Why is my Roadie no faster...?

DonOfAshford

Hi had a similar experience doing time trials on a MTB albeit with slicks aero bars (funny i knowbut a cheap aero upgrade made 3mins diff. over a ten mile route!) to going to a road bike, if anything my times got worse, eventually got it sorted and it came down to two things, first the route I took had three steepish gradients, and i was losing cadence on the road bike compared to the faster spinning I got from my MTB, it more than made up for the increased speed I was getting on the flats from the Road bike, the other issue I had was position, I had gradualoly put the seat further back on the road bike because it was more "comfortable" it was only when I did a bike fit off the internet not professional that I realise I was so far back my legs were not putting down the power, moving it to where it should be took 5 minutes off my next time! (12 miles 38 mins down to 33)
Hope this helps
Don

CarleyB

Yes I agree, position can be everything if your seat is too low or too far forwaard/back you won't be using the best % of your quad muscle and will therefore lose output, and its such a simple thing to rectify.

night_porter

I fully expect this to be shot down in flames but I have a theory about commuting that alters how we ride our bikes irrespective of which type it may be. This is only for commuting!

When we leave home we have estimated how long it will take and left with 5 or 10 minutes in hand to give us plenty of time to get to work.

If we look at our watch/computer and see we are running behind time we will adjust our power output to ensure we still get there on time. However, if we are running early we ease up slightly and still arrive at roughly the same time. The different times could be simply attributed to wind direction if we have not changed our equipment.

Changing bikes doesn't seem to alter our approach so try this as a real experiment.

For one week leave home 5 minutes later than normal and see if this gives a 5 minute change in the arrival times? If it doesn't then take another 5 minutes off for the following week and check again.

I personally think you will be surprised at how little difference it changes your arrival times. You might find that your new bike is actually quite quicker but your engine had slowed to suit the journey.

On another note if you used the same gearing, wheel size and cadence on a lighter bike you WILL travel at exactly the same speed. The difference is the amount of effort required would be slightly less because the total weight of you and the bike compared to you and the lighter bike will be very small.

I already have my coat and I won't slam the door.....

simon_e

night_porter wrote:

I fully expect this to be shot down in flames but I have a theory about commuting that alters how we ride our bikes irrespective of which type it may be. This is only for commuting!

Nothing wrong with your theory but it doesn't work for me. If I feel good I'll give it the berries regardless of the bike, but if I'm tired or fed up I'll take it easy.

I usually only look at homeward times as my legs usually feel less lethargic and I'm not bothered about arriving at my destination hot and sweaty. Last time I looked at the figures I found that while I was generally quicker on the road bike my best times on the old rigid MTB with 26x1.5" slicks weren't as far off as I expected.

My computer defaults to displaying distance instead of time (which is good) and I try not to get distracted, though I sometimes take a split time at a crossroads on one route. When my speed drops on the last draggy climb I look at the numbers getting gradually lower and it either reinforces my negative feelings about that particular slope or prompts me to try harder as it's near the end.

So perhaps you're right night_porter - it's all in the mind.

dennisn

What are you doing wrong? You're trying to buy performance. If all you have to do is buy something to ride like a pro then everyone would ride fast. Sorry to bust your bubble but lots and lots of people spend plenty of money on "fast stuff" and it doesn't help them one bit. It's all about what you DO on a bike not what you buy.

secretsqizz

Accept it with a smile dude.... as you are slow an mashin at 65 you are always gonna be slow and a masher if you dont suck it in and change things dramatically ...as said whatver you ride and how much it costs.
Keep on mashin its so retro it is almost cool

emx

dennisn wrote:

What are you doing wrong? You're trying to buy performance. If all you have to do is buy something to ride like a pro then everyone would ride fast. Sorry to bust your bubble but lots and lots of people spend plenty of money on "fast stuff" and it doesn't help them one bit. It's all about what you DO on a bike not what you buy.

riding more than 20-50 miles per week would also help....

simon_e

dennisn wrote:

It's all about what you DO on a bike not what you buy.

You're not going to make friends saying stuff like that, Dennis!




(but he's right)

meanredspider

I'd agree with a lot of what's written here - I commute and take a note of my average speed in both directions every day. Swapping from an MTB with Ice Spikers to my carbon roadie makes a big difference but I can't imagine something a bit lighter making much difference - especially not unless you're pushing it hard. Be careful too about when you're comparing your times to. Calm summer days I go much faster than cold winter days. I'm still frustrated that I'm not matching my BEST times of last year set on balmy summer mornings on my aluminium Variado. But on my carbon Cayo with bling wheels I'm riding at 6c in blustery wet weather, I'm never going to be as quick whatever I'm riding. I ride quicker in shorts than tights too. Aero obviously makes far more difference the faster you're going as drag squares with speed. I'm not sure I noticed how fast you normally go but it'll mean far more if you average 20mph than if you average 14mph.

ngunton

antfly wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

antfly wrote:

OP get some better tyres and you'll go faster.

Really? I know the Zaffiro's aren't great tyres, but in the real world how much quicker would better tyres make him? My guess would be no more than 0.01 mph.

I would say 0.5mph and possibly more. I haven't used those tyres but at under 8 quid they probably aren't the quickest.

+1

I was amazed at the small but significant difference getting rid of the Zaffiro tyres made, more than I would have expected. To say nothing about getting rid of tyres that slid all over the place in the wet.

vorsprung

At the sort of speeds the OP is talking about tyre rolling resistance counts for more than at higher speeds

I've got a couple of new bikes over the past couple of years. I got a new commuter bike, it was just like the old one but it had gears. I would have expected it to be faster than the single speed but it isn't. I commute on the Devon/Somerset border, it's hilly

The other new bike I got was a Specialised Roubaix to replace a Ti bike. Both about the same weight, with similar tyres and wheels. But the Roubaix is 5%-10% faster on 50 mile+ rides. I put this down to a faster position, nice new BB and hubs and a stiffer transmission

Blog articles about this:
http://audaxing.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/oddly-fast/
http://audaxing.wordpress.com/2011/02/2 ... -feedback/

Lillywhite

OptimisticBiker wrote:

.
So what am I doing wrong? :oops: Or is it just I have an unreasonable expectation?

Nothing. Stop fretting, get used to riding your new steed and then come back on this forum in about 3 months time and tell us how you can't believe how much faster you can go on this new bike compared with your old bike.

Uchiga

vorsprung wrote:

I would have expected it to be faster than the single speed but it isn't. I commute on the Devon/Somerset border, it's hilly.

Thats probably because with a singlespeed you're forced to stay on top of the gear, thus you end up putting more effort in even when you think you're not. I regularly go out with a local cycling group who have £1000+ bikes and all the gear etc whilst i'm on my heavy Carrera singlespeed with 26" wheels. I am forever waiting for them to get out of my way up the hills...

On another note. I'd agree with cadence, but cadence doesnt male you faster, it makes you more efficient and thus faster over a longer distance. It might just be that the distances you are travelling at are small distances where by no matter what bike you ride it doesnt make that much of a differance. I can cycle 4 miles on my XC bike on the road as fast as i can on my singlespeed and almost just as fast on my BMX. It's because its a short distance. But once i'm doing the 40+ mile distances thats when you start to see the speed and time differances. On my BMX, i'd give up chuck it it around, on the XC bike it's faster cos i have the gears that are obviously more efficient and i have a higher top speed on the flats... The singlespeed is although fast (Average at about 18mph over the course of a 56mile route) it's still slower than when i test road a Carbon road bike over the same route (averaged at about 22mph on the carbon road bike)

Keep spinnign away on your bike, if you're concerned about power output try riding your bike on a releativly tall gear everywhere for a while, (essentially singlespeed it) to build leg power and then go back to using the gears.

I used to be a cross country runner and i relish in long distance cycling at high speed, as well as short sprints at the end.

optimisticbiker

Well i finally got to ride the new bike on my long(ish) tour of Harrow, includes a few hills and some lovely long sweeping country lanes, total of 30miles approx.

Focused on keeping cadence high and not backing off too much... result, knocked 9min off previous best time and upped average speed to 14.2mph from 13.2mph

More importantly noticed I was able to attack the hills better due to the lighter bike as well as improve on the downhill sections.

Only thing I need to sort out is the position of the cleat on my right foot... my foot points outwards about 15degrees naturally and the clipped in position with these fixed cleats its too 'ahead' so my knee was complaining a bit. I cant adjust that much turn in the cleat mounting. Would a floating cleat help here?

The other thing I found is that standing on the pedals, being a position thats much more leaning forward over the bars than the hybrid (even riding on the hoods), is both more wobbly and really painful on my thighs...:(

But pleased with the result