Originally Posted by
gregf83
What makes you think you're putting out less power? Certainly fit can affect power but I'm curious how you are comparing. I presume you don't have a powermeter so in lieu of an objective measurement of power do you at least have an HRM? Is your HR lower on the road bike? It's possible you're putting out more power on the road bike and that's why your legs feel tired.
The other significant difference between road bike riding and MTB is that you tend to get much steadier efforts on the road bike. Depending on where you're riding there are usually a lot more breaks or changes of pace on a MTB whereas with a road bike you can easlly ride steadily for 20-60 min. If you aren't used to a steady unbroken effort that may feel different as well.
Just the feel of how much force I'm putting in with my legs. In the same way that you can tell pace in running from your stride I'd assume you can do similar on the bike. I may not be good enough to judge yet, especially with the differing positions of MTB and road bike.
I guess the feeling is that my sense is that I'm not applying as much force with my legs compared to the effort of which I seem to be working. When I tried to match my normal cruising force effort (that I'm used to from the MTB) on the road bike it felt more akin to a tempo/strong aerobic effort than a cruising one.
I guess you could just sum it up as feeling less powerful, in that a given "percieved wattage" it feels like I am working harder/have a high heartrate. Even though I'm cruising at least 2-3mph faster on the road bike the few times I've ridden it feels like I don't have quite the same power. Totally possible it's a perception thing and nothing else though.
Originally Posted by
mr_pedro
You can produce more power if you are comfortable on the bike. Pedal stroke gets smoother and you don't have to spend as much energy to balance yourself. But if you are more out of breath on the road bike you are most likely producing more power. The road bike is probably inviting you to go faster and I woud be very surprised if you could pace yourself on your first couple of rides to be at the exact same effort level as on the MTB.
Definitely possible as well. It might even be that I'm just not breathing as efficiently or natural as normal in the more bent over position either. Dunno.
Guess one easy way to test would be go do the same climb on the road bike as I have on MTB at around threshold effort and see if the estimated wattage come out similar. 12.6mph on a 4% grade on the MTB ought to be closer to 14.5-15 on a 20lb road bike.