https://imgur.com/TobxfaV
https://imgur.com/A4Rnr8C
I stripped and weighed these frames (Specialized Rockhopper and Gazelle Champion Mondial) that are both mass produced, high end, high quality Chromo butted steel. And I came to few realizations.
While my comparison is not quite apples to apples due to frame size diff, 500 difference or even 700 grams is almost nothing but it does mean all of this:
1. The Rockhopper is a do it all frame. My friend has cycled it coast to coast in US with heavy load and with a Rohloff, I have taken a few girls on the back of mine as well as a ton of tools, and heavy loads of shopping, even a 15 kilo folder lying on a front basket. Some of those are impossible with the raceframe, unless you want to bend or possibly wreck it due to instability/shimmy.
2. The MTB is far less likely to be stolen, racebikes seem to be the first bikes to be stolen, by comparison few people and especially thieves care about quality steel MTBs these days.
3. You can fit any fender, wheel or tire on the MTB, super skinny, hardcore off-road, ultra light, crazy wide etc etc, on a racebike frame not so, lucky if you manage to fit slick 32s and many steel racebikes even only go to 28s.
4. Parts for (old) MTBs are often far cheaper than the equivalent racebike parts. Deore for instance is very legit but a lot cheaper than many race groupos. Also you certainly could mount almost any race part on an MTB frame like the Rockhopper, there is no reason why the finished bike can't be just as light other than the 500ish extra grams in the frame. The wheels, all things being equal (same rims, spokes, hubs) will be quite a bit lighter and a hell of a lot stronger. When I researched the influence of wheel size extensively quite some years ago the conclusion was that the speed difference -if there is any!- is truly tiny. Tire selection, tire pressure, rider positioning/frontal area etc make a hell of lot more difference in speed than if you ride 26 or 28s, acceleration should in theory be a bit faster on the 26, turning circle is smaller. Most HMV speed records are set with small wheels.
5. 500 ish grams will make (almost) 0 difference to speed for the average bike rider and ride. Sure, for someone who is doing say cat 1 races or Centuries it might make a few seconds (for the race) to some minutes (over a whole day ride) difference, but honestly how many people who buy racebikes actually do these types of riding on the regular.. ?
6. The MTB frame will be much stronger. In an accident or when overloading it I would trust the MTB frame much more to not break or bend/shear or to keep me safer in case of a head on collision.
Thoughts?
