Would a road bike speed up my 11 miles

iandennis

I'm used an old mountain bike with slicks at the moment. 11 mile commute takes about 50mins, two steep hills on the route which do slow me down.

Thinking about using the cycle to work scheme to buy a roadbike.

Would the lighter roadbike decrease my commuting time ? And if so how much would i be able to shave off (best guess).

I'm 17st but reasonably fit, the mountain bike is an old 7 speed raleigh exodus - build out of battleship steel from the feel of it.

Thanks

jeepie

I reckon I'm about 25% quicker on my road bike compared with my MTB.

The Rookie

LOL, it feels that way, in reality, no way!

A Doctor did a research article recently on exactly this, sample size was one (himself) but over nearly a whole years commuting on his MTB or Roadie, average commute time was next to no difference apart. When I used an MTB to commute I was about 2 mins slower (25 versus 23 mins over 7.5 miles) slower than on my commuter (slick tyres and about 2Kg lighter).

At 17 stone (108Kg) even a 4Kg weight saving on the bike is less than a 4% saving in total weight your propelling (and it only rearlly has an effect uphills, with you getting a little back on the way down), at your size and average speed aero drag effect of a roadbike will be minimal.

Of course if the gearing on your 7 speed is 'out' then getting the right gearing will make you a little quicker (my commuter is 1x9 but I only actually use the top 7 speeds on the rear anyway, including some short but fairly steep hills)

Simon

snailracer

Figure 1 to 2mph faster.

davis

I reckon you will be faster, but the vast majority will come from you pushing yourself faster. Skinny tyres will make an actual difference though.

wgwarburton

Hi,
Yes, it'll reduce it. Not by much, though, a few minutes, probably. The hills will either feel easier or you'll do them a bit quicker. Most of your current effort is going to overcoming wind resistance, so the roadie ought to improve that a bit, too.

Should be more fun, though- the bike will feel quicker.

Cheers,
W.

iandennis

Hmm,

I was hoping to pick up more than 1 or 2 mph. Downhill the mountain bike can hit 25mph but the gearing is probably not helping, I think its 11 - 28. On the flat I'm topping out at 15/16mph but feel that I could go faster. Climbing anywhere between 5 and 8mph depending on gradient. In the 4 months that I've been doing the journey 3 times a week then I can feel myself getting fitter and faster but think the bike might be holding me back. It doesn't feel very stable at high speed and the brakes are pretty poor.

snailracer

iandennis wrote:

Hmm,

I was hoping to pick up more than 1 or 2 mph. Downhill the mountain bike can hit 25mph but the gearing is probably not helping, I think its 11 - 28. On the flat I'm topping out at 15/16mph but feel that I could go faster. Climbing anywhere between 5 and 8mph depending on gradient. In the 4 months that I've been doing the journey 3 times a week then I can feel myself getting fitter and faster but think the bike might be holding me back. It doesn't feel very stable at high speed and the brakes are pretty poor.

You gain time mainly on the uphill bits and flats, not the descents. Mountain bikes have better grip, especially on fast bends, and better brakes than road bikes. The unstable feel is either due to the geometry of the mountain bike or rough roads. If due to rough roads, then a road bike will probably feel even less stable than a mountain bike.

iPete

It might not save loads of time but it could save loads of energy especially on nasty head wind days, enough that you can do it 4/5 times a wee.

If your downhill speed is 25mph, there is certainly room for improvement that skinny tyres and better aero will bring. You'll see the biggest benefit on the climbs.

iandennis

I'm on 1.25 fatboys and have canti-brakes. Changing the pads has helped but slowing down still isn't as "positive" as my disc braked other bike.

I agree that the road surface could be the cause behind the instability, but most of the road are not too bad.

2 to 3 times a week is all I can manage as I need the car for appointments on some days. I was considering leaving the car at work but there is no secure parking overnight and I don't really want to leave it on the road. Hence taking the bike on office days or tube days is a compromise.

I was considering blowing £1k on a road bike under cycle to work, but it its only going to add 1 to 2 mph then i might trim the budget and get a £500/£600 roadbike instead.

snailracer

iandennis wrote:

I'm on 1.25 fatboys and have canti-brakes. Changing the pads has helped but slowing down still isn't as "positive" as my disc braked other bike...

Aha, canti brakes. Mounting the pads slightly further inboard will beef up the braking, but requires fiddly adjustment of cable clamp points.

If you do a lot of braking, I would suggest replacing cantis with V-brakes and V-compatible levers. Cantis require more fiddly adjustment to maintain consistent braking as the pads wear.

walkingbootweather

Covered on an earlier post.

As I said then for my 12 miles it averages 55 mins on mtb with knobblies, 53 mins on road tyres, 49 mins on drop barred tourer and 42 mins on titanium speed machine, but since I only ride that to work on 'special occasions' and when weather good this is a bit false.

Depending upon your commute you may hope to shave about 10mins off your current commute, but most likely less.

The Rookie

Agreed, the worst set up V-s are as good as the best canti's, any decent V outbrakes a canti no problem.

As for aero, as I said at your average speed (circa 13mph) and assuming your frontal area (at 17 stone) the difference from a road bike will be small.

Gearing, I use 11-28 of my cassette, 46T up front and I can spin that out downhill (clocked at circa 40 by a workmate and I sometimes trigger the 30mph illuminated sign approaching a village on a gentler downhill).

What tyre pressures, you ideally want to be running something approaching 80psi (which is what I have in my Slickasaurus), I average circa 18mph on my flat barred hybrid.

Simon

beverick

A road bike feels much faster but how much faster it actually is depends as much on you, your commute, other road users and the weather as much as the bike.

For example, if you have a stop-start commute in heavy traffic the move to a road bike won't make much difference. In fact, for a commute like that the more upright stance of an MTB may be preferable.

There is a speed gain on all profiles. The road-bike's 52/11 gearing on 700c wheels gives me a substantially higher speed than the MTB's 48/13 on 26" rims. I hit 32mph on a gentle downhill run on the road-bike's first commuter outing of 2011 last night but the only way I'd get 30mph out of the MTB is to take it upstairs and throw it off the roof.

There's probably a 10% improvement in performance but over 11 miles that means only a 4 minute difference for me.

Where the road bike comes into its own is round about now when there's more daylight for the commute. Between March and October I occasionally extend either my morning or evening commute to 30 or sometimes 40 miles. I wouldn't even consider doing that sort of distance on the MTB.

Mind you, I wouldn't have done this morning's 12 mile off road route on the road bike either!

Bob

snailracer

I think the reason a road bike feels so much faster is because wind noise increases much more sharply than speed. Going a modest 10% faster results in 30% more wind noise.

Moodyman

I'd discourage a road bike unless you commute on rural roads.

Stop / start nature of city commuting means you'll not go faster than a slicked MTB. Plus you'll not have the upright view necessary for traffic awareness.

I've got a road bike and a slick mtb. I prefer the mtb for commuting and the road bike for weekends.

Valy

I had a MTB with slicks (Marathon Plus front and Travel Contact Rear - both 1.75) and the avg speed vs my road bike is not too different. There is more room in terms of gearing for sure, but overall indeed - about 2-5 km/h, though tbh it can depend on many things.

Thought I can not give the best comparison as I'm not as fit atm vs when I had the MTB and I think the time of the year was closer to summer/during summer.

unixnerd

The nice thing about using a mtb on the road is that it feels more stable than a road bike. You'll find a road bike more nervous (others might say more responsive!). A road bike will be loads quicker and will accelerate much faster too.

If you're looking for a recommendation try this for 450 quid:
http://www.pedalon.co.uk/acatalog/canno ... _2010.html
That's a stunning deal and could it's own against bikes double the price.

I have mtb I love with a fairly tall top gear and it's no slouch on the road, but my tourer and proper road bike would eat it for breakfast!

mudslinger

I started off doing my commute on a MTB with semi slicks & found it a real chore on the road. The reason I didn't use slicks was because I can reduce the distance by 5 miles by taking a 3 mile off road section. Doing it fully on road is 18.5 miles compared to 13.5 if I take the off road section. The first 10.5 miles are very quiet country roads.

Picking a couple of average logs from Garmin I do it on the road bike in 63:41 (17.2 mph) compared to 67:23 (13.8 mph) on the MTB. Looking at just the 10.5 mile road section that is the same for both bikes the times are 33:43 (18.5 mph) vs 41:01 (15.1 mph).

A little bit unscientific I know but it gives a feel of the speed differences between a road bike & a MTB. Like others have said there are a lot of variables e.g. road conditions, traffic, weather, tyres, gradient etc. My commute is quiet country lanes so I much prefer to do it on the road bike however that would not be the case if I was commuting in traffic dense city traffic. I do find with the road bike I'm much more motivated to ride as fast as I can

CarlosDSanchez

Fairly flat 9.5 mile comute from home to railway station - best time on my hybrid (700c wheels 28mm tyres, guards, paniers etc) is 36 minutes versues 29 minutes on my road bike. I was using a small rucksack to carry my kit.

Twostage

Just looked back over my garmin logs. I used to commute on an MTB with a tri-bar (yep) and switched to a road without tri-bar. The average speeds are roughly the same (actually maybe a bit faster on the MTB) but... my average heart rate is 10 bpm slower.
This is because I used to treat the commutes on the MTB as an actual time trial and arrive exhausted whereas on the road bike I just commute at a comfortable pace.
I should try doing a TT commute on the road bike with a tri-bar. Tri-bar and panniers will be sight to behold.
The OP could try putting a tri-bar on the MTB and see what difference it makes.

El Gordo

snailracer wrote:

iandennis wrote:

I'm on 1.25 fatboys and have canti-brakes. Changing the pads has helped but slowing down still isn't as "positive" as my disc braked other bike...

Aha, canti brakes. Mounting the pads slightly further inboard will beef up the braking, but requires fiddly adjustment of cable clamp points.

If you do a lot of braking, I would suggest replacing cantis with V-brakes and V-compatible levers. Cantis require more fiddly adjustment to maintain consistent braking as the pads wear.

Wow, you'd have to have a pretty intense commute for uprated brakes to save you any time!

In answer to the original question, it took me about a minute longer to ride 11 miles on a slicked up MTB compared to my road bike for the same effort. That was a pretty flat route though.

davidmhodgey

Interesting thread.

If I'm lazy after the weekend I commute on my Panaracer xc fire pros and average about 14mph. Swapping them for my Continental Gator Skin Tyres makes a massive difference resulting in an average speed of around 18mph.

I think there are a couple reasons for this:

1. The massive weight difference between the tyres. Because the extra weight has momentum, you really notice it.

2. I decelerate way quicker on my MTB tyres, which is demoralising - so I tend to cycle faster on my slicks as it doesn't feel like I'm fighting with them.

My top commute speed on my slicks is 35mph. Top speed on my MTB tyres is 31mph.

Erm.. I guess what I'm saying is.. put thin, light slicks on your mountain bike, you won't regret it!

My daily commute: http://tinyurl.com/5srnv2x

iandennis

Update,

I've justed order a boardman roadbike, tried to resist but the spec and costs very two powerful options when compared against other bikes.

Will see if it makes me any faster, should be fun finding out

mudslinger

The Boardman bikes are great value for money.