MTB vs road gearing

jangle

Hi All,

This is probably a stupid question but I am new to here and bikes in general..

I have recently started commuting on my slick shod MTB and am having loads of fun but am also realising that I need to move to a road bike fairly soon. Having spoken to various people they are all saying that I will struggle with the higher gearing on a road bike and should go for a triple to make the switch a bit easier. My question is this..

If my MTB has chainrings of about 22/33/44 and a road bike has 34/50 and I manage to do all the hilly bits on the 2nd chain ring on my MTB, then does it follow that I should be ok on the road bike on the 1st ring? I am assuming that the hills should be a bit easier on a road bike as they are lighter and don't have suspension soaking some of my effort but I may be wrong on this. Just wondering whether to concentrate my search for a decent roadbike on triples or open it up to compacts and normal ones really. If anybody could put me straight it would be much appreciated!

Mister W

My experience with triples is that they're more trouble than they're worth and you can get nearly as low with a compact. If you're worried about having low enough gears just make sure you have a decent size cog on the back. A 27 should do the trick.

Not Another Hill

I went from MTB to road biking. Chose a 50/34 and find it fine. Plenty of hills round where i ride so you'll probably be OK with a compact. It's only stuff like Boltby Bank and other hills at 25 - 30% gradient that you'd ever really wished you had a triple (fortunately not too much riding involves that kind of hill :!: ). You can always get off and push

feel

Depends what cassette you have been using on the back .If the biggest sprocket is about 25 then your answer is yes you will cope, but if, as i suspect, you have something much bigger then it might not be so easy to get up those hills.
A triple is not hard to adjust. Depends really on how young, fit and strong you are and how hilly it is where you ride.

Smokin Joe

A road bike is so much lighter and quicker than an MTB that you will not need a triple. Just fit sensible ratios and a compact double will get you up any hill you meet.

Nick6891

when im on my mountain bike i only ever use 2 rings and they are the middle and top, i leave the bottom one for really steep hills

Onan

Ride on your top ring for a while to get used to using higher gearing. Force your body to adapt as much as you can before you make the switch.

rhext

I have a double on my road bike and a triple on my MTB. I certainly wouldn't bother with a triple on the road bike, and I live in the Peak District. The granny ring on the MTB is most useful for spinning smoothly up steep rough tracks. If you're on a road bike and the worst comes to the worst you can always stand up for a stretch without risking major wheelspin or going over the back.

jangle

Cheers for all this. Pretty much confirmed what I thought. I generally keep to the high gears on the MTB on the road. Can't remember the last time I went down to the granny ring. Might see if I can try a triple and a compact and see how I get on.

rally200

Having just taken the leap from a hybrid with a triple to my first road bike - a compact double nine speed I'm with Smokin Joe on this one - the (lack of) weight and skinny, high pressure tyres mean you wont miss the little ring from your mtb. I'm not the fittest of riders but I've yet to run out of gears.

One big change to think about is the change from thumb shifters. I plumped for a tiagra fitted bike as I had trouble reaching the thumb button on sora - even then after seriously aching hands from my first serious ride I had to fit the reach adjusters to the tiagra levers - I don't think you can adjust the sora.

ror_b211

I'm doing the same- after using a slicked mountain bike for commuting for ages, i had a go on a friends' road bike (to see if I liked it) and the first thing you'll notice is how much easier it is to pedal up hills. For all but ridiculous hills (in which case it's probably about the same speed and effort to get off and push anyway) I found the compact to be fine. You could look out for a 27-12 rear cassette which would give you a lower ratio too.

alfablue

rally200 wrote:

ne big change to think about is the change from thumb shifters. I plumped for a tiagra fitted bike as I had trouble reaching the thumb button on sora - even then after seriously aching hands from my first serious ride I had to fit the reach adjusters to the tiagra levers - I don't think you can adjust the sora.

I don't much like the thumb lever on Sora either, however the main lever is reach adjustable, on last years model there is a screw in the hood


On this years model you use shims



I just discovered this having assumed there was no reach adjustment - my girlfriend has been struggling for months reaching the levers, now sorted

(just thought I would pass that on in case it helps anyone with Sora).