mountain bike not for me
 

after four days of using my brothers mountain bike for commutes, i finally got my road bike back from the lbs repair shop. boy what a difference.
i think anyone that uses a mountain bike for commutes is a masochist. there is so much more effort in pedaling those things to move the bike from point a to point b.
my road bike just glides along but with the mountain bike i kept checking the tires to see if i had a flat, there was so much effort.
for anyone just starting you would be making a huge mistake imo if you chose a mountain bike for your commute.

I came into work one morning, proudly proclaiming to my colleague that I had done a 70 mile ride on my rb over the weekend. We talked about it for a while. I then asked what he done on the weekend and he told me he done a 100 mile ride on his mountain bike off-road. :(

Depends on the MTB. A light-weight hard-tail with slicks can be a pretty sweet commuter. A full-suspension with aggressive knobbies, not so much unless your commute is offroad.

I've been riding my hardtail - with knobbies - since I totalled my commuter in December, and it's been excellent. Riding in the dark I don't have to worry (so much) about potholes, the gearing is decent for riding in traffic, and because it's fairly low-end I'm not worried about constant filthy conditions. I like the stability in general.

It is a bit slower but that's an incentive to ride harder. I'm gonna be a killer when I get back on a road bike!

I think it depends on the commute. For my relatively short commute both my hardtail and tourer take about the same time.

Don't assume that everyone has the same commute as you. I've happily commuted on an all terrain bike for years, as have many others. Hell, with my 2.1 semi-slicks on I pass roadies all of the time, come summer. And as a single bike owner, it's nice to be able ride my bike in everything that an Anchorage winter has to throw at me.

Fail!

Bahahaha That will take the wind right out of your sails!

My buddy is www.mtbcast.com and I have been listing to his coverage of the Iditarod invitational going on in AK this week. Think Randonneuring on a Pugsly in the snow.
I will NEVER give a MTB crap about doing half the miles off road that I do on road.

I know a guy (not mtbcast) that commutes 22 miles on way on a hybrid (Trek PDX I believe). He has decent road tires on it but after having commuted on a Hybridised mountain with a decent set of road friendly tires and then going to a Touring bike I now feel the same as the OP. It is so much easier on a true road bike. I keep telling him once I get the Brifter fixed on my 58cm C-Dale T700 I am going to loan it to him for a couple rides. My Bet is I will never keep up with the guy and he will be shopping for a road bike withing the week. LOL.

Just for fun last fall I compared a rigid-ramed MTB (with dirt drops) and 35 mm studded tires to my road bike with 23 mm tires. I did the test with a combination cyclocomputer/heart rate monitor. There's not much climbing on my commute so that fact that the MTB is 5 or 6 lbs. heavier didn't really come into play.

Adjusting for heart rate, I'd say the MTB was 1 to 2 mph slower. That's huge in a race but not so important in a short to moderate commute. With slicks the difference would be even less. Since my MTB uses 700c wheels, I can also test it with my 23 mm road tires which I may do this spring. I'm guessing the difference in average speed between it and my road bike with the same tires will be .5 mph or less.

Personally, I like commuting on my road bike but I would never go so far as to say it would be a mistake for someone to use a MTB for commuting.

With a relatively flat commute and riding on slicks, a rigid framed MTB isn't going to be that much slower but will be a lot more versatile than many road bikes. And there's plenty of people out there who don't see a need to have more than one bike.

I commute in China. I have lots of sections of road that would destroy most road bikes. I have a hardtail mtb with 1.95" tyres. It suits my commute better at the moment. I have had commutes in previous years where a road bike was the best choice.

z

I rode a road bike too, MTB is a bit harder but you're really exaggerating a bit :D Or just need to get stronger :P If you commute without any significant cargo and roads are in good shape then a road bike is better. But I carry some stuff an my roads can compete with some off road trails in terms of roughness so a mountain bike is just a better choice for me. Plus I ride in winter so fat tires are a plus.

We're talking rigid MTB though. A full suspension MTB is a waste of energy on roads indeed.

Aam

Hey, I commute on a full suspension MTB. :) A lot is dependent on the tires and suspension set-up, too. One thing you can't do much about is wind resistance. I do quite a bit of off-road riding in the summer, even commuting home. There are some nice scenic and quiet trails I can use. I like my Liquid because I can go anywhere with it. If all I had to ride on was pavement, it wouldn't be the best bike for me.

I've ridden about 50 miles on it in a day. Wasn't an issue. Going from a road bike to a mountain bike, you're going to feel slow. We're just stronger riders. :p (Friendly ribbing... Don't take personally.)

Slick tires on a MTB commuter make a huge difference. And the ability to take it through some grass and dirt trails, even with slicks on, is really great. I think that a MTB with slicks is the ultimate city commuter.

I'm with the OP. Commuting on an MTB sucks eggs. The weight, the knobbies, the upright position, the flat bars...feh. If that's all you got, then god bless. Me, I'd take a road bike with square wooden wheels to commute over any MTB for a commute on pavement.

acorn, mercxmad, you all need to HTFU.

10 years on various MTB's for commuting and every other use; besides despising the ride feel of a road bike, I do have the additional issue of three herniated discs, requiring suspension of some sort.

I don't CARE about being all that fast on the commute, or the 'ease of pedaling'; my full-susser has no pedal bob, I've run all kinds of tires, and yes some are better than others, but there's not a road bike out there that will hold up under me for any real length of time. I have three years on this MTB, and it still rides like new!

If your preferred experience on a bike is light, fast, easy, more power to you. Being slower (average 14+ mph) doesn't matter, as I enjoy EVERY SECOND on the bike -- and there are more seconds when you're slower!

(roadie with square wooden wheels...? OK, dude.................................)

Did you know that you can change tires on all mountain bikes? And bars, too? Amazing, but true!

And as for weight issues, I guess I'm just not a weenie, 'cause it doesn't bug me in the least.

Guess, it all depends on the commute/route. MTBs are pretty common here, esp the older rigid ones. Wouldn't want to commute on a full suspension bike either. The handlebar obviously is a matter of preference and type/length of route.

1987 Kuwahara Cascade mtb / expedition bike / commuter

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...adetourera.JPG

^^^ Hot.
I do agree with OP to an extent. My mtb has 2.25" tires in front and 2.1" in back, very slow on pavement. I took it to work 3 times in the snow, but otherwise I just htfu and take the 23c fixed gear to work.

Haha, yes... a bit of a drama queen.

My Kuwahara just got re-built as it has lived the past few seasons as a fixed gear touring bike and this summer I am taking it on a little 1000 mile cruise through the Rocky Mountains where a few more gears will be needed.

It rolls out very quickly on those 1.5 Marathons and the 26 inch wheels are just a little tougher than 700c and offer a much nicer ride quality... one could off road and do some pretty decent drops on the wheel set I am running and those wheels used to be used for XC racing.

Speed is the sum of many things and if you decrease your rolling resistance and get a little more aerodynamic a bike with 26 inch wheels can perform just about as well as a road bike and withstand a lot more punishment.

I always consider commuting to be one of the toughest gigs for any bike to handle as one is often carrying more stuff and the road conditions can be brutal and I prefer a higher volume tyre for urban assaults no matter what size tyre you are running.

Now that the snow and ice are leaving I've switched back to the RB and yes, it is wonderful to ride the RB on nice pavement; wet or dry. However just the week before it would have sucked big time on the RB. Poorly plowed streets with fresh ice and/or slush, it was the MTB or the bus. The RB was slower than the MTB for those conditions.

Some mountin bikes can be easlily"roadified or hybridized" to make them faster. My Surly 1x1 has a set of 700cc touring wheels with 36 spokes and I am running 38mm tires on it, it's my urban assult bike, that can also take on some mild singletrack. Bike has a flat bar with bar ends and I am running 44/18 gear ratio. This bike is very fast and comfartable for long distance. 29'er wheels and narrower tires make all the difference in the world.

How fast do ya need to go anyway? I can maintain 18-20mph on my MTB (smooth but fat tires) on flats, no problems and that's with loaded panniers. And for short commutes flat bar is fine. But ride what you like :D

http://a-world.net/files/bf/kommuter/04.jpg

Adam

I'm inclined to agree with the OP. I'm riding a mid-90s Specialized Hardrock until the pothole/ road debris situation along my commute improves. It's a huge improvement from my Trek 7300FX based on the steel frame rather than aluminum but the 2.1 inch rebranded Panaracer tires seem really slow. One of the reasons I sold the Trek was the upright seating position but I'm trying to make get the Hardrock to work, mainly because I'm considering adding an Xtracycle Free Radical to that bike. But I know if I don't enjoy riding the bike in it's current state, I won't want to ride it as an Xtracycle. Anyway, I'm not a fan of the stock gearing (that can be changed) nor the current tires (also can be changed) but some adjustments to seat height and replacing the handlebar made the ride more comfortable, if not speedier. My biggest complaint is that rather than feeling like the bike wants to roll, especially if I coast for a couple seconds, the way my Aurora does, the Hardrock seems to want to stop (bike could probably use an overhaul/ lubrication of the drive train and wheels; might remedy the problem.) Then again, I'm cutting myself some slack because my winter riding regimen was just about non-existent, so a couple weeks of conditioning may change my tune. But then I'll get onto the Aurora and be spoiled again...