tangerine

i've got a mtb with 1.75 semi slicks on,how much faster would a real road bike be????

Turbonium

prob 5kph more, it really depends on the engine.

borneo_cyclist

a lot more. Maybe it will be the same speed due to traffic condition. But one thing for sure is it will be a lot easier to pedal.

Nightshade

If the engine (YOU) is in good condition and the tires are
pumped up hard then the rolling resistance would be less
causing your bike to roll somewhat easier which in turn would
mean that you could (?) gain a few tenth of a MPH. You will
not gain enough speed to part your eyebrows though. You'll
be less tied at the end due to less energy being expended.

operator

A few tenth of an mph? Why doesn't everyone just ride mtb's?

slvoid

The diff between my mtb with semi-slicks at 80psi and my roadie with slicks at 130 psi is 5-6 mph.

Tom Pedale

Depends on the terrain...on the flats, expect about 10% faster. On the hills, you should expect a bigger benefit since the decreased overall weight of the road bike will definitely be a plus. Another factor to consider is wet weather. If you commute in rain, the MTB slicks will give you a bigger contact patch with the road, hence more margin for error in cornering and braking.

zoridog

I haven't used a cyclecomputer in a long time but I definitely go faster on a roadie. Even my heavy road bike is lighter and more aerodynamic than my hardtail commuter. I still prefer the mountain bike because it hauls alot of weight, takes alot of abuse and getting to work sooner isn't really my purpose for bike commuting.

HereNT

Ride a track bike. They're really fast. Just don't do it in traffic unless you're crazy.

Vision-

You said it Zoridog! The faster you go, the faster you'll get to work. Here's to taking the long way!

operator

Until you no longer need to show up to work at all

madpogue 

The tires are just one factor. The big factor is the higher gearing of road bikes. Plus they're lighter.

jarhead#42

Never seen a mountain biker able to keep up with me .
jar

PeterM

I just moved up to a road bike from an mtb with 1.75 slicks like yours that I was using for my 25km commute into uni. Ive started to wonder why I didn't make the change earlier. Like someone said above the gearing is one of the big advantages - now I can ride down hills and actually keep pedalling and keep accelerating instead of just spinning my pedals around. You can also increase your speed on the flats. I average about 5-10km/h faster on an easy stretch of road without trying too hard. It's also much easier to accelerate and I've fallen in love with drop bars and the more crouched over position. I sometimes used to get a slightly sore back and my seat on my mtb (though "anatomically correct") is a lot more uncomfortable than the hard thin one on my new bike...and it's easier to carry it up stairs. When you're on your bike for a long time and are travelling a fair way I'd say the road bikes the way to go but go have a test ride of a few and decide for yourself. You could time yourself on a stretch near your lbs on your mtb and then do the same on a road bike.

Nightshade

To add weight to this post........


Mountain Bikes: Who Needs Them?
An Inveterate Roadie Provides a Techno-Backlashian Perspective

By Chris Kostman

Originally published in Bicycle Guide, February 1993

See below for related articles. Also, this article generated more letters to the editor than any other article in the history of the magazine. Those letters will be posted here shortly.

I routinely dust every mountain biker I encounter on the trail. And I ride a road bike.

Furthermore, I think, no, I know, the mountain bike is the most over-rated, most improperly used, most over-built, and most greedily promoted piece of hardware to hit the sport and fitness industry in modern history. Ninety-nine percent of the miles ridden by 99% of the mountain bikes could, and should, be ridden on the first and only real all terrain bike, the 'road bike.' More bluntly, a road bike is equal to
or better than a mountain bike if ridden with skill like I have.

Blasphemy, you say? Don't think you could possibly ride off pavement without monster knobbies, suspension, enough titanium for an ICBM, and enough gears for at least two whole bikes? Don't be a trained parrot by thinking this and don't let the greedy hawkers control your thoughts and your pocket-book! Simply put, invest in some skills, some style, some finesse, and some balls (girls included), not
more over-hyped bike junk.

Read it, learn it, and live it: 'Technique beats technology any time, anywhere.' And that's what I deadpan to every nimwit mountain biker who asks me how I managed to blow him away without tweaking my wheels and cracking my frame.

And before you write in that I'm just some elitist roadie with a penchant for ATB-bashing, let me offer my credentials for having a credo worth splashing across this page: I've raced the Alaskan Iditabike three times and have set solo and tandem 24 Hour off-road cycling records. Off-dirt I've raced the Race Across America twice (9th in '87), two Ironmans, and broken numerous distance records, including San Francisco to Los Angeles. Importantly, I practice what I preach.

And guess what? For 99% of the riding I do off-road, I'll opt for a 'road bike' over a 'mountain bike' any day of the week. And while much of my off-roading is on fire roads (like 99% of you, as you too live in metropolitan areas where single track is banned or non-existent), my dirt rides include gnarly tree roots, sand, gravel, exposed rock slab, insane uphills and downhills, and other 'challenging surface
irregularities.' The trick is that I know how to ride and I don't separate myself from the riding surface with a bunch of unnecessary technology.

You see, unlike most cyclists, I can distinguish between 'want' and 'need' when it comes to choosing equipment for my daily training and adventure excursions. I also have a healthy enough ego that I don't need to try to outdo the next guy or gal by having the latest gimmicky bike gear. (Beauty is only skin-deep, but studly goes all the way to the bone.) By the way, I almost never get a flat and I've never needed to true my trusty Wheelsmith wheels.

Here's why you should park your mountain bike at least some of the time and start venturing out on skinny tyres. If you don't have a road bike to do this, then at least install 1.15' or 1.25' slicks or inverted tread tyres and set your derailleurs so you can't use the wimp ring (granny gear) or the cogs bigger than 23 teeth. (By the way, these tyres, along with bar ends and multi-position bars, clipless pedals, not to mention whole ATBs that weigh only 20 to 25 pounds, are all evidence that mountain bikes are techno overkill. These are simply efforts to roadify the mountain bike!)

10 reasons to get skinny in the dirt:
1) You'll get used to a little slip and slide under your tyres; then when you hit the pavement or return to the trail with knobbies you'll be astounded by the traction and confidence you suddenly command.
2) You'll be forced to actually pay attention to your line, thus developing better seeing skills and eye-body
coordination.
3) This forced attention span will educate you immeasurably about trail surfaces, sands, soils, erosion, even geology, flora, and fauna. In other words, you'll learn to ride with the land, not over it.
4) Your skinny tyres will leave less of an imprint and impact on the trails.
5) You'll marvel at how much faster you can ride on flats, rollers, and most uphills, compared to your full-blown ATB, once you shed all that excess weight, rolling resistance, and weird positioning. I.E., you'll dust the fat tyre 'flyers' like I do all the time.
6) You'll realize that you really can soak up the bumps and dramatically alter your bike's riding characteristics on demand, rather than having your suspension (try to) do it all for you. This is called Body English and it's about time that you really became fluent, rather than only packing a few token phrases like some 'Ugly American' tourist.
7) You'll discover that there's more to the fun factor than seeing how fast you can blast a downhill in a park overflowing with hikers,equestrians, and forest rangers. In so doing, you'll dramatically increase our common survival potential in a world that abhors the mountain bike and all its connotations.
8) Gone will be the days that it's a total drag, literally, to ride to and from the trail head. No longer will you be smoked by the roadies while plodding the pavement, nor will you pollute the ecosphere by driving to the trail head anymore.
9) You'll actually have the nerve to venture down a trail that you discover while out road riding. In fact, you'll quit even thinking of 'road rides' or 'dirt rides.' A ride's a ride and a bike's a bike. It's what you make of them that counts.
10) Finally, you'll learn once and for all that technology is a crutch, not an asset, and that it truly detracts from your life experience on and off the bike.

Here you have it, my friends. Take off the blinders and see the truth in what I have presented to you here. Become great cyclists and develop skills that you won't believe. Then when you do that 1% of your cycling that actually requires a 'real ATB' (say, Slick Rock or Pearl Pass), you'll have the skills to accompany and match all that over-priced technology beneath you.

Get skinny. I dare you!

Sidebar:

Kostmanize Your Bike:

A) Ride your stock road bike, exactly as is, off-road. Use minimalist technology and maximal skill for ultimate fun and technique development. I did this for a full year with an Alan Carbonio with Kestrel EMS fork, Aerolite pedals, and Scott Drop-In bars.

B) Slightly modify your road bike with bar end shifters, an extra wrap of bar tape on the drops, clips and straps on regular pedals (remember those?), and 28mm tyres. Your steed will be significantly more functional, both on and off road, and no slower, just like my Bridgestone RB-1.

C) Trick out your road bike usefully and increase its durability dramatically by getting Wheelsmith wheels (32 hole is plenty) with Ritchey rims, sealed hubs like Specialized or Ringlé; sealed bottom bracket like Grafton; and an equally service-free headset by Chris King. Utilize sensible technology; eliminate maintenance. Get stuff that's built to last. Own technostuff actually worth drooling for.

operator

Read it already, and read the sequel the authors response to it after many people emailed him about his original article.

Poguemahone

All I know is that when I ride my extreme foul weather bike, an old Trek 850 MTB, it feels like a slow moving tortise next to any of my road bikes. So I only ride it when the weather is really, really bad-- and then I love it, because it has fenders.

bnet1

When I lived in Washington State I regularly rode my Trek road bike on trails and hiking paths. I never tweaked a wheel or had a pinch flat. I did not ride nearly as agressively as some of my friends that rode full suspension $3000 MTB's, but I still got to where I was going.

I recently switched to a recumbent. I can get from point A to point B on my commute every bit as fast as the road bike, and in far more comfort. My newest challenge? Learning to ride on gravel (driveways). Where I currently live there are no trails like there were in Washington. If there were trails like that where I live I would be trying those too.

Each person has their own favorite bike. Mine gets me where I want to go in the way I want to get there.

'bent Brian

mike

Ya, I'm with Poquemahone. I have road bikes and mountain bikes and both serve their purposes. If I rode my road bike on rough off-road terrain, it wouldn't hold up well - maybe it's my skill level or weight or something.

However, the bottom line is that it takes me forty minutes to commute on paved streets on a road bike and nearly an hour on a mountain bike.

Now, I only commute on a moutain bike if the weather is foul and that usually means snow.

operator

Umm... you mean road bike right?

FXjohn

I run 1.5 specializeds on my MTB....I see now in the performance catalog you can get 1.25"...

Ought to be a lot better than 1.75"

mike

Yes, you are correct. I meant if I rode my road bike off-rode, it would not hold up well. Of course, my mountain bike always seems to need some attention after a pounding ride too, so..

DogBoy

I thought the big difference between road bike riding and mtn bike/hybrid riding was the riding position. My commute is 5 miles, and it took on average 22 min (13.7mph) (with 1 stoplight and a few stops) on my hybrid. When I switched to my road-bike, my average is around 19 min (15.8 mph) on the same course or about 2mph faster on the road bike. I kept the same cadence (85-100) on the hybrid as I do on the road-bike, and my perceived effort is the same. I would think that since my perceived effort was the same, my cadence was the same and I still had higher (more gear-inches) gears available on both bikes, that the gearing is not the issue. Oh, and tires were the same 700-28 tires.

operator

I run 26x1.95 o_0

Gonzo Bob

I ride mtb with 1.4" slicks (~80psi) for commuting a lot, and a road bike (~110psi) a lot. The difference is really not that great. I'd say 1 mph at the most. The difference comes mostly from the improved aerodynamic riding position on the road bike, not from the difference in rolling resistance or weight.