Originally Posted by
Westislander
I’m reasonably happy with my current configuration but was wondering – if I buy road bike, will it make much of a difference? Would it be worth it? I would be willing to spend between $1000 and $1200 – any suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
What kind of a difference are you looking for? Do you want to spend less time on the bike? Get a road bike and some tight fitting clothes and you could probably shave 10 min off your commute time.
I'm about the same size as you and 5 yrs older and ride 33km each way to work. I use a road bike as I'm trying to minimize my time on the bike. If I go hard I can get under an hour but generally I'm between 60 and 70 min. A big part of why I ride is for fitness and a 60 min ride every 12 hrs works pretty well for me. If I had a shorter distance to ride I'm not sure I would be as keen to go faster and might use bigger tires and a heavier bike to get a decent workout.
The advantages of a road bike:
- easier to get into an aero position allowing faster speeds with the same power
- drop bars offer more hand positions which becomes more important for longer rides
- More aerodynamic frame. This is a marginal benefit performance wise
Options to go faster on your existing rig:
- wear tight clothes. Much cheaper than a new bike
- lower bars and ride in a more aero position
- get some decent 25 or 28mm tires. Not sure what's available for 26" wheels but if you could get the equivalent of continental GP4000s that would help significantly.