Road Biking... How is it working out for you?

Scrappaman

Hi All,

A simple and perhaps peculiar thread, this one. I am currently very close to taking the plunge from riding my mountain bike around on the roads to buying a road bike, joining a club, and dropping my weight.

The bike I am looking at costs near enough 1k, a Trek 2.1. I am receiving lots of feedback from nay-sayers around me who go on about the climate and it being such a lot of money, etc.

Please - give me some words of encouragement from your experience and tell me what it gives you! If you have had negative experience, please do let me know too!

As I said, I know this is an odd one...

Thanks in advance!

gaddster

If it's something you're going to enjoy and spend time doing then 1k is not much when you put it into context. When my 'mate' at work asked me how much I spent he nearly fell over but then he goes and spends more than I did on a fish tank and a bit of rock! It'll be your passion soon enough so spend what you can afford to make your time doing it as enjoyable as possible.

A warning though, once you start there's no return! 8)

Only negatives for me are the retarded car drivers but you get wise to them after a while.

chrishd883

I rode a MTB on the road for a while, decided to get a road bike.
The LBS sold me on a Cannondale - only problem was it cost £1k.
A bit more than the £125 I spent on the MTB!?!!

Took me a couple of years to get over that price barrier.
But I did and haven't looked back since.
Maybe I should have done it earlier.
Take heed of the warning above tho' - I have now spent a grand on my "winter hack"
Oh, how times have changed.

If you are confident that you'll enjoy a road bike, join a club, etc - then go do it
You probably feel similar to how I did a few years back.
In the end it's hard to justify - but I try to comfort myself with the fact that any of these bikes will pay for themselves in saved petrol alone over 18 months.

cwm

go for it dude,you wont look back. I started off riding my mtb on roads and around afan etc about 5 years ago and i thought that was great but then i bought a mates road bike about 2years ago.
i'm 43 and its cost me a bloody fortune but its money well spent.
i've never felt better physically and mentally and the weight stays off .as an ex 16stoner i now easily hold my weight at 11 1/2st even though the last 6 months have consisted of about only 70 miles a week due to knee injuries(not bike related).
recently had 6 weeks off bike due to knee ops and have started turning the wheels again,off road aswell as on and life is fabulous,slow but fab
have got a few mates onto road bikes aswell and meet up for a ride and cake stop on a regular basis,done the '10 dragon ride,which for me was a great achivement and now planning a trip to france with mates next year.

Spend your money,don the lycra and ride ride ride

Hierotochan

I've been riding for a month now & I've lost 7kg.
I've also spent 1.5k on my Bianchi,
wear a pair of yellow shoes in public &
own more Lycra than most ballerinas.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

richard205

People that baulk at the idea of you spending 1k on a bike probably don't realize that (if they are this type of person) they spank away £50 + every weekend being down the pub. Or larding it up on crap food.

Soon puts it into perspective when you look at things that way.

I don't smoke, hardly drink any alcohol and don't live an extravagant lifestyle, so the amount I've spend on my bike is justifiable in my mind.

That said, if you are going to get a road bike, then be prepared for it to feel like a totally different discipline. A few people i know who've been MTB'ers for sometime now have road bikes and i think they are finding it hard to adjust.

Personally, i much prefer the road bike to the MTB, everything is much more responsive, the speeds achieved just imo provide what i like.
It can and probably will become addictive, and unless you keep a reign on the purse strings can become an expensive hobby.
My road bike doesn't go out in the rain, so its turbo time when its raining, be prepared to fall off. I've had two minor off's thanks firstly to one motorist and the other was my fault. No damage to the bike but you can become a bit precious over things.

Enjoy it. Sod everyone else and what they think they'll never understand. Especially when you whip out the lycra.

solboy

Quite simply it has changed my life.

I think about what i eat, i stopped smoking, i now question why i have a car (and i was a petrol head).

My wife smokes and spends about £2k a year on fags so i have no problem spending that much on a bike considering it saves money and makes me healthy. People think i am mad having bikes worth more than some peoples cars but each to thier own is what i say. £2k is probably the same as gym membership or a golf club membership.

Its a hobby, a way of life and its good for you and if you join a club you are likely to make some good friends along the way.

Oh and did i mention i want a Canyon? Not that i am trying to justify this to myself or anything....

zummerzet-lou

Over the past few years I've bought many bikes .... mountain bike, full suspension moutain bike, hybrid .... I dread to think what money I spent.

Each bike served the purpose, but a year ago I decided I would finally buy a road bike which was what I'd always fancied ... took me about 6 months to chose the make / model etc but eventually settled on a Giant as that was what fitted me best, at the right price.

I now cycle at least 3 days a week - so am sitting on the saddle perhaps 4 hours each week minimum. Times that by 52 weeks in the year .. 208 hours, so that's only $5 an hour. Cheaper than a gym, and way more fun!

mattward1979

The cost isnt at the start of your cycling career, but at the end!!!

You will live longer... so therefore your overall living costs will most likely increase exponentially with the amount of cycling that you do!!!!
(ofc this totally depends on whether your life expectancy is reduced/terminated by a car user, ultimately giving more money into the system than you get out due to you not requiring a triple bypass for eating lard on a daily basis....) :twisted:

All jesting aside, £1k is very little to spend on something that you love to do, and it is medically proven that people with active hobbies live a better quality life than those that have none (why they paid for a study into that I still cant understand.. Common sense?)...

MrChuck

richard205 wrote:

People that baulk at the idea of you spending 1k on a bike probably don't realize that (if they are this type of person) they spank away £50 + every weekend being down the pub. Or larding it up on crap food.

Soon puts it into perspective when you look at things that way.

I don't smoke, hardly drink any alcohol and don't live an extravagant lifestyle, so the amount I've spend on my bike is justifiable in my mind.

+1

A lot of people blow loads of money on depreciation on cars, petrol, clothes, frequent new phones/gadgets, booze, pointless lifestyle knick knacks for their house etc etc. Let them get on with that- you'll be getting a lot more for your £1k than just the bike itself, if that makes sense.

andy46

Do it you won't regret it!

I had only ever ridden mtb's until a year ago, I have a full sus Scott Spark, and yes some of my friends thought i was mad when I shelled out £1500 on it. But like other people on here I don't drink or smoke and I enjoyed riding my bike.

Then I found myself on the trails less and on the road more through work and other comitments, full sus on the road not much fun. I decided to get a proper road bike and went for an entry level Trek 1.1 and I love it!

I'll never part with my mtb as I do get alot of enjoyment from it when I get time to use it properly but I am looking to change the road bike for something a bit better now, looking back I maybe should have spent more money but I was unsure how I'd get on with it.

Yes at first it was very strange to ride but you soon get the hang of it and the best thing for me is there's no driving somewhere first just to ride your bike, it's straight out your door and away you go.

My advice get the best bike you can afford, get some lycra and a good helmet and enjoy it, there's nothing like a nice quiet early morning ride

Sorry if I've rambled on

StillGoing

Depends why you're getting into it? For me it was a lifestyle change. I came from racing motorcycles around and wanted something else to occupy my time. I started out riding a hybrid, progressed to a Trek, which at £750 I thought was expensive, but then when I sold my motorcycle racing set up cashed in and had a Basso built to my spec. That bike has been worth every penny of the £4k+ I paid for it even at my lowly standard. I use my car to commute less, I'm regaining lost fitness at 49 years old and eating better. Downers for me are the recent weeks we've had of head winds and motorcyclists trying to buzz me too close. A bidon emptied as they approach is a good deterrent.

Pickled Pig

In addition to all the reasons given above, the other thing I like about road biking is its accessibility. I can make a spur of the moment decision to go for a ride and be on the bike in 5 minutes any time of day. If I wake up at 5am and the sun is shining I can go - no need to wait for gym's to open.

lifeform

Same as most here - had been charging round on MTBs for years, but for various reasons was spending more and more time on tarmac. However, with slicks on an MTB and the forks permanently locked out the epiphany was only a matter of time.

Got myself a Trek 1.1 two months ago (on the basis of not wanting to spend too much if I didn't like skinny tyres) and, frankly, wish I'd made the swap years ago.

On the roadie I ride further, more often, for longer, and put more effort in. I relish big climbs, rather than avoiding them, go nuts on descents, and get far more from my cycling than I ever did with an MTB.

Mark Bom

I decided I wanted to be a roady again having not ridden since my teens, so I got my old bike up from my dad's (old as in vintage 60's) and set out for a modest ride on New Years day.

I have to admit that I had to force myself out during those cold winter months and even asked myself if I actually enjoyed doing it enough to buy a 1K bike.

I bought the new bike in March and as the weather improved, my fitness improved, my experience and handling skills improved, my Lycra wardrobe improved, I now realise I'm obsessed with it!

andrewjoseph

Don't give up the mountain biking.

I love my road/touring bike but if I could have only one bike it would have knobbly tyres.

You can take an mtb on the road, I wouldn't take a road bike on the trails, not without knobbly tyres at least!

thewaiter

Scrappaman...

it's a no brainer, I was using a Marin MTB on the road until I bought a Trek 2.1 last October, the difference is chalk and cheese, the Trek is an absolute joy to ride and the best 1k I spent in recent years. I've done 80% of my outings this year on the road bike, drop 1 1/2 stone and lost 3 inches of my waist line..... no turning back............. JUST SPEND THE MONEY

vorsprung

There's another thread about someone who can barely afford 200 quid for a bike

So if it is cost putting you off there are cheaper options

But if you'd like a "nice" bike, and it's not too expensive then get it.

It's sometimes difficult to quantify how much a spending on a bike is "worth". My £900 commuter bike paid for itself in less than a year with petrol / parking savings.

My more expensive bike that I use for events at the weekend, I just don't justify the cost
I suppose it keeps me sane, thinner and happier

crescent

I also find that I now ride 80/20 % road compared to off road. I tend to use my mountain bike as transport to a particular destination (eg gym, local errands etc) and my road bike if I am just heading out for a ride. I have cycled for years but only in the last 2- 3 years have I owned a 'serious' road bike and in that time I, like many others above, find that distances, climbs etc and general fitness have increased significantly. I intend to stick some road tyres on my MTB and use it as my winter bike while my Allez is in hibernation. I also use my MTB when I am out with my 14 year old son, that is very important to me and he is starting to develop the bike bug too
I don't consider myself to be overweight but I am 83kg at present (approx 5'10") and would like to reach and maintain 80kg, the road bike is quite possibly the easiest and most enjoyable way of achieving this.
It is just a fantastic way of spending your time and I cannot ever see a time where I will not want to ride a bike, health permitting.

petemadoc

Can't you buy it on the cycle to work scheme?

chiark

I've been riding a mountain bike for years. Decades, in fact. I hadn't sat on a road bike for over 20 years: hell, I still call them 'racers'

I've been riding my mtb more and more on the road, typically twice a week, for a couple of months. I decided I wanted a bike that didn't feel quite so hard to punt up a road all the time, so justified spending £500 on the basis that I'd cut out a takeaway and a couple of beers a week...

I bought a Cannondale Synapse 105 in early June for a little under double my budget. It's superb. Justification was that I spent more than that in a year on a gym subscription a few years ago, and got nothing out of it. At least this way if I don't use it, I can recoup some of my money by selling the bike!

What am I getting out of it?
Fitness: I have 2 sons, and I can now run after them as long as they like. Before, I'd be flagging after 15 minutes. That's in just 6 weeks.
Weight loss: I'm 6', and was 13st1. I'm now 12st8 (still 6'), and I feel better than I have in years. My small belly has disappeared, which is a nice result.
I'd like to say I'm irresistible to the opposite sex, too, as a result of cycling but my wife would disagree. Or her resistance is superhuman
'Me time:' slightly selfish, but going on the bike for an hour and a half in the evening, through some simply stunning countryside only miles from my home in suburbia, clears my head of crap at work and the day to day pressures of life.
happiness: This 'me time' has improved my tolerance of things the kids do that used to wind me up.

You also will learn a new skill from tinkering with the bike, as you either harden up and learn how to service your bike or are forever beholden to your local expert or bike shop.

So yes, that all sounds slightly over the top - and it is - but at the moment I'm in the throes of rekindled love with cycling.

andrewlwood

Just do it. Get regular cycling into your routine (commuting is ideal).

So many people, myself included, have started to enjoy cycling much more with the right equipment - a road bike is designed to turn your effort into forward motion, and for £1000, it's bloody good at it, usually. You'll go half as fast again.

It's a significant outlay - though shops like Evans do 12-18 months interest free credit at the moment - and you WILL start spending on accessories, upgrades and clothing - it's a grownup hobby just like anything else, and often costs real money (photography, guitars, travel - they just always see us coming). But it's fun, good for you, and social.

welloilbeefoct

I'm new round here so hi everyone...

I've been into MTB'ing for years and have a few roadie mates. Anyway to cut a long story short I went out for a ride with one of them on a spare bike and really enjoyed it. I had always assumed that road cycling was the easier of the two disciplines but I couldn't believe how much effort you have to put in to maintain a decent pace and could immediately see that road riding would be a much better way of increasing my fitness. I just recently bought a Cube Attempt and am absolutely loving it. I'm still a roadie-billy-no-mates at the moment as the guys mentioned above live several counties away, but once I get my overall fitness a little higher I'll possibly think about joining a club.

All in all I wish I'd bought a road bike years ago.

Super Domestique

I'd owned mtb's since 1986 but only owned a road bike for a couple of weeks in my whole life and even that I'd tried to copy the cyclocross I'd seen on Grandstand (talking BITD here) so always had offroad riding in my veins.

Last year I finally gave in to the call of road bike owning and got myself a Spesh Allez (I fell in love with the red paint job). Now I ride the mtb with friends / family but for lone rides, etc take the road bike.

The hardest thing for me was getting my head round being a cyclist and no longer 'just' an MTBer. Any help on that one is still kind of required?!

The positives have been the excuse to buy kit (I love kit lol) so road helmet, shoes, clipless pedals, lycra, etc. Feeling fitter, of course, but fortunately I was looking for weight loss just fitness. The Freedom is great, just spining along and clearing your head.

Negatives. For me mainly, as mentioned above, spliting up my hobby when I had precious little spare time in the first place. Also constantly obsessing on my poor kph figures lol! Finally,the fact I hadn't done this earlier/when younger.

andrewjoseph

I'm slightly baffled by several mtb'ers comments on how hard road riding is compared to mtb'ing. I find the road bike much easier to ride, yes i can go faster and further in less time, but for a proper workout I go on a long mtb ride.

The effort required to do a good 50km mtb ride is similar to doing a 70-80km road ride.

Admittedly I take a big backpack, but the main difference is down to terrain, tyres and effort put in.

On both bikes I burn around 1000 kcal/hour, but I spend more time on an mtb route, even the downhills are hard work!

A few guys I know train for long road events on their mtb's.

So for those peeps who think road is harder than mtb, try working more on the trails!

Scrappaman

Blimey, what a great set of responses. Thank you to everyone that replied - I have taken in everything that you have all said and today went to my LBS and purchased my new Trek 2.1 Compact in red and black - it's beautiful.

I am going to take everyone's advice on board, join some clubs, and make it a big part of the way I spend my time.

I pick up my new bike, jersey, shorts, pump, bottles and holders tomorrow evening - what a great start to the weekend!

My thanks to all again.

chiark

Fantastic! Welcome to the Brotherhood. And Sisterhood

knownothingbozo

45 years old, a bit overweight, poor knees from too many years yomping as a squaddie in my younger days, so running is out. Needed to do something to get back in shape, because I enjoyed being fit.
I refuse to spend silly money on a gym, surrounded by poseurs, the effort of getting to the gym, smell of sweaty bodies - been there done that.
I brought a mountain bike, and tried to get into that. I found that it's a great group activity, with a bunch of mates, having a laugh, however on the occasion I went out on my own, just kept thinking why am I doing this? Eventually my son, who I rode most with got far too good for me (I think he got bored with me) so I flogged mmy bike, and brought a road bike.
I'd previously toddled around on a hybrid, but found it hard work to get anywhere, and never felt like I was achieving much.
My bike didn't cost much, £650, last years model, so iot was down from £950.
I LOVE IT! Out on my own, quick blast of 10 miles, or longer rides 40-50 miles, the choices are great. No need to be with anyone, the sense of speed, especially on a nice corner is exhilerating. I can set mini goals for each ride, little achievements you set yourself - first time to do an hour ride at an average of 15 mph, doesn't sound much, but when I did it, genuine fist pumping moment. Small things that are personal to you, it's a thing that can be as intense or relaxed as you like.
I love the fact that other cyclists on road bikes say hello and wave.
I've never been great at sticking to anything, but after road riding since the beginning of April, I still look forward to going out for a ride.
I originally set out saying I wouldn't be too regimented about the whole process, but now find myself eager to learn about nutrition, etc.
I love the idea that I can have just as much fun on a £650 bike with the right goals and aspirations as I could on one that costs three times as much. I also love the fact that there ARE bikes that cost three times as much and more, and that one day, I just might own one.
That's how it worked for me, the original bone idle, know nothing bozo.

Xommul

Ive been cycling for years on hard tail MTB's

Most of my miles were on roads using slicks, i always fancied a road bike but never pulled out my finger ad always thought they were for "serious" riders.

I finally decided to use some money i had been saving and buy a Rose Carbon Pro Rs 4400 from a german mail order company. Your money goes further although you cant ride it so i had a bike fitting and compared the geometries and it will suit me perfectly.

DHL have it at the moment and its winging its way towards me.

I cant wait, looking forward to getting out on it and getting in better shape. Ive already lost 23Kgs this year and the bike will help shed the last 8 i need to drop. I love speed, being alone in nature, giving it the beans and blasting along the roads, smelling the country side and i want to do some cycling hols in france and italy along some amazing scenery.

Im also looking to join a club when ive done some serious miles on the bike.

I say go for it, set a budget and stick to it, i already went well over mine, so i have been doing overtme to pay for the bits, shoes, helmet, bib shorts, jerseys, gloves, socks, pumps, lights, trip computer with cadence sensor, spare innertubes, bottle cages and bottles, energy bars and drinks, wet weather gear, warm weather gear. IT ALL ADDS UP!

But i love it!!!

andy46

glad you took the plunge to get the bike you'll love it.

I've just rode back home from work tonight at 10pm and got caught in a real heavy shower, got back soaking wet but still had a grin on my face. I just love my bike

hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

welloilbeefoct

andrewjoseph wrote:

I'm slightly baffled by several mtb'ers comments on how hard road riding is compared to mtb'ing.

So for those peeps who think road is harder than mtb, try working more on the trails!

I've been to Afan etc plenty of times and agree 100%. Trouble is I live in Luton and, even if I give it everything, the local trails require about 20% of the effort in comparison. I couldn't ride 40miles offroad around here without doing laps which is boring to say the least.