my58vw

Hello all...

Like many members of the forum cyclists we have seen great derivations of speed, for example climbing is a good point here...

Climb the hill at 6 MPH, decend at 50 MPH.

Run a Crit at 30 MPH, sprint at 40 MPH

Cruise at 18 MPH, LT threshold at 21 MPH on flats...

Etc.

But today I experienced the wierdest idea of speed...


When I am in my "best race form", I can cruise on a road bike at 20 MPH in the small ring nearly all day, spining away at 90 or so RPMs... (on the flat roads)... of course I am definitly not in race shape right now...

I am commutting on my "new" road converted MTB, about 38 pounds loaded... I have never ran a computer on the bike, I know approximatle lengths and could really not care about speeds... well now with my new shifts timing the rides is more important so I added a computer today... Cateye Mity 7, basic computer...

On my way in to the bike shop I was thinking abour speed and saying... oh I am doing about 14 - 15 MPH tops (42-17), just spinning along, and maybe 16 in a 42-15, etc. The computer told me otherwise (and yes it was calibrated correctly), much faster than I expected, I was spinning along at 17 - 18 MPH in the big ring on the flatter and slightly graded areas and even on the steeper sections (what ever that means), I was spinning at 14 -15 MPH. That would be the difference between 19 - 20 MPH on the road bike to 17-18 MPH on the MTB... that is not that much of a difference...

Then it must be that on flats weight once going is not that big of a deal... sure for the constant accel and decel it is harder (and after 30 miles of errands today my right quad was telling me that...), but on flats weight is not that big of a deal... and we are certainly talking more than 2 or 3 pounds here roadies are talking about...

none of this applies to climbing though... although weight of less than a few pounds means very little for riders not at ideal weight...

What do you think... please discuss...

55/Rad

I definitely can cruise faster with less effort on the flats with my 18 pound Trek than on my 15 pound Santana. I can also bomb the descents a lot better.

Other than the climbs, which the Trek does quite well too, I see no reason for the superlight Stylus. Except for the fact that it's nice to show off and it strokes my ego.

55/Rad

goldfish

i always bike on flats....no other option near enough to me right now. and you could probably add ten pounds to me no problem and i wouldn't notice it other than accelerating.

the crappy mountain bike that i ride around town doesn't seem heavy to me at all most of the time, except acceleration, as stated above.

DannoXYZ 

One thing to consider is that the bike-frame's job is to hold all the components together. The crank, chain & wheels transmit your pedaling forces to the ground. So really, the only difference in performance-terms between your MTB and road-bike is the tyre's contact-patches and slighty more aerodynamic-drag.

There was one race I almost missed because I waited until midnight to start brazing on drop-outs, shifter-bosses & cables-stops on my new frame. I just couldn't get it painted and built up by the next morning. So I threw some slicks on my IV commuter bike (semi-cyclocross bike, MTB with drop-bars, but 26" wheels). Ended taking a prime and 2nd in the finish anyway.

CastIron

My experience echoes these. On the flats on my commuter I can move along with little speed difference, though the wind is a bigger factor. The hills are a much different story--the roadie seemingly levitates up the same inclines I grind through on the bigger beast.

genec

Whoa I was thinking about this too... I have done several long tours on my commute bike... long chain stays, fat tires, low gearing. I can ride that thing for hours and easily maintain a pace of 17MPH +.

My other bike is a crit bike, much lighter, with short stays, and a radical seat tube angle... it is as if that bike does not coast. I have to pedal and work hard to get speed, but I can get it quick. But riding it over any distance, such as just 30 miles just kills me.

I was trying to equate it to boats and keel length... and visualized how the stay length equated to the keel length. Long stays and you have a long tracking, long distance bike; short stays and you have a quick responding bike, but... that response takes constant input.

HWS

Interesting subject. I have also noticed the difference between my bikes in this regard. On my hybrid, I cruise along on flats at around 19-20 with moderate effort (155 bpm).

On my roadie, the same 155 bpm gets me 22-23 mph on the same flats. I do feel as though I'm working harder, but the hrm says different (if I'm interpreting this correctly).

The hybrid is more comfortable for a trip over 30 miles, but I get done faster on the roadie.

CPcyclist

Try riding at night to mess with your perspective of speed. Lately I have been going out for my ride as it gets dark and come home in pitch black. It amazes me how fast my rides have been in the hills at 16-17 pace and hitting speeds over 45 coming down the hills it just feels much slower the this with the lack of visual cues.

my58vw

Well I had another interesting perspective today. As I said I can cruise when fresh for 10 - 15 miles at 16 - 17 MPH minus the hills. I hit a head wind on the last part of my commute (mile 11-12) and I got really bogged down... and my quads were not liking me at 14 MPH in the second ring (almost equivalent to a road bikes granny gear). Once I got out the of the head wind it was back to 15 - 16 MPH (a little tired at this point, expecially at 88 degrees at the time.

BTW loaded my bike weighs in at a heafty 44.5 pounds... not light by any standards...

DXchulo

I experience the same thing when I go buy groceries. I can easily shove 10+ lbs of food in my backpack and put a few more pounds of random crap (usually cereal) on my rack. It's a ***** to get going with all that extra weight, but once I get going it's no problem (unless there are oddly shaped objects in my backpack poking me to death).

There's a local guy who shows up to group rides (yes, even the "fast" one) on a MTB. It's a sweet looking MTB, but an MTB nonetheless. He could drop me on that MTB no problem, rolling resistance be damned.

We obsess about the small stuff.

nova

I use to love night rideing on any bike. Its was so quiet and peacfull. The only thing on the road me the only sound the quiet buzz of my tires and my free wheels nearly silent (at the time) click click click. I always felt like i was going faster. Heh probably because i was no trafic to watch for of note. Was a local conviances store where the cops would hang out and drink coffee eat donuts etc. Would stop there at like 1 am or so and just shoot the breeze for a few and find some more lonly quiet streets to ride. Now you got dozens of punk kids in their ricers taring up the roads getting drunk and or high and screwing with riders.

What was fun was picking up a ride partner or 2 at night. I remember rideing on cleveland masilion road (same one with the now slightly less hated hill heh) Zipping along with a couple ride partners and just enjoying the nice car free road. Its never that busy of a road and probably the safest road for a person on a bike in 15 miles. But at night it may as well be closed to cars. One night me and 2 other riders road on it and the surrounding side roads for id say 3 hours and never seen a single car.

And now the same road at night is a drag strip for punks in ricers with rear spoilers that would make a indy car jelous.

At any rate i bet alot of us with out bike comps would be shocked by how fast we realy are going.

will dehne

This Thread relates to what happened to me yesterday. I was biking with a strong MTB guy about 20 years younger than me. He had a nice new Hybrid and was able to keep up with me on the flats. This circular park road has some modest hills. I can go up them with 53/14 or 15 at a speed of 18 MPH at best.
Approaching these hills, I could sprint and drop him. I let him catch up again counting that this would fatigue him. It did, I really dropped him on the next hill.

I have no doubt that this guy would have ran away from me except I had a light Road Bike with aero bars. You may not be too impressed but for me it was quite an effort. We averaged 22 MPH for about 18 miles of varying terrain.