Originally Posted by mr. mud
Hey there,
I'm relatively new to biking again as an adult and was just looking to get some honest opinions as to the relative advantages and disadvanteges of road biking compared to mountain biking. Right now I got a mountain bike and love riding it but was also thinking about getting a roadie someday. One thing I heard for example is that road bikes get a lot more flats. Anyway, just wanted to get some thoughts.
It is pretty well understood what Road biking is. Get a road bike and usually ride on the pavement. Mountain Biking is often regarded as something that you do in the mountains, or as a couple here have said, you have to go somewhere in the car to ride. They say you can't just go out of your garage with the MTB.
While this is true for many types of riding, it certainly isn't true for me. I have left my garage on my Mountain bike nearly every day for two years. 9000 miles later and i am still doing it every morning before, during and after the sun rises.
You can take a Mountain Bike just about anywhere, whereas the roadbike is limited to paved roads. I ride my mountain bikes daily on a combination of earth, gravel, pavement. I can do all perfectly well with the MTB. So if i had to pick one, i would pick mountain biking. Or is guess i should say i would pick a mountain bike. Mountain biking is really sort of hard to define. It is really only what you think it is.
With that said, i am starting to get the itch to get a roadbike just to vary things up a little. I will always own a Mountain bike because I can get on it and within 10 minutes be completely away from everything, including cars. I like that.
BTW, you asked this question in the Road Cycling forum so your answers will probably be skewed towards road. Ask in mountain bike forum and probably the opposite, although there are typically more Roadies on this forum at a given moment.