MTB v Racer

[dirty boy]

Can someone with experience please give me an indication of whether or not it would be worth me getting a racer for my daily commute please?

Currently on a Specialised Rockhopper, 1 marathon schwable tyre, the other a nobby (rear) because of a few shortcuts I take that can be muddy.

I average 15mph according to mapmyride (6.2 miles to work)

I'm tempted to get a racer (adjust the route slightly to avoid mud lol!) but wonder if i'd find much more speed on one? Are they that much easier to pedal? Never been on one.

Cheers

[Rolls]

Cross bike would be the ideal bike by the sounds of things!

[crisisjez]

I'm still almost as quick on my Rockhopper (road tyres) on a scale of 1-10 where 10 is Wiggo I'm a 2 possibly 3 so I'd say change the rear tyre and stick with it for an 18 av before you think of changing.

[Gizmoish]

Get a bike shop to give you a test ride.

[dirty boy]

Rolls said:

Cross bike would be the ideal bike by the sounds of things!

Might as well just buy new wheels and tyres and swap them over I guess?

What i'm trying to work out is, is there any rough estimate, that a decent racer for the same effort as my MTB would give me a round 1-3 mph advantage?

If I could average 18mph for the same effort, i'd be tempted. I also live in a particularly windy area, so I think the overall shape of riding a race would help somewhat in the headwinds

[scrwright]

Just sorted myself a spare set of wheels & road tyres for my MTB for my attempted lard loosing road riding, feels faster than on my wide knobbly tyres (much better/faster round the bends on the road). Why not get a road tyre in the rear and try the route you would take on a road bike?

[Rolls]

dirty boy said:

Might as well just buy new wheels and tyres and swap them over I guess?

What i'm trying to work out is, is there any rough estimate, that a decent racer for the same effort as my MTB would give me a round 1-3 mph advantage?

If I could average 18mph for the same effort, i'd be tempted. I also live in a particularly windy area, so I think the overall shape of riding a race would help somewhat in the headwinds

True - but what happened to N+1?

[mdavids]

For a 6.2 mile ride, personally I wouldn't bother buying a whole new bike unless you fancy a road bike anyway

As a rough guide though, from my experience of my 30 mile non-hilly round trip commute which I do about twice a week, bearing in mind I'm a lot fitter than when I started 2 years ago.

MTB with slicks: 13-15 mph but slower comng back as I was a lot more tired

Hybrid with 700c slicks and road gearing: 16-18mph and almost as fast coming home

Road bike: 17-21 mph there and back

The biggest factor for me is the wind speed and direction.

I had to put a lot of effort in to get to work in less than an hour on the MTB. I can take it easy on the road bike and get there in 55 minutes or really go for it and get there in 40-45 mins.

Over a 6 mile ride, even if you increase your speed to 18mph you're not going to get there more than a couple of minutes faster.

[matts4]

Quick question.....if you're using more effort on a MTB, the the good news is that you'll be burning more calories/getting fitter potentially?

Yes/no?

Just wondered?

[dirty boy]

mdavids said:

For a 6.2 mile ride, personally I wouldn't bother buying a whole new bike unless you fancy a road bike anyway

As a rough guide though, from my experience of my 30 mile non-hilly round trip commute which I do about twice a week, bearing in mind I'm a lot fitter than when I started 2 years ago.

MTB with slicks: 13-15 mph but slower comng back as I was a lot more tired

Hybrid with 700c slicks and road gearing: 16-18mph and almost as fast coming home

Road bike: 17-21 mph there and back

The biggest factor for me is the wind speed and direction.

I had to put a lot of effort in to get to work in less than an hour on the MTB. I can take it easy on the road bike and get there in 55 minutes or really go for it and get there in 40-45 mins.

Over a 6 mile ride, even if you increase your speed to 18mph you're not going to get there more than a couple of minutes faster.

That's most helpful thanks.

So the suggestion is, it's a fair bit easier on a racer to get the same speed, but for the same effort I could add a mile or two per hour.

[mdavids]

dirty boy said:

That's most helpful thanks.

So the suggestion is, it's a fair bit easier on a racer to get the same speed, but for the same effort I could add a mile or two per hour.

Basically yes. You can get up to speed quicker and easier and hold that speed with less effort.

I certainly feel less tired after 30 miles on my road bike than I did on the mtb or hybrid and I really notice the 10lb weight difference when riding up hills.

However:

Over distances of less than 10 miles, on flattish terrain, once you have a basic level of fitness, the differences are pretty insignificant.

[MadDad]

I have a cross bike for my commute (I have to admit I don't commute on the bike as much as I would like). The commute it 7 miles if I take the short route, but I usually extend it to 10 miles, all tarmac but very bad surfaces on single lane country roads.

Depending on wind direction, weight of backpack and mindset I average between 18 and 20 mph.........

[mdavids]

matts4 said:

Quick question.....if you're using more effort on a MTB, the the good news is that you'll be burning more calories/getting fitter potentially?

Yes/no?

Just wondered?

Probably.

I use strava to log my rides and it gives you a basic estimation of the calories burnt for a particular ride.

It uses distance, average speed, height climbed, rider weight and bike weight to calculate. Obviously its far from 100% accurate as there's lots of things it doesn't account for, most importantly wind speed/direction, terrain and bike/tyre type.

As an indication though, yesterday I rode 33 miles on my 27lb mountain bike, climbed 3000ft, took just over 3 hours at an average speed of 11 mph. According to strava I burnt 1624 calories.

If I change the bike to a 19lb road bike strava reckons the same ride only uses 1254 calories.

As for getting fitter, there's a lot more to it than that.

Edited by mdavids on Wednesday 1st August 09:48

[matts4]

Thanks Mdavids

The only reason I ask is that I've been using my MTB for the last 3 months since picking up a leg injury whilst running, and have continued to use it in between runs.

I'm using it mostly for trail riding etc, but also a bit of road work, but I track all my runs/rides with Endomundo and my Garmin GPS/HRM watch.

The KPI for me is maintaining a heart rate around 150-160 to assist in burning calories, in which case I'm proably as well to stick with a MTB that I have currently. I normally complete around 75 mins per session 4 times a week, which sees me rack up 18-19 miles with 1150 ish calories burnt.

Whilst I could essentially go further on a more road focussed bike, I'd still only want to keep sessions to 75 mins duration which would result in no additional calories, just more miles I guess.

(sorry for hi-jacking the thread)

[okgo]

Don't trust HR calculations for calories. They will be much much higher than the actual. Even with a powermeter you still don't really know even though it gives you what you've done in KJ! (unless you know your metabolic efficiency)

[matts4]

But more effecient than just a msart phone app alone I would guess?

[P-Jay]

Have you considered switching the tyres to put the gripper knobbly tyre on the front?

When you're powering along, sat on a high seat most of your weight is over the back tyre on a MTB, you're going to be getting little benefit from that slick front.

Plus, granted when it comes to putting power down a off-road tyre will grip slippery mud better, but if you've got to do any sort of turning on mud you want all the grip on the front tyre - if the rear slips you have a little moment, or more than likely it's just plain fun, lose the front and you're going to crash.

Personally I'd do that, or get another slick for the rear and be prepared to let her slip about in the mud (for fun mostly ) but then I'm tight.

Ultimately a full road, Cross or even hybrid bike is going to be quicker on tarmac, but as someone says, if you're interested in burning excess calories resistance is your friend.