. Just absolutely nuts. On the bright side though, I had to have burned more calories on the ride than normal so it isn't all bad, so maybe my gut will be just a little bit smaller by spring than it was already destined to be.