Originally Posted by Industrial
How tight and slow can you turn? How many ways can you turn? Can you ride backwards? Can you ride on 1 wheel? Can you squeeze your bike through a 1.5 ft gap at speed? How about 1 ft? How high can you bunny hop over obstacles? How fast can you stop in any condition? After your stopped how long before you have to set a foot down(track stand)?
Road bikes are fast and efficient but maneuverable[edit: compared to mountain bikes, hybrids, bmx bikes]...nope.
Ahhh ... now I see what was meant by maneuverable. My road bike won't do track stands, and bunny hopping, in addition to not being useful for me, probably wouldn't be advisable on my bike, but I haven't personally found any compelling needs for those abilities in my commute. As for stopping I can do some awesome emergency stops and swerves on a road bike. I'd have to think about those gaps, but road racers maintain some very tight clearances on sharp curves at high speeds. Luckily squeezing through a one foot gap at speed isn't a normal part of my commute.
