Mountain Bike to Carbon Road Bike

pulinski

I am 43 and have been riding now for 6 months. During that time my weight has dropped from 108Kg to 98Kg and my fitness has improved dramatically. I have been riding a heavy mountain bike (14Kg) and ride about 3 times a week, one 20+ Kms ride and a couple of shorter rides with hills.

The mountain bike is a triple with 24/32 being the lowest gear. I can spin up any hill I have ridden in the last 6 months. I am going to buy a Cannondale Synapse 105 Carbon and that has a 34/32 lowest gear. Due to the fact that the bike is about 6Kg lighter and better engineering for climbing, will I be putting a similar effort to climb as I would have been on the heavier mountain bike? Or, will I expect a little extra burn in the legs and lungs as I adjust to the harder gearing.

Thanks.

kajjal

You will find road bikes in general climb hills faster due to being lighter and having smaller tyres. You have chosen the right gearing and shouldn't have any problems unless you are going up hills very slowly in low gears at the moment. Even then after a few rides you will be fine.

daniel_b

Wonderful choice of bike, enjoy!

If you have never ridden a road bike before (?) be prepared for it to seem very twitchy and responsive to start with, but you will acclimatise, just takes a few rides.

Your lowest gear should be fine, think that bike will come with 28mm Mavic tyres, which you may want to change.
Have you gone rim brakes, or disc?

If it's rim, and your mtb has hydraulic disc, that will also take a bit of getting used too, more so in the wet.

fat daddy

yeah don't worry about the hills

I have a big heavy arsed sofa of an MTB with knobbly 2.5 tires with ridiculous granny gears ...... and a light weight road bike with a 25tooth rear

The road bike is easier to get up the hills ! ..... gearing is not so much an issue as weight and tire size is .. Is a struggle with the mtb on the road, every pedal stroke is a painful slog to the trail.s I arrive, later than I thought, burning pain in my lungs, sweating and my knees about to explode ......... the road bike is a LOT easier on the road, up hill and down

pulinski

I have decided to go for the rim brake model, unfortunately the disc brake model was beyond my budget. My mountain bike is old and has rim brakes, so no difference there.

slowmart

As others have stated, you have less rolling resistance on a road bike which when combined with less weight makes the whole thing easier to shift at a decent pace.

The biggest change is mentally, when you first look down at the skinny front tyre and then cycle in the rain and you can see the contact width, which is extremely narrow compared to the width of a mtb tyre. That for me was the biggest change.

Don't worry about the gearing and any concerns will drop away once you've cleaned the local hills. Enjoy in good health!

fenix

You might want to get the widest tyres you can fit and some strong wheels too ? Road wheels do take more of a battering.

Enjoy the bike.

fat daddy

I find steering the biggest issue .... swapping between the two bikes, one of them has such long laid back forks with the bars behind the wheel and massive long bars that you need ungodly amounts of rotation just to get the bike to turn ........... the other one you sneeze and shoot sideways across the road.

Oh and stuff in the road .. on the mountain bike, you might look up from txt-ing your missus as you fly one handed over a run of run of 3" deep potholes and a fast food packet ... on the road bike its sheer terror as you lift out the saddle and start cadence braking as you realise you have entered a road that's been recently resurfaced in the last month and there is a stone somewhere ahead of you .. maybe

pulinski

Thanks to all who responded.

mugensi

Unless the hills are more than 15% you most likely will never use the 34/32 combo, you'll find that the 28 is the biggest gear you'll need for most hills/climbs.

pulinski

I have been for a couple of rides now on my Cannondale Synapse and can report back that it is fantastic. Responsive and comfortable. As I expected it will take time to adjust to the road bike geometry.

In regards to my original question regarding gearing, I had no problems at 5%, but 8% was tough and I needed to stop at the top, basically due to high heart rate. It wasn't my legs that was the problem. I will be needing to train on hills more to ensure I can maintain a cadence that will get me up longer hills.

grenw

fat daddy wrote:

I find steering the biggest issue .... swapping between the two bikes, one of them has such long laid back forks with the bars behind the wheel and massive long bars that you need ungodly amounts of rotation just to get the bike to turn ........... the other one you sneeze and shoot sideways across the road.

Oh and stuff in the road .. on the mountain bike, you might look up from txt-ing your missus as you fly one handed over a run of run of 3" deep potholes and a fast food packet ... on the road bike its sheer terror as you lift out the saddle and start cadence braking as you realise you have entered a road that's been recently resurfaced in the last month and there is a stone somewhere ahead of you .. maybe

Brings back memories of my first road bike last year! Scary to say the least after having bars best part of a metre wide. I'm sure I left a few fillings on the road as well.

MugenSi wrote:

Unless the hills are more than 15% you most likely will never use the 34/32 combo, you'll find that the 28 is the biggest gear you'll need for most hills/climbs.

If you're fairly fit.... my missus uses that combo whenever the road gets anywhere near 10%. She just prefers to spin in the saddle.

Pulinski wrote:

In regards to my original question regarding gearing, I had no problems at 5%, but 8% was tough and I needed to stop at the top, basically due to high heart rate. It wasn't my legs that was the problem. I will be needing to train on hills more to ensure I can maintain a cadence that will get me up longer hills.

Just drop into a gear and spin. Even if you're at walking pace. That's what the gears are for. 34/32 will get you up pretty much anything, it's all about the pacing. As long as you're not falling off due to slow wobbles then you're fine and it will get better.