road bike vs MTB on slicks

[Mike400]

Im currently running a MTB on slicks, it feels perfect for the sort of leisure stuff I do and will fit in fine on my commute when I start cycling in to work

Just wondering though how much more speed a road bike would give me? is there that big a difference?

I ride 80% flat tarmac paths, 10% average road and 10% cobbles on my commute route

[trickywoo]

You will be able to go significantly faster with 700 x 23 tyres on a dedicated road bike than you will on a MTB with slicks.

[mk1fan]

Road bike is much much faster. If they weren't the Tour guys would be riding mtbs.

[Jimbo.]

LOTS! On a "proper" road bike you won't run out of gears as much as you would an MTB, and they (road bikes) are so much more efficient, it's untrue.

[racingsnake]

Think rolling resistance, I run at 130psi on the road bike.
You can't do that on mtb slicks.
HTH.

[rykard]

I switched fro a slicked up MTB (26x 1.3) to a hybrid(700x28) after a few months. The hybrid was a lot quicker.

[georgezippy]

I commuted on a good Trek MTB with 35mm slicks and road gearing for years. Good go anywhere indestructable old beast.

Bought a new road/audax style bike(on a ride 2 work scheme) running 28mm tyres, 700 wheels, 2kg lighter than the trek but still has mudguards/rack/lights/pump etc attached for practicality.

My journey times are consistently 3-5 min quicker over 12 miles on the road bike.

It's not just the tyres, road bikes are usually lighter than MTB's as they don't need to be quite so robust, so they'll be quicker.

There's no better or worse, it all depends on where you ride.

Proper lightweight road bikes on 23mm skinny tyres would struggle to handle my commute as there's debris, kerbs to ride off and some of it is very bumpy, but on a weekend leisure ride in the country they're great and undoubtably faster.
A slick tyred MTB is an excellent allrounder and not much slower, just get one that's as light as poss and you don't need suspension unless you're doing hard offroad stuff.

[AnotherClarkey]

If you are running disks there is every chance that you could just fit some 700c rims with 23-25mm tyres in the MTB frame and forks. You would get slightly higher gearing than with the 26" slicks.

[Henry Hawthorne]

Yes, as has been said above, it makes a huge difference.

I'd been riding my new fixed wheel road bike for about two weeks without riding my MTB. Went out for a ride on the MTB with one of my mates a couple of days ago and it's SO much more effort! Suspension also slows you down alot on the road as well