Road vs MTB avg speeds
 

I posted this in a reply by mistake, so let me paste it here in a new thread instead....


quick question from the new guy...for those of you with mountain bikes too, what types of average speeds do you post on your mtn compared to you road? I am curious to see the difference one type of bike makes towards the other. Reason I am asking is I do all my riding now on and Alum MTB and soon will be acquiring a descent road bike. I am wondering how much my avg speed will jump up on the new rig. Right now I get only about 15 to 16 mph with my 2.10" hoops...always riding on the large chainring(which is only like a 43 ot 44 tooth anyways)

I ride a 1990 era no shocks Diamondback 'ascent ex' mtb with 'Specialized Crossroads ex' 26"x1.95" tires at 80psi (flat center tread). It weighs 33lbs (!) as I have it set up. For my 9mi 2x per day commute I consistently travel at 20-22mph between stops, for an average speed (including the speed up and slow down time for stops) of ~18mph. I always use the 36 chainring with a 13-30 cog, usually on the 13-15 cogs, resulting in a 110 cadence.

This Thursday I will hopefully start using a Lemond Poprad set up with 700x28mm road tires. I will report back on how my cruising and average speed changes as I am very curious myself. A true lightweight roadbike (Poprad is a cyclocross bike) with even smaller tires would even be a slightly better of an improvement I imagine.

Al

lol damn 20-22 is pretty fast on a mtb.. i better check my computer to see if its calibrated right;)...or i better start putting in some more miles/week! :D

dexmax posted this a few months ago - interesting comparison.
Originally Posted by dexmax-----------------------------------------------------------
I tried using my xc mtb on one of my routes (roadbike routes -- highway), just a few minutes ago.

The experience was cool.. here's what I have found out.

Total Distance: 26km
Road: Very smooth asphalt road (highway)
Traffic: light, high speed; 100kmh speed limit(cars)
Weather: slight headwind, cloudy, cool (about 28 deg C).

Roadbike
Gearing: 52T-42T. 12T-23TCassette; didn't have the chance to use the big ring.
Wheels/Tires: 700c, 700x23C Maxxis
weight: 18.5lbs
Top speed: 46kmh
Ave speed: 32kmh
Fun Level: Excellent


MTB (hardtail)
Gearing:44-32-22T. 11-32TCassette
Wheels/Tires: 26", 26x2.1 WTB NanoRaptor
Weight: 26lbs
Top speed: 35kmh
Ave speed: 23kmh
Fun Level: Good workout; won't be taking this route again on this bike...

Anyway, this numbers seem to be correct..

My average speed my first week of this commute was 14.7mph. Now, 1200mi later (nearly 18mi every work day) my average speed this past week has been 17.7mph. Training does help!

(My computer is calibrated first by looking up tire size to enter the circumference in mm, then fined tuned it by putting paint on tire and rolling it out with me on bike and measured distance between dots on pavement)

Al

I have just started riding religiously and I used to ride a 43 pound mtb from Wal-mart (yea, lol). A friend of mine is training for a tri so he bought a specialized allez. I couldn't keep up naturally so I bought a Trek 1200.

My speed avg and time increased drastically (over 3mph avg) from the mtb to the 1200. It's also much more fun to ride the Trek. Here's the results:

About 4 days apart, 15 mile ride, same route, same conditions:

MTB = 13.7mph avg

Trek
1200 = 16.8mph avg

First 8 miles:
mtb = 15mph avg
Trek = 17mph avg

Trek Cycling Log

Just fyi, I'm 31yrs old, about 190 lbs (shooting for 170 maybe)

I used to ride my wal-mart mtb bike every now and then a couple times a week about 5 miles at a time. Then I would stop for like 6 months, a year, etc. So never really persistently. Since the Trek I plan on building up my miles and speed each week until I'm riding maybe 100 - 150 miles 5 days a week. To loose weight and get in physical and cardio shape.

OK, here is the promised data:

The average speed for the 9mi ride on flat for three days preceding new bike on the old 33lb. mtb:
18.0, 18.1, 18.3 mph

The average speed for same ride for three days on new Poprad:
18.1, 17.6, 18.0 mph

It feels so much smoother to ride this new bike with road tires. But I really knew the mtb well and because of this felt comfortable pushing very hard, etc. I still need to get used to new bike before being able to focus on pushing as hard instead of getting used to new handling (which is better) and controls.

Al

You get a 22% increase in speed on a roadbike vs mtb.

Uh where did you get such a number?

I wondered the same. There are so many variables it is impossible to come up with such a specific number.

Al

Qualitatively speaking, I rode my mountain bike around the block the other nite for the 1st time since getting my road bike. DANG! It was so slow compared to the road bike. Those knobbies just create a ton of resistance on asphalt, really slow me down. I may be able to crank to a decent speed, but certainly would not want to try to maintain it...

from Bike facts

:D

I wonder where the number comes from, but it seems about right from my personal experience. I ride a rigid frame 1988 mtb for training several times a week (33 lbs). When I get on my full carbon road bike, the speed difference does come close to the 22%.

Update now that I feel more comfortable on bike and can put more attention toward pedaling and starting fast from stops.

The last two 9mi rides were 19.4 and 19.2 mph. This compares to my two best averages of 18.5 on the mountain bike (and one of those was with a tail wind). Not 22% improvement ;) , but still a nice improvement.

I found I was cruising between lights at 23-25mph instead of the 20-22mph on the mtb. 22% improvement is somewhere to be found in those numbers ;)

Al

They are all the same speed at red lights. :rolleyes:

hmm....then once I get rid of the bio-crap gearing on my trek, i should really be flying. I averaged 17mph on my outlook w/slicks.


...really I can't understand what the deal is with it...I know how it's suppsoed to work..but it just seems to make it easier up to 18mph, but then the chain starts getting internmittant tension/slack, and I end up having to puch super hard just to get to 22mph.....considering I can hit a sprint of 30 in my outlook...that's just sad....the biocrap is going to die....I jsut have to find some chainrings I like...then I might see that 22% :D