|
Originally Posted by deacon mark
(Post 10644370)
I am going to go against the grain and say a rode bike even a cheap one will do much faster than a mountain bike. A cheap road bike with 700-23 tires at 110 psi on hard blacktop you should be able to ride the 10 miles in 30 minutes.
|
Originally Posted by umd
(Post 10644766)
Sorry, there is no way a mountain bike is going to make the OP go from 9mph to 20mph, unless he is riding with completely flat tires on his mountain bike.
I agree. I rode my old mtn bike with knobbies in the winter on the road. Did 14-15 mph. Only a few mph less than my road bike. |
Originally Posted by banerjek
(Post 10641391)
The jump won't be anywhere near that big based on bike alone. Two things about mountain bikes really slow people down, aerodynamics and rolling resistance.
At 9mph, the aero resistance is minimal. Rolling resistance is going to be noticeable, but even that won't be insane. I'd guess you may pick up 2mph, but I'd guess you could get that simply by putting more air in your tires. Most n00bs ride with their tire pressures way too low. What's holding you back more than the bike is your physical condition, so if you just ride more, you'll speed up fast. The faster you go, the more difference you'll notice between a road bike and an MTB. Since you want to do this triathalon in the summer, I'd guess that you could probably get in good enough shape to do the cycling part at 15mph or maybe a little higher on a road bike, probably closer to 13mph if you stick with the MTB. |
Originally Posted by Homebrew01
(Post 10644993)
(You meant road bike)
|
Originally Posted by smith-great
(Post 10644252)
Just put slick tires on your current bike.This was the standard advice given to new triathletes among the group I used to train with.
I put a pair of these on my mtn bike and climbed Mt Evans with it last year. They were *great*! And they were rock solid at 45mph on the descent. http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...2_10000_200518 |
Originally Posted by umd
(Post 10644766)
Sorry, there is no way a road bike is going to make the OP go from 9mph to 20mph, unless he is riding with completely flat tires on his mountain bike.
|
i say wait until you can do ~15 mph before getting a road bike.
unless you're a senior citizen then just get one now. i recently switched from a MTN bike to Road bike and there is quite a big difference when going downhill or with the wind. when going against the wind though the difference is smaller. on the average i would guess you would gain about 10% speed. |
Originally Posted by vkalia
(Post 10645488)
Well, for a normal mountain bike, possibly not (unless he is running some insane DH tires on it) - but given that he has a Walmart MTB, I reckon just going to a standard "brand" MTB with proper parts will get him a significant boost in speed.
|
Originally Posted by umd
(Post 10645550)
Not more than double.
|
Going from a bottom of the line Trek mountain bike mounted with 2.0" slicks to my Defy 2, it accelerates and handles noticeably better, but the biggest difference is definitely from the position change. Going into a headwind, I've notice about a 3 km/h difference with roughly equal effort
|
I occasionally ride my 29er MTB on the same roads where I train on my road bike. With non-knobby hardpack-oriented tires, and using the same effort, I average about 1.5 mph slower on the 29er than on my road bike.
|
Originally Posted by vkalia
(Post 10645566)
True, true - the real improvement is probably going to be a fair bit more than than a regular MTB -> Road bike, that's all I am saying.
|
Originally Posted by NickDavid
(Post 10641768)
40 minutes for 6 miles? Hell, people can run faster than that.
I might be able to borrow a bike from someone to test. If not, it sounds like changing the tires may be the way to go. Thanks for all of the help guys. |
Originally Posted by rbelcher
(Post 10646145)
I agree it's pretty pathetic. Last night I ran 5.16 miles in 50 minutes. So I'm not in great shape, but I thought I should be able to ride much faster than I am.
I might be able to borrow a bike from someone to test. If not, it sounds like changing the tires may be the way to go. Thanks for all of the help guys. |
Originally Posted by NickDavid
(Post 10641768)
40 minutes for 6 miles? Hell, people can run faster than that.
|
Originally Posted by NothingTooFancy
(Post 10646479)
That's what i was thinking but didn't wanna embarrass the OP..
|
Originally Posted by rbelcher
(Post 10646528)
Why do you think I'm eager to blame it on the bike? :-)
As others have mentioned, is your tire pressure alright? Switching to slick tires will help out, but even on knobby tires I would expect a better result. Has the bike been checked for other issues? If you haven't ridden much, do you know how to shift properly? |
Originally Posted by banerjek
(Post 10641391)
The jump won't be anywhere near that big based on bike alone. Two things about mountain bikes really slow people down, aerodynamics and rolling resistance.
At 9mph, the aero resistance is minimal. Rolling resistance is going to be noticeable, but even that won't be insane. I'd guess you may pick up 2mph, but I'd guess you could get that simply by putting more air in your tires. Most n00bs ride with their tire pressures way too low. What's holding you back more than the bike is your physical condition, so if you just ride more, you'll speed up fast. The faster you go, the more difference you'll notice between a road bike and an MTB. Since you want to do this triathalon in the summer, I'd guess that you could probably get in good enough shape to do the cycling part at 15mph or maybe a little higher on a road bike, probably closer to 13mph if you stick with the MTB. |
Originally Posted by chadteck
(Post 10646753)
It seems to me if you can run nearly the same distance in only 10 minutes more time (OK, it's .84 mi less, but I think you get the point), there is either something wrong with your bike, or you're doing something wrong on the bike. Are you talking about similar terrain and wind conditions?
As others have mentioned, is your tire pressure alright? Switching to slick tires will help out, but even on knobby tires I would expect a better result. Has the bike been checked for other issues? If you haven't ridden much, do you know how to shift properly? As for the condition of the bike . . . maybe I need to read up on proper bike maintenance. I haven't really done any besides filling the tires with air until they felt "tight." And I guess I should read up on shifting too. |
Honestly I have to believe that you calculated something very wrong when you figured out your pace/distance/time on the bike. Unless there was a ton of uphill you had to have gone faster than that?
|
Originally Posted by Dhorn33
(Post 10658019)
Honestly I have to believe that you calculated something very wrong when you figured out your pace/distance/time on the bike. Unless there was a ton of uphill you had to have gone faster than that?
|
Are you doing the tri just to finish or is time, personal or otherwise, a consideration. If you're doing the tri for the experience, and to see if you can finish one, good for you, but you should be fine in the mountain bike.
If you're going for a decent time, I think you need to buy a cheap, used but working, road bike. I see them being given away at yard sales pretty frequently, and on sale for dirt cheap, often sub $100 on Craigslist. Borrowing is a great idea, but it would be good if you could train on the bike that you plan to race on. |
Originally Posted by umd
(Post 10658194)
Don't underestimate how slow some people can actually be. My office building is located right on a bike path (yes, literally) and the break room window looks out onto the path. I see many people pass very slowly by the window who look like they are actually working hard, on hybrid/mountain/commuter/cruiser type bikes. The whole cadence spectrum too, some doing like 25rpm weaving side-to-side as they try to push their highest gear at 10mph and some spinning furiously in their lowest gear and barely moving. One of these days I'll shoot some video, it's pretty funny.
|
Originally Posted by dough1967
(Post 10658653)
Are you doing the tri just to finish or is time, personal or otherwise, a consideration. If you're doing the tri for the experience, and to see if you can finish one, good for you, but you should be fine in the mountain bike.
If you're going for a decent time, I think you need to buy a cheap, used but working, road bike. I see them being given away at yard sales pretty frequently, and on sale for dirt cheap, often sub $100 on Craigslist. Borrowing is a great idea, but it would be good if you could train on the bike that you plan to race on. I'm 29 and at a fairly good weight after loosing 25 lbs the last few months. So yeah, if I can't get my time below 1 hour that's going to be a hit on the self-esteem. I pumped up my tires to 60 psi and I did 7.75 miles in 52 minutes. That's the same average speed, but I did a different route that's a little tougher, so I'll consider that a slight improvement. Still, I have a long way to go. |
How are you measuring the distance? If you are using a wheel-sensor based computer, did you properly calibrate it?
Edit: Also, these are wide and knobby mountain bike tires, right? |
| All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:35 PM. |
Copyright © 2026 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.