fietsbob

It is the places I stopped and spent time in, that made my cycle-tour's memories,
not the ones that I blew thru at a rapid pace..

Trikin'

Touring........mmm

Pic's of 3 different tours through the same area, '08, '10, '11

scrapser

I used to be on a bowling team in NH where they have candlepin bowling. The balls weigh roughly 3 lbs. and you can easily hold them with one hand. For a time I switched to bowling with the large balls most people are familiar with. These balls weigh around 15 lbs. and have three finger holes to grip the ball with. Well, once I switched back to the smaller candlepin balls after about a year, I had a hard time keeping from throwing them through the ceiling. This may or may not answer your question about riding a loaded bike versus a stripped down road bike.

cbike

No, it does not affect my speed. I ride slow no matter what. Instead it gives a great excuse as to why I ride so slow.

rwp

Holy s&*t. i'M GLAD i'VE GOT LESS THAN 50 LBS OF KIDS TO HAUL!
Seriously, when it comes to touring, headwinds can be much worse than weight. The bottom line is that weight and wind are the enemy when touring. If you're travelling west in Wyoming, do whaever you can to reduce your cross-sectional area. If you're meandering through Colorado, do whatever you can to reduce your weight.

Back to the original question. A racer who rides a loaded touring bike is like a long distance runner who does some weight training on the side. It couldn't hurt.

venturi95

A racer who rides a loaded touring bike is like a long distance runner who does some weight training on the side. It couldn't hurt.

Not a very good analogy, more like a long distance runner who does some snow shoeing.

Rowan

No, your analogy is still not right. It would be like a sprinter doing a marathon. Likely s/he could do the marathon, but would be relatively slow and sore afterwards. Vice versa, the marathon runner would be left far behind by Ursane Bolt over 100 metres.

As pointed out previously, riding a touring bike will improve aerobic fitness and strength, but won't do much for speed unless there is an effort to work on speed -- which would make the rider a fast cycle-tourist, and perhaps improve unloaded speed a little.

A rider has to work at his/her chosen style of riding to improve.

Gus Riley

After a season on self contained touring, I can jump on my road bike and mash much higher gears with the same efforts while on my Touring bike. The result is I cycle much faster.

Happy Thanksgiving!

djb

sorry Gus, the pundits state that this is not true. You and I are misinformed ;-)

Gus Riley

No problem djb, to each their own; we're all different. I have provided my answer based on my experience to Hydrate's question. I guess it is up to him/her to consider all the responses to the question, and then decide for him/herself which is the answer. I am faster and lighter as a result of a full season of self contained riding. I don't sprint any faster as a result, but overall, I am faster while riding my road ride. My endurance has increased as well.

sstorkel

This is the key difference: some people seem to be focused on top speed, while others are focused on average speed over a longer distance. Touring doesn't really help with top-speed in a full-tilt sprint. It will, however, increase strength and endurance which should increase average speed. Only the OP knows which is important to him...

venturi95

The OP did not ask "will touring make me faster than sitting on the couch?" or "will touring make me able to mash gears like a dork?", he was asking about speed. A quick poll: How many of you have actually tried to get USCF race results ? And yes, you are misinformed.

djb

sorry I responded like that venturi if it got you all riled up, just poking fun. And no, I dont race, thats why I post mostly in touring, Im just out to enjoy myself, not particularly slow, not particularly fast, informed or misinformed.

Enjoy your California riding this winter while the rest of us lose a bunch of our speed, endurance, muscle mass, or whatever you want to call it, by not riding on the road (well, most of us anyway, Ive never been a diehard winter rider in the snow and all) and being stuck on a trainer.

Gus Riley

"Mash gears like a dork?" What does that mean ventori? Dork for mashing higher gears!?

pacificcyclist

Here's my take on your question.

If you are talking about average speed, then yes but by not much. If you are talking about increased speed however like in the ranges of 23 to 28mph from your original speeds like 18 to 20mph, then the answer is no.

Touring helps improve your endurance base, because it's the only time you'll be riding long and in multiple days and at a reasonable enough heart rate. It helps develop improved muscle and liver glycogen storage so your body can adapt to riding longer and perhaps harder due to the loaded bike weight. As you get off your loaded bike and back to your racer, your road riding average speed will increase not only because you are a bit stronger and have a more efficient fuel burning body, but ALSO you have an extended fuel tank so you can go longer and harder without bonking so soon as you may were when you are only a weekend warrior + short haul commuter. When you hit the wall or bonk, no bike will get you to ride faster except an electric! However, this new found performance gain will not last for long though, because the body will revert to the mean when it is no longer stressed the same way as when you are touring.

Stressing the body provides the potential for fitness. Proper rest and recovery helps realize that potential!

I just came back from an Arizona trip where we ride with a fast group avg 22-25mph. I am good at these speeds. However, my friends who just recently toured to Oregon and back to Vancouver and thought they were stronger and could keep up with these groups were bonking at 35-40miles in day 2 and bail to the slower groups for the rest of the week. Why? Because, touring only conditions you to ride at a specific speed. Usually around 20-22km/h (15 or so mph), not something on the upwards of 22-25mph, which requires you to put out much more watts power to the pedals.

In order to ride fast, you need to train riding fast. Why? Because, you NEED to train your body to burn fat and carbohydrates efficiently. Touring only trains you to burn more of the fat less carbohydrates efficiently, whereas racers or fast riders train in conjunction with riding long and slow during the weekend with high intensity brick work and intervals to improve their body fuel burning efficiency (fat + carbohydrates) as well as improve their ability to process lactic acid as the by product of the high intensity workout. Something you get less or none off when you are touring at a lower heart rate. This type of training will help realize one thing. Like a rising tide raises all ships, training to ride faster improves all aspect of your riding speeds whether you tour, riding rando or even racing. That is something touring itself can not do.

In the end, touring will make you a better endurance rider compared to a typical weekend warrior of the same ability and less likely to bonk soon, which means you'll likely to maintain a consistent slightly faster overall average speed. But if you are to race against a seasoned CAT rider on a 40 to 60 miles stretch road avg 25mph with no pace line, you will be more tired or bonk soon and more sore than him or her.

Having said that, we have a local exceptionally gifted rider who started his life cycle touring and has now made his name in the professional race circuit. And nope, touring did not make him a CAT 1 rider overnight.

LeeG

In other words you get good at what you do a lot.

Race training will enable you to tour with more hp in reserve when needed than touring will enable you to put out power on a road bike beyond what you use touring.

venturi95

Sorry to all about the rant earlier, I didn't take my "happy pills" today.

djb

no problem venturi, tks.