Road riding on a MTB.......

bagz3

i know a road bike is an obvious choice for riding on roads, but i also want to go off road.............

Anyway, is doing 12 miles to work on road going to be really difficult...... i plan on getting some slicks.........

fairly flat route, some slight inclines, which you have to come back down anyway.......

How long do you think it will take? under an hour?


How do you guys get on when tking your mtb on road?

Anonymous

I try to avoid tarmac wherever possible. Road riding bores me to death and can be miserable in the commute and dangerous.

Still, even off road when I go along long smooth bridleways or even tow paths I can glide along a bit (assuming no one about). 10 miles can do in around an hour easily at a fairly relaxed pace on those kind of paths. Would be fair bit under on the road but depends if the route is going to involve a lot of stop / starting.


p.s. Hybrid?

anjs

Well should do that in under an hour. I use schwabe city jets on mine makes a lot of difference

bails87

Don't get a hybrid

Put slicks on the MTB though, they'll make a decent difference. I do a commute of just over 15 miles on a road bike in 50 minutes. I'm sure I could average 15mph on the MTB with slicks. Probably more, depends on the terrain. Also depends on traffic. If you're stop/start all the time you're going to be slower than if you can just put your head down and pedal away.

Also, don't be scared of riding in the road. If you're new to it (or even if you're not) Cyclecraft is well worth buying if you're going to be on the roads.

deadkenny
Road riding is boring on a MTB, just like MTBing would be rubbish on a road bike

Anonymous

I regularly ride 9 miles each way to work, and sometimes take a longer route if the weather's nice, or I've managed to get up early. It destroys my knobbly tyres, so I stick on a set of (bright green!!!) Halo twinrails for the commute.
I generally take it fairly easy on the way to work, so I don;t turn up a sweaty mess, and I might ride faster on the way home.
Takes me about 45 minutes there, 35-45 minutes on the way home.

How it will affect you is hard to tell, we have no idea how fit you are, or how fast you ride. But 12 miles is definitely fine on a mountain bike.
It will of course be more effort than a road bike.

Long_Time_Lurker

12 miles each way is a piece of p*ss.
At least it will be after two or three weeks of practice .
I do 13.5 - it killed me at first, but a few weeks later it is relatively simple.
It can take anywhere between 40 minutes to 1hour 10, depending on wind direction.

I run some semi-slicks. In the summer I can take it off road without having to change tyres.
Plus it adds to the stability on days like today when you get caught in the rain.

weeksy59

i average 15mph on a MTB with dirt tyres fitted over a 2 hour ride up and down

bails87

Long Time Lurker
But knobbly tyres on road=less rubber in contact with the road=less grip?

Squarepants

All of the above is good advice, I can and have been riding 28 miles (taff trail) in about 2 and half / 3 hours recently. That's on a 7" Freeride bike with knobblies so your distance will be very managable in the long term, especially given the terrain you've noted you'll be riding.

As yeehaamcgee said road/tarmac riding kills mtb tyres, my as new High Roller has been rendered almost useless in just the 1st 28 mile easy run :shock:

njee20

But knobbly tyres on road=less rubber in contact with the road=less grip?

+1

Don't see many knobbly tyres on road bikes. The only advantage to a knobbly tyre is a more predictable slide if you lock up - a slick will just let go.

You'll be fine - a road bike will likely be more enjoyable, but as above it's very doable, and should be possible in an hour without destroying yourself - depends if you've got showers at work.

shm_uk

4 days a week I do a 15 mile commute to work (45-50 minutes), and 11.5 miles (35-40 minutes) home ... longer route in the am just for the pleasure.


I ride this on my MTB in (almost) full off-road spec, 160mm travel fork and everything 8)


The only changes I make for riding the black-top are:

a) 1.75" Continental Travel Contact tyres pumped up to their max 60psi

2) 48T chainring, giving me 48:11 highest gear

iii) Fork rebound/compression damping ramped up to max. to effectively lock it out

four) saddle slightly higher than I'd have it off-road for optimum pedalling efficiency

bagz3

yeah i have a shower at work, in fact i usually turn up to work an hour and a half early to use the gym there, so this will just relace that.............. ride to work and have a shower

Thanks for the input and confidence boost guys

njee20

4 days a week I do a 15 mile commute to work (45-50 minutes)

15 mile road ride on a 160mm MTB at 20mph? Take up racing.

shm_uk

njee20 wrote:

4 days a week I do a 15 mile commute to work (45-50 minutes)

15 mile road ride on a 160mm MTB at 20mph? Take up racing.

This is the approx time with little or no headwind...

And it's (generally) down-hill to work, so a few miles can easily be done above 20mph...

And it might be slightly less than 15 miles, maybe 14.7 or something, I just quote 15 as a nice round number...

And I do have a habit of treating my commute like a personal time-trial, so I do go for it a bit...

unixnerd

My nephew was riding a full suss mtb to work every day until I bought a used Trek road bike for his birthday and refurbished it (cost under 100 quid in total). He can't believe how much quicker it is and he says he enjoys riding it more, he'd never ridden a road bike before.

By all means start out on the mtb but when you get more used to the commute you might want to keep an eye on the local classified ads for a cheap road bike.

njee20

And it's (generally) down-hill to work, so a few miles can easily be done above 20mph...

Well you'd have to do the whole ride at 20mph, which is a very good effort, I can just about manage 20mph on my road bike if I really go for it.

I'd agree with unixnerd that road bikes are far far far more enjoyable. My winter road bike is heavier than my MTB, and yet I'd never consider taking the MTB for a road ride - it feels horrible, despite being quite a nice MTB!

I used to ride on the road a lot, it's only since I got a road bike I've realised how much better they are! YMMV.

timpop

I agree with shm_uk. A road bike will always be better for road biking. That kinda goes without saying though. Get a few bikes. You need a quiver.
njee20, you should take a gps with you on your commute and get some stats down. Top speed and average speed etc then you can challenge yourself and show us the results. That's a quick time on a big bike. Imagine how fast you'd be on a road bike.

CycloRos

12 miles each way commute is fine on a mountain bike.

I do that 3 or 4 times a week on my ss 29er or my geared mtb bike both running kenda small block 8s for a bit more bite on the off road sections. Takes on average around 45 minutes.

njee20

njee20, you should take a gps with you on your commute and get some stats down. Top speed and average speed etc then you can challenge yourself and show us the results. That's a quick time on a big bike. Imagine how fast you'd be on a road bike

.

Huh? Think you're confusing people, I do commute on a road bike, and not at 20mph, although tonight was 22 miles at 19.7mph - seemed to be a constant tailwind for once! Shm_uk is the chap riding to work rather rapidly!

stubs

I do 10.5 miles on a slick tyred single speed 22 pound MTB with no climbs and I can do it in an hour and get there non sweaty or do it in 40 mins and turn up up dripping and stinky.

By the time I got home tonight I couldnt have got any wetter if I had jumped in a river one of the joys of cycling to work.

supersonic

I once rode Selby to York, 16 miles in 47 mins on the MTB. It can be done! Conditions were favourable though.

phz

My long way home commute is about 13 miles 50/50 Tarmac/Dirt and pretty flat. Riding with a little effort but not balls out the whole time usually takes me just over the hour with my 30lb HT in 'full' off-road spec (inc. Michelin Wild Grip'r 2.1 tyres).

Interestingly, using the slightly lighter semi-slick shod higher geared Trailstar or the much lighter singlespeed slick shod 'hybrid' aren't really any quicker over the same route.

slainte :? rob

Shaggy_Dog

If, for example, you were thinking of buying a £1,000 mountain bike, don't. Buy a £700 mountain bike and a £300 hybrid / road bike / fixie (if you're a c*nt).

A - The hybrid will be a better tool for the job on the commute, you can fit proper mudguards and have more grip, speed and be more comfortable

B - You won't ruin your weekend / evening toy by grinding it to work and back every day. Seriously, city roads are harder on bikes than lake district rain and grit. I did this and my pride and joy was knackered in 6 months.

If you were thinking of spending less than say, £650 on a mountain bike then just do that because a sub £500 MTB won't hack it off road for long and a sub £150 hybrid will be sh*t.

bagz3

Well, I finally got my rockrider 8.1 today and took it for a quick spin. Did 6.3 miles in 25.30 mins, 14.9 mph. This was with off road tires and only half distance, but I'm confident I'll make to work on time............

shm_uk

bagz3 wrote:

Well, I finally got my rockrider 8.1 today and took it for a quick spin. Did 6.3 miles in 25.30 mins, 14.9 mph. This was with off road tires and only half distance, but I'm confident I'll make to work on time............

if you're going to stick with the off-road tyres, at least pump them up to their maximum recommended pressure ...

bagz3

thanks, but i hope to get some slicks soon.........

difficult to ride though with clipless pedal and a pair of trainers......

another choice to make now, flat pedals or some riding shoes?

stev68

Roads suck fullstop!used to ride too work but got a mile long killer hill!
Plus associate my bike with pleasure,not riding to a hellhole everyday.

njee20

How constructive :roll:

another choice to make now, flat pedals or some riding shoes?

Very personal, but for riding on the road (and off road personally) I'd say clipless every time - get some shoes!

Anonymous

If you ask for opinions, that's what you get

Anonymous

njee20 wrote:

Very personal, but for riding on the road (and off road personally) I'd say clipless every time - get some shoes!

Very personal, but for riding off road (and on the road personally) I'd say flats every time - get some Vans!

cooldad

Or get one shoe and one flat pedal and keep everyone happy.