Road Cycling - roading with a mountainbike

Hello,

I have gotten more into cycling this season than ever before, and am loving it. I put in my max single session ride today of 55 miles. I have a '97 Trek 8000 mountainbike, and am trying to figure out what advantages on-road that I can have with a road bike.

The only modification that I have made to this bike is the tires. I change to semi-slicks while riding on road, rather than the normal knobby tires.

My question is, if I continue to lengthen my distances (as I plan to), would the experience be better on a true roadbike? Would it be better enough to justify the purchase of another bike?

I do not have much money as college is draining it out of me, so I am faced with a tough decision.
Thanks ahead for any advice!

stay on the MTB for a while.... think of it as resistance training. then reward your efforts with a road bike when you acheive some fitness goal.

If you stay on the MTB, you will be kicking yourself when you finally get a good road bike. You will see what you have been missing the whole time. Road bikes rule! MTBs drool!, at least on the road.

I used a MB on the road for over a year. I never went off road - in my ignorance I bought the MB because it looked a lot stronger and more comfortable than the skinny little road bikes. The LBS guy warned me...but of course I did not listen.

I finally reached a stage on the MB where I could not pedal fast enough - I hit a wall at about 35kph where I really could not go much faster. So I looked around for ways to up the gearing on the MB - and came to the conclusion that I really should get a road bike.

I eventually did - and it was the best thing I ever did. I even got a RB with only two chainrings - this I thought would be terrible as I had effectivley lost the two smaller chainrings off the MB.

But the RB is MUCH better on hills - even with the much higher gearing. I am at a loss to explain it - weight no doubt has something to do with it. So it is faster on the hills, and of course you have much higher gearing for the flats. The only thing you lose is on BIG hills - the mountain bike goes down in gearing a lot further than any road bike - so a MB is still best for going up vertical cliff faces! But you can get triple chain-rings on most road bikes - and that is a good compromise.

The only thing you lose over the MB is comfort. The skinny wheels and high pressure tires make it seem like you are running on metal wheels sometimes. But it is worth it. I can now easily sit on 30kph all day long if I have to - on the MB that would have been virtually flat out all the time.

Do it - you will wonder why you ever used a MB in the first place.

Don't bring a knife to a gunfight ;) But don't go broke buying the gun, either. If you're in college, you're going to need your money for school.

I’m a recent convert to road cycling and it is so different then touring or trail riding. I am not a racer; I ride mostly for the fun and exercise and a quality bike is not that important to me. My road bike is an old Trek 330 that I paid $50.00 Cdn. for and it is in new condition, and is good enough for me. Therefore, as a poor student, something I was for a long time during and after I left university, going used may be the way to go.

Well, let me give you this perspective. I'm almost 50 years old and have a high school aged son who rides along with me on the roads sometimes. He's in great shape (plays HS soccer and basketball), and I'm a middle aged orchestral musician who rides for enjoyment. I ride a Trek 7200 (a hybrid not a road bike, but with 28c tires closer to a road bike than not), and he rides his mountain bike with slicks. Even at my age I can outlast him or drop him if we're out for more than a couple of hours. I don't think my riding ability or fitness is the reason... I think it's the bikes. A cyclist as strong as you should get an inexpensive (or used) road bike for the road, and save some $ for tuition! (If my son ever gets ahold of a road bike i'm a goner!)

Even though a road bike would be lighter and faster, I would advise you to stick to your current machine, till you leave college and get some money coming in.
Semi slick tyres are OK for general purpose eg commuter riding, and for touring on roads and trails, but for longer faster road riding you should get narrower high pressure slick tyres. 1.25-1.5" are usually the narrowest that will fit onto MTB rims. It is the cheapest upgrade and will make you go faster. In the UK, many endurance road riders are switching from 700c to 26" MTB with slicks (but on lightweight bikes).
The next thing you can do to get faster and more comfortable is to adjust your riding position. Have a look at fitting some aerobars to your flat bars. These are much more effective than bar-ends for aerodynamic high speed riding. 90% of aerodynamic drag is due to the rider, so if your position is good, it matters little what kind of bike is keeping you there.
For longer distance performance riding, you should probably be using cycling shoes and clipless pedals. Platform pedals with toe clips will do the job, but clipless will give you extra efficiency. Look for an MTB system with recessed cleats, these are more versatile than the road systems.
If you find yourself spinning out , you can replace your chainrings for larger ones. Triple rings are useful for touring, but road triples are geared higher, eg 30/40/50.

A roadified MTB is a useful beast for commuting, riding trails and for touring, so you will need it even when you have a lightweight sporty road bike.

One guy that is part of a club i ride with, has two bikes, a road, and a Gary Fisher Aquila, he uses the MTB some times with us, and can keep up really well on hills and some flats. He has semi slicks on which gives him more of an edge.

Still after uni, you WILL want a road bike, i sold my MTB to get one, and im happy, very happy. Its a triple so it gets me uphill sharpish, very fast, have hit 45mph so far, felt great.

Thanks for the great response!

I am kind of torn as to what I want to do. I think that I will continue to use the mtb for the rest of the season and if I am worthy of it, reward myself with a road bike at the end of the season (as that seems to be the best time to buy).

As for my tires, I will definitely change those out. Are these a good choice?
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=121&subcategory=1084&brand=&sku=7174&storetype=&estoreid=

I am already using ritchey spd clipless, and couldn't live without them!

I have also looked at those aero bars, but haven't found any under $90, which would be a good start to buying a road bike. I did however change the angle of my bar ends so that I have a smaller angle between my waiste and mid section.

Thanks again for the response! If anyone else has any other suggestions, I would love to hear them.

As for my tires, I will definitely change those out. Are these a good choice?

I recently went down to a 1" tire (CitySlickers) from 1.5" for the GT MB, and Oh-Boy, it seems like I'm flying.

I've only got about 35 miles on them so I can't give you decent review but so far no flats, even after letting a 260lb guy ride it. The bike handles much differnently as well.

I have the same situation as you with my other bike, a late 90's Trek 720hybrid. After starting to commute to work this spring I am quickly getting to the point where I can out peddle my bike on the flats (rare, but it has been happening more and more). The 720 has 700c tires and some higher gearing than the GT so I'm okay for right now. I figure I have about one season left before I have to clunk down some cash on a road bike. This would likely be the last roadbike I ever buy so I'm going to get the most out of the one I have now and save, save, save.

Good Luck,

ehenz

while doing a leisurely ride with a newbie roadie at ~16 mph, a couple MTBers in a paceline with a bunch of other roadies flew by us at what had to be something like 22+mph. that's impressive.... and think of how strong they would be on road bikes. i was a college guy with no money not too long ago. i just kept riding the MTB to build up my strength.... cuz i couldn't afford to do anything else. save up your money, and get a nice bike later

I am going to go ahead and order the slicks from nashbar, and also a new computer (to replace the one ripped off on an offroad trail), and am considering some bike shorts.

As I have put more road miles on my bike, I am starting to hurt in the regions "down low" from wearing cotton shorts and cotton boxers. Would the compression bike shorts help me out with this? I have just always hated the look, but if it will help...I'll do it.

Also, Nashbar has some good deals on computers. I am looking at a cateye enduro-2, and a sigma bc-800. Are either of these a good choice?

Thanks

Yes, spandex cycle shorts are good and very comfortable. Don't worry about the look, you will be going fast and won't be noticed.

I just picked up a pair of Nashbar's "Saturday short" and so far seem to be a great deal. Try to get the stuff made from at least 6.5 spandex. I use a cheap Aviner computer, just gives you speed, trip, odo, and avg. speed. I personally think the cheaper the better as I have a habit of breaking and loosing computers.

Hope this helps,

ehenz

I ride centuries on my MTB. The best thing about them is that I can apply sections of both road and MTB terrain, and I have more freedom to select virtually any route I like. I find that slicks can handle probably 95% of dirt roads I come across, and they give a much faster ride on the road. I second the recommendation to get some.

Currently I have a Ritchey 2.35" knobby in the rear and a 2.1" on the front, and this is what I commute on (at the moment). These are the light WCS versions, but still, I am definitely not as quick off the line as I'd like to be.

What I'd like to try is a pair of 250-gram Continental Grand Prix MTB (http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/de/en/continental/bicycle/themes/tires/mtb/grand_prix_mtb/grand_prix_mtb_en.html) tires and ultralight tubes. Compared to my current tires and tubes, this would save... let's see here...

:eek: ~ 1.7 pounds at the edge of the wheels!

And that's not all, I've got a pair of 360-gram Matrix Mt. Aero rims in my closet from long ago... ooo, with 15-16ga spokes and alloy nipples, I could drop more than another 1/2 pound. That would be just obscene :eek: Hmmm...! :)

Originally posted by mechBgon
Currently I have a Ritchey 2.35" knobby in the rear and a 2.1" on the front, and this is what I commute on (at the moment).

Odd that you put the bigger tyre on the back. I usually run matched width tyres but when I didn't, the wider tyre was always up front as per what I've always heard as BCP.

Originally posted by khuon
Odd that you put the bigger tyre on the back. I usually run matched width tyres but when I didn't, the wider tyre was always up front as per what I've always heard as BCP. For one thing, I only have one of these WCS 2.35" tires left, they don't make them anymore the last I checked :( 600 grams for a 2.35" tire, very nice. I use the wider tire in the rear because I seem to need the pinch-flat protection there more than in the front when I'm riding off-road.

Of course, off-roading would be utterly out of the question with those Continentals on there :D I'd have a sort of drag-racing-specific un-mountain bike.

Ooops, silly me... 250 grams for the wire-bead version, 195 grams for folding. So that would be something like 1.9 pounds of rotating mass reduced just from the tires & tubes. Dang it, this idea is starting to extend its tentacles towards my wallet! :D