Legacy2

in Florida during December. I am a middle aged rider who usually rides for exercise and enjoyment on fairly flat mixed dirt and paved terrain. (no jumps or anything crazy.) My usual ride is a Trek 3500 mountain bike with 26" wheels. I have been invited to a 35 mile road ride and have never done anything like this before. It sounds like everyone will be on road bikes. Should I even try this on a mountain bike? Hubby has a Giant Talon 29er that I could start practicing on if you think that might be a better "horse" for this ride. It's one size taller than mine but it's comfortable. The length of the ride isn't what worries me...it's keeping up with the others without hurting myself that I am concerned with. I don't want to hold anyone up on this ride...it's too important.

So, what would you do? Sit it out or work with one of the bikes I have?

Thanks for your help!
Legacy

rebel1916

You have a month plus to get ready. Go out and ride 35. See how it feels. Than start building up speed. Definitely invest in some slicks. They are widely available in 26. You can do it.

johnny99

Most of these memorial rides are pretty slow paced, especially if they are lead by a commuter-oriented group like a bicycle coalition instead of a race-oriented group like a racing team.

And yes, slick high pressure tires for your mountain bike will make the pedalling much easier. Discount stores like Performance sell them for $10 to $15 each. Look for something rated at least 80psi (26x1 or 26x1.25).

rm -rf

How many riders? If it's a large organized ride, say over 100 riders, you'll probably find riders going your speed. If it's a smaller group, under 25 riders, and all are on road bikes, you might have trouble keeping up--often a few faster riders set the pace.

But, like the other comments said, a memorial ride might be a lot slower.

Contact the ride leader or organizer. They'll be happy to tell you about typical road speeds and the types of riders that they expect to see.

Jeff Wills

Ditto that. I put 90psi 26 x 1.25" tires on my mountain bike, and it turned into a speedy, comfortable commuter. I was covering about 40 miles every day.

Keith99

This. Not memorial rides, but in Los Angeles there were rides organized by ht emayor decades ago. They were so slow that on one I went fro about 5 miles without pedaling (The San Fernando Valley is not quite level).