Respect from the "other side".

neilo23

Dear mountain bikers,
After 20 years of being a snobby roadie I've succumbed and bought myself my first mountain bike (a 2nd hand Cannondale F600) and have just been out for a test ride. I've never felt so knackered after 90 minutes riding. It felt as if I was dragging a hippo on a skateboard behind me (despite having to use gears I didn't know existed) and the forest trails on which I walk the girlfriend with the dog turned into several north faces of the Eiger. However, I had great fun seeing what was up all of the little side roads which are out of bounds to me on my road bike and haven't had as much fun going down hills since I was a fearless 13 year old.
Does mountain biking turn you into a super human being? Once I've got used to the "strange" position, "wimpy gears" (written with a lot of irony) and the other differences will it get "easier" (you know what I mean) and see me flying along on my road bike as I could previously only have imagined?

mak3m

lol welcome to the darkside :twisted:

Anonymous

It's a good point.

When I ride my MTB round Richmond Park I'm constantly overtaken by smug looking roadies. I always wonder if they'd be overtaking me just as easy if I was on a road bike as well.

Hope to find out in the New Year when work start the C2W scheme and I treat myself to nice new road bike.

stubs

Dont forget that 90 mins off road is a pretty good first ride for a rider not used to it. Whenever I go out on a road bike I nearly wheelie it first time I push the pedals, modern road bikes are ridiculously easy to ride fast and far. A mountain bike tyre and wheel is at least twice as heavy as a road tyre and wheel plus all the components are heftier.

I can knock off a 100 mile road ride relatively easily though I will have sore knees, bum and neck the next day but a off road ride of more than 30 miles is a real good ride that will leave me cream crackered the next day.

Welcome to the mucky side now you just need to fall off slowly and spectaculary in front of lots of witnesses, get lots of cuts and bruises and you are fully initiated.

EddieHitler

Like anything it get easier the more you do. I do good distances on both, road and off road and they definatley compliment each other fitness wise, seems to more and more people now doing both. Off road miles are more rewarding and interesting mind. Either way keep it up!

colint

I'm another recent convert and couldn't agree more. On my ride yesterday I did a steady 2 - 3 mile climb which probably wouldn't have got me out of the big ring on the road bike, but I had to stop at the top having spun the last few hundred yards in my smallest gear !

On the way down I did something that I haven't done on a bike since I was riding my Raleigh Grifter around the woods after school 25 years ago, ie laughed.

Part of my brain is still trying to work out which fool put all those loose rocks and wet slabs on the cycle path, and just think how much faster and safer it would be tarmaced, but I'm totally hooked. Can't wait to get out again

Paul 8v

I am a memebr of the dark and light sides, when I go out on my fixed wheel after riding the mountain bike it's like someone's attached a rocket booster! The road miles for me are just about how fast and fit you are, the offroad miles are more rewarding due to the fact it's got the technical aspect as well, you don't have to look for the best line on the road (well apart from in Essex where the roads resemble the surface of the moon....)

Tartanyak

It'll be more fun when you ignore the 'roads' part completely, never mind the little side roads.

Get a trail where the trees are only just wide enough for your bars or something covered in big spiky rocks. That's where the fun really is!

I ride both road and mountain and although I enjoy it, the roadie stuff will never make me smile like mountain biking.

willisg

Been riding both for a couple of years now, was totally road before... Now i find the road bike ridiculously easy to ride at speed, and now im better at finding the line at trails it has given me more confidence in cornering the road at speed.

But i have to agree with tartanyak, roads give me the satisfaction of speed and a smug grin (especially when flying past traffic in the cycle lane), but it does not compare to the laugh out loud balls in throat feeling of pulling off a technically challenging part of a trail. PS falling off is also more fun on mtb!

mak3m

willisg wrote:

But i have to agree with tartanyak, roads give me the satisfaction of speed and a smug grin

hmmmmmm was riding up snowford bank last weekend in warwickshire, bigish road climb between the trail i was on and the greenway i was heading too.

peddlin like mad, blowing out my ass 3/4 the way up on big bobbly kenda xc tyres, then woosh woosh woosh

gang of 6 roadies swept past me like they were on the flat, last one turned and winked at me with a big smug grin

Tartanyak

Yeah, it's slightly different riding. The difference between the 20ish mm tyres on the roadie and the 2.4 inch knobblies on the mountain bike is, well, quite noticable. Yes. Quite.

But, going at speed downhill on the roadbike terrifies me. Going on the mountain bike I know I've got grip (in fact, too much to actually go all that fast...) and if nearly anything comes along I can just run over it. Potholes, kerbs, cats, small children.

neilo23

Willisg, I like this bit : "Now i find the road bike ridiculously easy to ride at speed". Better than simply riding ridiculously

Seeing as I live in one of the most heavily forested areas of Germany I should have bought a mountain bike years ago. Having said that, I still have delusions of being the oldest ever Tour winner and the streets are still what I prefer to have under my tyres. But if a mountain bike's good enough for my peers (in relation to their age, not talent) Simoni and Armstrong then it's good enough for me. Now, where are those potholes?

njee20

A mountain bike tyre and wheel is at least twice as heavy as a road tyre and wheel plus all the components are heftier

My Top Fuel weighs less than my winter road bike, a Spesh Allez! I must say I don't find either more tiring per se, but one certainly compliments the other.

Anonymous

njee20 wrote:

My Top Fuel weighs less than my winter road bike,

I think your scales must be broken, surely.

njee20

Oh probably! Winter road bike (with Power Tap wheel and mudguards) is 21lbs, Top Fuel is around 20.6ish depending on tyres.

Think the Allez is still marginally quicker up hills, although it's not by much! Riding that over winter makes the Madone a pleasure to ride though!

Anonymous

Must be broken. There's no way you'd ever get a top fuel under 50lbs.

njee20

It's probably about the same as an aluminium Marin with heavy wheels ;-)

Anonymous

Yes. No way it's as light as a scandium team issue frame though. NO WAY.

njee20

I'd hope a hardtail frame would weigh less yes, luckily it's got much lighter parts on it, so the complete bike's about the same. If TBC ever races, I'll make sure to bring my scales, we can settle it once and for all :-)

Mind you I'll have something that weighs 6lbs despite 9" of travel by then!

Actually, back OT, when I had my carbon hardtail built up that was probably quicker to climb on than the Allez, you could get away with big gear out of the saddle pedal mashing more than on the Fuel!

bellys

welcome to the dark side.
i can not wait for the time you let on to a roadie and they just blank you......F*cks me off..

as for getting easer yes it will but the main thing is enjoy your self.

Anonymous

Welcome aboard, and as if it wasn't obvious by now, njee is completely obsessed by weight. He spends every second of every day thinking about weight, and how other people's claimed weights are of course, bullcrap, whereas his own are gospel.

njee20

I do enjoy a light bike, I've never in my life done a spreadsheet to work out what everything weighs though, nor have I posted a thread with pictures of every single component of my bike, with a running commentary every time I change a dust cap! I do ride it, which I find quite a lot more enjoyable, some people on here should try it, may help them chill out a bit :-)

I wouldn't worry about the first time someone on a bike ignores you though, it's generally totally irrelevant if they're on an MTB or road bike, some people just don't feel the need to say hello to absolutely everyone they meet. I call them normal people.

Thewaylander

Yup Njee is basicly a roady on the trail

If i rode a 20lb bike, I would snap it on the first table top i find for a laugh hehe

njee20

They're tougher than you think, not for the clumsy riders though for sure!

Sure you riding Gods could teach me some mad skillz though!

.blitz

One of them roadies followed me home the other night. I was just riding along a pitch black deserted country lane when I sensed there was someone behind me on a bicycle. They had a tail light but no front light, so I slowed right down. A voice behind me said 'D'y'mind if I follow yer up the hill I got no lights". Cheeky c*nt

njee20

You should have taken the off road route, left him an interesting dilemma!

.blitz

You can just imagine the same thread on the road forum:

'Caught up with this fat MTBr the other night on the way home. He had a million quids worth of lights but he was going dead slow. Sat on his tail all the way up the hill then turned off without even saying thanks. By not having any lights on I got round 0.005 seconds quicker than last week'

njee20

Or, quite possibly, he was a mountain biker who'd gone out on his road bike! Or does that make him a 'roadie'?

The low self-esteem issues that require everyone to say hello to them does seem to be a purely mountain biker based phenomenon though!

Tartanyak

You confuse low self esteem with common courtesy Are you a Londoner by any chance?

njee20

Do you say hello to everyone in the street? I don't, and if I did and they didn't reply I wouldn't feel the need to tell all on the internet! It's rather odd how many people are bothered by it!

I say hello to everyone I see on a bike, and if off road, walking etc, some reply, some don't, it doesn't bother me either way, and I certainly don't get offended if they don't reply!

Not a Londoner though, sorry!

Tartanyak

So why's it low self esteem?

No, I don't say hello to everyone, that'd be silly. I'm curious why you'd link self esteem to this though. Seems like a rather large leap. If I said hello to someone, I'd expect a reply. I'd not be offended if they didn't - I really don't care. I'm sure I've been rude and not replied because I'd not noticed, had headphones on or was in my own little world...