Originally Posted by
alanbikehouston
Many of the experienced bike messengers in Houston prefer mountain bikes. They find that with light weight slick tires, a mountain bike is about as fast as a road bike for the one, two or three mile trips they are taking. And, if a mountain bike is properly fitted to the rider, the looong wheelbase soaks up road shock and makes for a stable ride no matter how terrible the road conditions...gravel, dirt, debris, rain, ice...
But, unlike road bikes, mountain bikes can handle the broken concrete, potholes and other problems that exist on the bombed out streets of inner city Houston. The guy on the road bike must go around those obstacles, or even avoid certain streets entirely. The guy on the mountain bike can ride in a straight line from "A" to "B", no matter how bad the streets are in between.
I had a regular twenty mile circuit that I was riding four or five times a week. My times on a mountain bike were more or less the same as on a road bike. The only days I regretted being on the mountain bike were days I was riding into a powerful headwind...a mountain bike makes a little harder to stay in an aero position for long periods of time.
Pretty much sums it up. I use both, an mtb and a roadie. The mtb is more comfortable, more relaxed steering, and more durable. The roadie is more "fun" when it's not loaded down with panniers full of college text books etc. However, when fully loaded, the time difference between the two on my admittedly short 16.5 mile RT commute is pretty negligible. I've got disk brakes on the road bike, and I LOVE them. I think it's important to mention that riding into a headwind on a mtb is significantly more of a hassle than on the road bike. Overall, I prefer the road bike, but not by a huge margin.