Update after a few rides
nbuuifx
Posts: 302
Had the Road bike almost a week now, just done the 3rd ride on it.
Overall feeling is that it feels much faster for the same effort. Oddly I am trying to put max effort in in certain places and although it can be faster or the same given worse weather conditions, I don't feel as knacked at the end. Almost like I've not tried as hard.
I prefer the feel of the bike over the MTB, accelerating is much more confident - I found if I applied full power on the MTB I would lift the front end, or it would go a bit skitish on the road. I feel like I have more weight over the front wheel. I also feel more comfortable going down steep hills. On the MTB I felt uneasy - almost top heavy.
Gearing - I prefer the gearing but need to get used to it. On the MTB I spent most of the time in top gear often wanting more - I never used the bottom cog. On the road bike it's also a triple but the smallest cog doesn't go a small as the smallest setting on the middle cog on the MTB. I've used the small cog once on a long steep climb and it did make it effortless although slow (legs were dead at the time!) Otherwise I have got the gears wrong a couple of times and wished I wasn't in the big cog as I hit a steeper than expected hill etc!
Brakes - These still need attention - they're fine on flatish fast rides etc, but get a good steep hill and I don't think they could actually stop me. The brakes are nowhere near as good as the hydraulic disc brakes on the MTB.
Position - I like the position, I like riding on the drops. I've found I've had to have the seat higher than on the MTB to get the right leg to pedal length. No problem with that except I have to find a curb or get off the seat to put my foot down! I can't really reach the floor, on the MTB I have the seat set right but can just touch the floor. I've got the seat higher than the bars. I've currently got the bars on top of three spacers (highest setting) but the stem is the right way up, not flipped to give extra height. I think I've got it set about right for now. Stem length could possibly go longer but don't know how I'd know if it needs to?
Steering - For some reason I find I am able to steer round things better than on my MTB, like going round traffic cones etc, I can control the road bike easier which I was surprised by - can't explain why.
Comfort - Big surprise here - can't tell any difference between the MTB with front suspension locked out (still moves about 10-15mm on lockout) and the alu road bike with carbon forks on normal road (ie pot holes rough bits of road etc). The only difference I've found is going over the train tracks feels a little rougher (not much though). So very happy with the comfort! Only ache I've had from the bike is on the bit between my thumb and forefinger from riding on the hoods - guess I've just got to get used to that.
Near misses - Had a couple of nearly falling off moments due to the differences! The first was stopping to wait for a friend. I unclipped and put my right foot on a curb, I turned to look over my right shoulder and must have leant the bike slightly to the right - I couldn't get the weight back over to the left quick enough - but luckily managed to unclip my right foot in time and put that down with the bike leaning! Do it all the time on the MTB so it must just be the height? Second was tonight - I'd been riding through floods 12-18" deep no problem - just as I came down our street both brakes on and only going slow my back tyre went over a manhole cover as it hit it the backend just flicked out, I recovered it but it didn't half scare me!
Overall feeling is that it feels much faster for the same effort. Oddly I am trying to put max effort in in certain places and although it can be faster or the same given worse weather conditions, I don't feel as knacked at the end. Almost like I've not tried as hard.
I prefer the feel of the bike over the MTB, accelerating is much more confident - I found if I applied full power on the MTB I would lift the front end, or it would go a bit skitish on the road. I feel like I have more weight over the front wheel. I also feel more comfortable going down steep hills. On the MTB I felt uneasy - almost top heavy.
Gearing - I prefer the gearing but need to get used to it. On the MTB I spent most of the time in top gear often wanting more - I never used the bottom cog. On the road bike it's also a triple but the smallest cog doesn't go a small as the smallest setting on the middle cog on the MTB. I've used the small cog once on a long steep climb and it did make it effortless although slow (legs were dead at the time!) Otherwise I have got the gears wrong a couple of times and wished I wasn't in the big cog as I hit a steeper than expected hill etc!
Brakes - These still need attention - they're fine on flatish fast rides etc, but get a good steep hill and I don't think they could actually stop me. The brakes are nowhere near as good as the hydraulic disc brakes on the MTB.
Position - I like the position, I like riding on the drops. I've found I've had to have the seat higher than on the MTB to get the right leg to pedal length. No problem with that except I have to find a curb or get off the seat to put my foot down! I can't really reach the floor, on the MTB I have the seat set right but can just touch the floor. I've got the seat higher than the bars. I've currently got the bars on top of three spacers (highest setting) but the stem is the right way up, not flipped to give extra height. I think I've got it set about right for now. Stem length could possibly go longer but don't know how I'd know if it needs to?
Steering - For some reason I find I am able to steer round things better than on my MTB, like going round traffic cones etc, I can control the road bike easier which I was surprised by - can't explain why.
Comfort - Big surprise here - can't tell any difference between the MTB with front suspension locked out (still moves about 10-15mm on lockout) and the alu road bike with carbon forks on normal road (ie pot holes rough bits of road etc). The only difference I've found is going over the train tracks feels a little rougher (not much though). So very happy with the comfort! Only ache I've had from the bike is on the bit between my thumb and forefinger from riding on the hoods - guess I've just got to get used to that.
Near misses - Had a couple of nearly falling off moments due to the differences! The first was stopping to wait for a friend. I unclipped and put my right foot on a curb, I turned to look over my right shoulder and must have leant the bike slightly to the right - I couldn't get the weight back over to the left quick enough - but luckily managed to unclip my right foot in time and put that down with the bike leaning! Do it all the time on the MTB so it must just be the height? Second was tonight - I'd been riding through floods 12-18" deep no problem - just as I came down our street both brakes on and only going slow my back tyre went over a manhole cover as it hit it the backend just flicked out, I recovered it but it didn't half scare me!
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Comments
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Position and comfort are things that I now adjust to quite quickly when switching between mtb and road bikes.
Braking can be quite scary switching between bikes though. Nearly went over the handlebars a few week ago on the mtb as I hadn't ridden it for a few weeks and slammed the front brake on too much.0
