Road Cycling - Road bike that much faster than mine?

Guys - I need a question answered regarding my bike and those of my friends. . .;)

I have a Fisher 29er x-caliber that I use for commuting, around town, and recently riding with some friends that have road bikes. They are constantly on me about my bike and how 'slow' it is, etc. . .even though when we ride, I keep up with no problems. I have it configured like this: replaced the knobbies with 700Cx38 slicks and the fork tightened as much as possible, and a rear rack for my commuting, etc.

They are riding 2-4 year old base-medium road bikes and are pretty good.

So, my question is - will using a road bike make me that much faster? I like the flexibility of the x-caliber and don't really want two bikes. . .or, smaller tires?

Any comments are welcome - thanks.

Your "friends" sound like a bunch of tools. Find a new group to ride with.

To answer your question directly, a dedicated road bike probably will be faster than your current one, especially with smaller wheels. How much faster really depends on the rider. But don't spend money on a new bike solely because of peer pressure. Keep training on your current bike so you can drop those losers and shut them up once and for all.

My mountain bike has a semi-slick rear and a small knobbed front tire (hard pack racing setup) but i used it for my road riding.

I now have my colnago with 700x20 tires and a bike that weighs around 18LBS (maybe lighter, I don't know/care)

Is there a differece ? Ya.

But you already have 700x28's so I don't know. On my road bike the gearing is really hard (but I guess a triple would of changed that...and no I dont want one) and on my mountain bike I was not afraid to "beat it up in town" a little more. With this bike I stop at train tracks that look rough and lift it over hehe.

So it sounds like your commuter does what you need. I don't think you should worry about anything else unless your looking for an excuse to buy a new bike...but even then you want to load down racks and what not, you dont want a lightweight racer maybe a touring bike...but why even do that when your rig works?

Chad


edit:

you have 700x38 ok, so that is a little bigger but I suppose all the better for absorbing bumps and pot holes :)

So if you bought yourself a "faster" bike, wouldn't that mean that your friends couldn't keep up so you wouldn't ride with them anymore?

sounds like good o' slogging between friends to me, no worries. but a road bike is faster, of course, that's why the TDF isn't on mountain bikes :) it just feels better to ride a lighter bike in a more aero position, and a more stylish bike too, at least for me.

sd

i agree with shaq-d,
the only ppl who are going to advocate riding a street setup mtb are folks who ride those themselves. i think it'd be a very rare case where somebody got a road bike (which is a bike that is made for paved surfaces anyway) and then after using it for a year or two decided that a mtb with slicks was a better all around solution for riding on the road. folks make a pothole argument or talk about how they find an mtb's upright position more comfortable, but that's all bogus - you can make a road bike a bit more upright or put bigger tires on it if you want. if the name for mtb was "trail bike" then i'd just tell everybody who asked "road bikes are for roads and trail bikes are for trails - you can do all that stuff to make one try to be usable for the other, but that's still not what it was made for".

in the interest of full disclosure i generally approve of busting ppls balls for owning an MTB when all they do is road ride and commute - i know i know: to each his/her own or whatever, but it's a frickin' mountain bike ya know? i feel sad when i see a quality MTB all *****ed out to be some commuter beast with no hope of ever doing it's thing on some fun singletrack in the woods someplace. all because ppl are scared of skinny tires and curly handlebars or something.

sorry - i know this whole subject is a dead horse. i'm done. no offense intended - seriously.

Re read your post, and re ride your Fisher. Repeat as often as you need.

if you keep up wioth no problem now, get a road bike and you can dust them

Oftentimes, people ask the wrong question for the answers they are seeking. I think this may be the case here. The reason I say this is because I think you have already answered your original question and the answer is that as you've empirically seen, a road bike is not necessarily faster than a mountain bike set up like yours.

Let me propose two possible questions you might want to be asking (to either yourself or the forum) instead. Given the situation and criteria for not wanting to own two bikes, perhaps you should be asking:


Will a road bike be able to handle the current type of riding that I do on my mountain bike?
Am I making the most efficient use of my equipment or would some other type of equipment allow me to make more efficient use of my energy? Is my equipment holding me back? Note that this doesn't necessarily imply replacing your current bike.


You have to really figure out if your current equipment situation and performance is acceptable to you. It sounds like it might be. If so, maybe you don't want to change it. Note that switching over to a roadbike changes a couple of key performance factours of which an important one is riding position. This means your body will need to retrain itself to extract power from the right muscles and you will need some time to become accustomed to the new position. The result is that during this "learning curve" you will most likely see a drop in performance. Once past it, you may then see an increase.

Here's my take on it: if you really want a road bike, by all means get one. If you are just as happy with your current ride.. keep it, it's not like you cannot keep up with your group.

I just switched from a hybrid with slicks to a Scattante CFR. Yes, it is faster. I frequently time myself on my favorite hill. It's 1.1 mile, I guess 6-8%. I average about 7:10 min on my hybrid. I just tried it on my new CFR and I was extremely UNCOMFORTABLE going up. I was so used to my hybrid that I found the riding position very akward. However, I was a full 55 seconds quicker on the CFR. That left no doubt in my mind how much faster a decent road bike is.

Nah. You probably won't be much faster on a road bike. I ride my old rigid MTB around a lot with 26x1.4" 80psi slicks and I'm not much slower on that than I am on my road bike. Most if not all of the speed increase on a road bike comes from a more aerodynamic riding position.

I have a MB with 1.5 universal type tires and my road bike is much more responsive and faster, just how much I don't know but I can tell the differance with every pedal stroke.

I had a pretty extreme change. GT LTS-1 full suspension mtb w/knobbies (at 60 psi) to a Trek 2100. I timed myself up a local canyon on both bikes. 22 miles. On the GT I did a best time of 1hr57min at 11.5 mph. I did the ride on my 2100 day before yesterday and did it in 1hr20min@15.8mph. I am a lot faster on the road bike, but my experience is different from yours in that you made your MTB more road worthy.

The choice is yours. This is my first roadie, and i fell in love with it on the first test drive. Your riding preference is yours, so dont let anybody choose for you.

if you keep up wioth no problem now, get a road bike and you can dust them

Hands down a good road bike is a lot faster than a good mtn bike - on the road. (ever try a road bike on the trail?)

But that doesn't suggest you should buy another bike. I am no slouch on my road bike - can keep up a 20mph pace for 2-3 hrs solo - and there is always some guy wearing baggy shorts and sandals who goes by me like I am standing still!

Nah. You probably won't be much faster on a road bike. I ride my old rigid MTB around a lot with 26x1.4" 80psi slicks and I'm not much slower on that than I am on my road bike. Most if not all of the speed increase on a road bike comes from a more aerodynamic riding position.

I love you gonzo bob, hell, even if your lying, still love ya.

Now if I had 2 chainrings, I'd be even faster than the roadies. :D

A narrower tyre will take more air pressure, and will be lighter, with less air resistance, you you will go faster.
There is a limit to how narrow a tyre your touring style 700c rims can accept. You may be able to get down to a 32 or 28mm.

I like a narrow 32 or a generous 28 as a general purpose commuting and utility tyre. You can even ride trails, but not in a kamikaze fashion.

Yes road bikes are faster, but the speed and energy saving in a head wind is where it is dramatic, if you are on the drops you will pass mtb's at a scarey rate.(I live in a very windy area)
But as one other poster said there is always someone around in baggy shorts etc. often on a mtb who will drop you so easy you wonder whats going on.

Yes road bikes are faster, but the speed and energy saving in a head wind is where it is dramatic, if you are on the drops you will pass mtb's at a scarey rate.(I live in a very windy area)
But as one other poster said there is always someone around in baggy shorts etc. often on a mtb who will drop you so easy you wonder whats going on.

Yep, on hills I drop roadies and i'm sittin'....problem is my max flatland is 12\38 so level, I get creamed.
Good thing this place is 50% hills or I'd look bad.

Hey, maybe it's just my way strong legs, I'm going to go borrow a road bike today and see what road speeds all about.
Yes I'll wear my baggie shorts so the roadies will have something to dis while they watch my butt dissapear over the next hill infront.

My god, why are SO many people telling him he doesn't need another bike. Of course he needs another bike. And then, after he gets that one, he STILL needs another bike. You ALWAYS need another bike!! Remember, the formula for determining the number of bikes you need is n+1, where n= the number you currently own.

:)

My god, why are SO many people telling him he doesn't need another bike. Of course he needs another bike. And then, after he gets that one, he STILL needs another bike. You ALWAYS need another bike!! Remember, the formula for determining the number of bikes you need is n+1, where n= the number you currently own.

We're being hypocritical. None of us truly believes anyone really needs another bike but we all believe that we need another bike. :D

P.S. For me, the above statement is doubly-true. ;)

There is no such thing as 'too many bikes'. There is only 'garage too small'.