Zudnik

I haven't touched a road bike since 1990 when I used to ride 75 miles a day to stay in shape for skiing. At 44, 5-9 and 274 last year I started doing some MTB. I'd picked up a fs Intense bike a few years ago and finally started using it since my son started riding a 2 wheeler. Well, I'm at the point where I'll go out for 2-3 hour rides on the weekends, and 1-2hr rides a few days a week. Typical 2hr ride is maybe 15 miles with 1,000' in elevation gain on singletrack. I've also dropped down to 230lbs

Problem is I'm getting bored since there are not a ton of trails that I feel comfortable on in my area. There are plenty of trails, but for a 44 yr old that doesn't need major body carnage, there aren't many.

So I'm thinking of adding a road bike to the garage. This is not a thread about which bike to get .... I have a few ideas, know the budget and component level I'd like, so it's a matter of trying things out.

Question is should I be able to go much further than I do now on a road bike since it's more efficient? Does this mean I'll really burn more calories? Right now I can average 1k calories and hour if I'm pushing it hard and averaging 140bpm on the HR.

I'm hoping that I can also do better climbing hills because there seem to be a few too many in my area lol.

For anyone that has moved from MTB - do you have any tips? I'll keep the MTB, but want to know what to look forward to and help guage how much budget to drop. Thanks.

Mr.Ploppy

Going from a big fat MTB tire to a <1" road tire is an adjustment. Less tire contacting the road means less rolling resistance, which means more speed and ease of climbing. The big trade off is handling at low speeds. MTBs are very forgiving balance wise, road bikes are not. You will probably fall off a few times before getting the hang of it. (especially if you are getting clipless pedals and shoes for the first time too).

The shifters are going to take some getting used to aswell. There is no way to know what gear you're in by simply looking at the shifters. You have to think about which direction the chain needs to go (in or out) in order to be in the proper gear.

I wouldn't tackle gnarly hills untill you get the feel for the road bike. It shouldn't take long.

Having a road bike means you will be more likely to keep up with people on group rides.

Mr. Beanz

Are you sure? What's this thing on my bike?



I'm thinking the OP is talking about going from dirt to pavement, not keeping up with a group ride on an mtb vs roadie.

squirtdad

My speed on my road bike vs my commuter (pretty upright position) is easily 2 - 3 mph faster for similar effort. My guess is the you will go farther on a properly set up road bike. Aerodyamics is the biggest part of it and is seems to me (not scientifically proven by me) that the road mike is more efficient from a muscle use way.

bottom line is you will go faster and have fun....... good to mix it up

Zudnik

Thanks guys. Yes, was talking going from trail to road. I don't do group rides. I'm used to riding by myself.

On the shifters, lol, I have a lot to learn there. Last time I had a road bike you had to reach down to the lower tube to reach them. I figure I'll end up with a CF frame and a 105 group. Won't go clipless right away although as soon as I get used to it I'll throw on some clipless.

I guess the real question I'm trying to figure out is if I spend the same 2-3 hours on a road bike, am I likely to burn as many, more or less calories? I think if my HR was equal then the calories would be equal. Maybe just changing things up a bit is really the big win. There are some rather big hills in my area that I can't do on the mtb - hopefully on the road bike I'll be able to get up them. Of course better fitness and less body weight would help too but it's easier to blame the equipment lol.

Mr. Beanz

A roadie is not more efficient than a mountain bike. They are intended for different uses. A roadie is more efficient on the road compared to an mtb, but an mtb is more efficient in the dirt compared to a roadie.

Will you get a better workout? Not really. A workout depends on the effort you put into the ride.

Will you travel further? Most likely. You can cover 16 mile in one hour on a roadie on flat ground but maybe only 10 on an mtb in the dirt on a flat trail. Did you get a better workout, not really.

Each ride was one hour. The intensity you apply does not depend on the style, more the effort than the bike.

If your goal is to do 100 miles, you will have a better time on a roadie if it's a paved ride. Can you equal that on an mtb? Yes. It may take less time to match the effort, maybe 4 hours in the dirt compared to the 6 on the roadie on paved road. Did you get a better workout, not necessarliy.

I can find mtb trails that kill me and I can find paved roads that kill me. It depends on wheheror not I feel like suffering in the dirt on an mtb or on the paved road on the roadie.

Only reason I ride road more is cause I don't like getting my shoes dirty.

If your goal is to see more birds, then the roadie will get you more places, less time but not necessarliy more effort.

Mr.Ploppy

Cool beans, Mr.Beanz!

What is that thing anyway?

Palomar01

I rode a MTB for a while before switching to road bikes last year.

The transition for me was an eye opener since it had been a long while since I rode a really good road bike. The road bike was way more efficient, faster, handled way better, responded to rider inputs faster, etc. The gearing was also different because my road bike has a compact crank with a 50/34 and a cog with 11-25 gears. My MTB has a triple chainring with something like a 14-32 cog I think (I’m guessing because that’s what it feels like). So the road bike was harder to climb hills on at first because I wasn’t used to spinning that slow and didn’t have a granny gear like I did on my MTB. So at first, climbing hills felt harder. But it only took a short time to acclimate and pretty soon my heart and my legs adopted.

If you are very good on your MTB, you will handle the road bike easily. There is more risk crashing on a MTB while in a trail than there is on a road bike. If you already have clip-on pedals on your MTB, the clip-ons on a Road Bike will be no problem. You can even use the Shimano style MTB clip-on’s on a road bike. Forte & Shimano sell road bike clip-ons that work on both. Road bikes have two other types of pedals—one is more like a ski boot pedal and the other is by Speedplay, which I think you can also use on MTB’s.

By all means go for it. How should you spend? I think even if you buy an entry level but high quality road bike, it will be lighter and faster than your MTB. A quality road bike will set you back around $600 to begin with and you will probably get one that weighs around 25 lbs. and uses the Shimano Sora component group. If you up the price to around $1k or $1.5k, you will be getting road bikes weighing in around 19-22 lbs. using Shimano Tiagra or 105 component group. For your kind of riding a Sora/Tiagra group is sufficient.

Once you’re in, prepare to experience the elitism of the road bike snobs.

Mr. Beanz

Gear indicator. It splices into the cable/hoising. There is a lil red donut that hugs the cable. When you switch gears, it tightens the cable and moves the donut to the next hash mark (increment). Riders can tell how many gears are left to eachside or what cog they are riding.

It's (or it was) standard equipmetn for 9 speed Dura Ace. I thought I saw somewhere that they were sold for use with other levels (Ult/105 etc.) That was sometime back so I'm not sure if they still sell them separately.



Something like this:..now that I think of it, I belive the Shimano Fight Deck system has a gear indicator display on the screen

https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...e.php?id=16743