Originally Posted by
PaulRivers
The OP said one problem was maxing out of gears for part of the ride. It would stand to reason that higher gearing might help.
I'm sorry; I missed the OP saying that. It does make your post about gear range seem less wantonly egregious, although I think you are still wrong :
if the OP is maxing out, then he should learn to spin properly. Especially if he intends to ride more. Because the alternative in the long term can be a blown knee.
And the 35mph is just crazy talk. I haven't gone over 35mph on my *road* bike at any point, and I have run out of gears several times.
Then you're not spinning properly either. The maths for the gear systems is pretty simple: a proper spin rate on standard MTB gearing will get you 35mph on the flat. If you had the ridiculously high leg strength needed to overcome the air resistance - oh and "proper" means the standard racer should aim for. But even so, there is no way this guy should be running out of gears at the top of the range.
What's rediculous is your assertion that a mountain bike will max out at 35mph. I don't know what it is offhand, but the threshold is much lower than that. If you've been reading the threads lately, you've seen several people say that being in excellent biking shape they can keep up with roadies on their mountain bike (not all the roadies, but the middle of the pack usually, or just people who aren't in as good of shape as they are) - but they run out of gears.
No, I haven't seen a thread like that and don't trust your interpretation - not when I know the maths and that I could keep up with a roadie when I was a courier on a flat bar (if I slipstreamed) and certainly didn't run out of gears. And I was in the bad habit of using too high a gear and not spinning fast enough. With a better spin rate I could have a couple of gears down.
And since the OP mentioned running out of gears, yeah, I think that might be a problem (though running out of gears with a 13mph average does seem odd).
You really think that someone who takes 35 minutes to 6 miles is running out of gears at the top of the range without having a problem in pedaling technique???
And what's misleading is trying to say that the crosscheck is designed as an offroad bike. It isn't. It is almost exclusively used as a commuter.
It might be used that way by people you know, but the Cross Check was designed as a cyclocross bike. (If you can say "designed" of a bike that faithfully replicates the design of a typical traditional crosser so exactly.) That is why it is called the
Cross Check. And cyclocross takes place off road. (Btw - basic logic and English: "designed" not equal "used".)
However, I was being pointlessly pedantic - like all crossers, the Cross Check makes a great road bike.
Regarding drops, I wouldn't say the position is "very" low. Not with an "endurance" or "relaxed geometry" frame like I suggested (like on the Crosscheck, or the Specialized Sectuer). Actually - I can't think of anything under $2k that actually comes with handlebars lower than the seat - what you're talking about is usually reserved for high-end, racy, expensive bikes.
If you go into any bike store selling drop handles you'll find lots of low bar bikes from $500. If you are lucky you will see a Trek or Spec comfort drop bar, if the dealer handles those brands. Cyclocross bikes of any kind are so rare that people post on the cross forum asking which ones to travel halfway across their state to see. And most crossers are low bar bikes - I'm fitting a 55 degree stem to mine and the bars will still be below the saddle - which I have towards the low end of the range!
And, yes, even a "comfort" drop bar position will still seem low to someone who has been riding the OP's bike.
Using bike with drops makes looking behind you more difficult, but certainly not nearly as impossible as is implied.
I didn't "imply" anything; I said that it would be more difficult. Exactly as you just said!
Starting with "6-7 miles one way that takes 25-35", that's 6.5 miles in 30 minutes, or 13mph. When you take into account hills and wind, that's a pretty typical speed. If a road bike brought that speed up to 15mph, that's 26 minutes. That doesn't seem like a whole lot, until you realize that 4 minutes each way times 10 times a week is 40 minutes a week you would cut off the commute. And 15mph is the safe bet. You could see 16mph average (though that's more the best-case scenario). That's 24.375, or 5.625 minutes each trip, or 56.25 minutes each week - about an hour a week.
Yes, that's true. If you multiply a small number it eventually becomes large. Well done!
However, just to contradict myself, if you have a lot of stoplights it's much more of a mixed bag. When a decent part of that average speed is waiting at lights, that time spend sitting there won't change no matter how fast your bike is.
I think we've really covered everything so far in the thread. For $400, you aren't getting much of an upgrade. For $800 or so on a new hybrid, you're getting a nicer more reliable bike with better shifting and such
Has the OP had any reliability problems? Cheap bikes are extremely reliable and have been for the past 20 years.
, but not really much faster. For that same $800 you could get a road bike, and an $800 road/cyclocross bike is about as fast as you're going to get, even if you spent a lot more money.
..But there's a good chance they'd hate the riding position in traffic. A lot of people do. I don't, you don't, but a lot of people do. This isn't something to ignore, especially as you don't how old the OP is, how flexible his neck and spine are, etc.