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So since changing my regular commute bike from a MTB based hybrid to a road bike based hybrid I'm enjoying the feeling of speed I can get on the road.
Now I've found myself looking at skinny wheeled bikes and thinking "that looks nice" and "wonder if I could fit that in the garage"
So will it pass or will this itch keep going until scratched?
[i]n+1[/i]
will it pass
Yep.
In many cases* about 6 weeks after you buy one. 😀
*Not in my case though. The bug has bitten.
Yep - resistance is futile.
Nope, it's damn good fun once you realise lycra & not baggies are better and a saddle pack is more than enough for everything you'll need mechanically on a road ride.
Also not coming back caked in crap and just dusting the bike off works great all summer.
Road bike?
Go and have a word with yourself. Next you'll be asking for advice on shaving your legs.
The nearest you should get to a road bike is a CX. And that should be rode with baggies, peaked helmet and a camelbak.
🙄
You have to scratch it, then get rid, then regret it and get another one. It's the only way.
I don't even ride my mtb with a camelbak any more, but I am a trailcentreist, so ymmv.
The two are not actually mutually exclusive.
However I find MTB for fun and road bike for practical travel and training.
Do it. Get something decent and fast then go give it a damn good thrashing. Not much better than a nice race bike blast on good quiet country lanes 🙂
As long as you have access to nice roads and nice cafe stops it is a passion that can be with you forever.
not about the bike shape, or anything, its just about riding a bike
I had the urge and bought one. It was as exciting as being on a treadmill so i sold it.
The nearest you should get to a road bike is a CX. And that should be rode with baggies, peaked helmet and a camelbak.
Nah, a CX bike should be towards the end of the process....
MTBing -> dabbling with a cheap road bike for commuting and the odd ride -> decide you quite enjoy road riding buy so full carbon ego chariot (join a club) -> cheap road bike is deemed only fit for winter duties until, of course, you discover you can spend large sums on a semi utilitarian steel framed road bike -> then you get talked into a CX bike by a friend... Then you realise you now own five bikes and the MTB hasn't been ridden in eight months...
The distinctive Baggies and camelbak on a "CX" bike look simply indictates a repressed MTBer with access to a C2W scheme; too afraid lycra might give them the [i]gayness[/i], but keen on the practicality of what is basically a road bike with discs...
Road bike = punishment.
Once you get sucked in its just a world of strangely enjoyable pain.
Will do wonders for your fitness if you push yourself ..
I bought a CX bike, loved the speed for a day, hated drop bars around town/city. Also hated riding on the road - it isn't fun where there's traffic. It's just a headache. Much prefer flat bars and an upright position for bashing wing mirrors off to be honest.
Cookea knows ...
OP same position myself but went MTB straight to CX loving the new bike but no body likes me any more.
(maybe they never did). 😀
CX bike no MTBer's let on or are so surprised when I do they are too shocked to answer :-).
Riding with back pack and baggies no road bikers let on as I'm not there yet. LOL
****ing love my CX bike (Spesh Diverge Sport)
Just returned to the road in the last few months: not as a replacement for the mountain bike; but as an enhancement.
I flipping LOVE it, and can only say do it!
The first reply says it all.
At the very least, you will need a relaxed geometry road bike and also a race geometry bike. Plus maybe a CX too.
£300 at Decathlon will get you a bloody good road bike for the money. Scratch the itch with that and see if you like it.
I'm now on a CX bike cos i got bored of my road commute over and over again, now i can mix it up a bit more with the odd tow path/bridleway.
I find road riding has to have a purpose. I can never get on with circular routes, visit a mate 60 miles down the road e.t.c then there is a sense of achievement. Buy a road bike but just not and expensive one.
Do it to scratch the itch but the result may not be what you expect. For me it had an odd effect. tried road riding on and off for 2 years but it just made me realise how much i loved the mtb. I never came back from a road ride satisfied. Never touch the road bike now.
Haven't ridden a drop-bar bike for about 35 years, bought a cx bike two weeks ago.
Just ordered a new rear tyre for it, awesome, paths, trails, towpaths etc. not stupid fast, half as fast again as my mtb, but I am getting out and riding to more places more frequently.
Awesome
I started road riding more a few years ago, now its pretty much all i ride, have ridded the mtb twice this year 😀
Get one. You'll start dreaming of hills to climb or am I just sick? Got an immaculate 2011 spesh allez elite E5 for sale, done about 150 miles size 52? 😉
Why should it pass? it's all riding bikes 🙂
Road bike for road and MTB for off road and life is good
Once you've got your new bike and are on the way to being a proper roadie be sure to have a read of [url= http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/ ]this[/url].
A bit contentious, not to be taken too seriously (obviously!), but there is quite a bit of sound practical advice behind most of those rules and you won't go far wrong by following them 🙂
Just do it, it's bloody great fun, but it can go too far. This from the man who had his first MTB around 1992 and has just sold his last, it has been replaced by 2 road bikes, a gnarmac bike and a cargo bike. My 20 year old self would be disgusted.
Edit and yes, the rules are vital and to be taken as seriously as you wish.
I was a hardcore MTB. ....until that fateful day my mate said I'm getting a roadie!!!
What the hell!!.....judas!!!....etc....!,
Then I tried it on a work run.....ooh , first ride out a bit strange, no brakes......but FM.....knocked 15 mins off the work ride
Ooh I'll have some of that...and now sadly the MTB has taken a back seat........but I'm getting a fattie once ROSE bikes deliver it (5 weeks time)
But anyway ....there is room for both .....and I do love my roadie!!
Do it, mate. There's something pure and simple about road riding. Just you, your bike and the road. You go faster and further than on an MTB. Your bike is simple and efficient, and everything you need can be carried in a back pocket, doing away with the rucksack full of shite that MTB magazines have convinced you you need just to go on a bike ride.
The people saying that road riding is "boring" have never climbed a Pennine pass until their legs turned to jelly, then descended the other side at 50mph... etc
Learn to embrace Lycra!
Also not coming back caked in crap and just dusting the bike off works great all summer.
nahh. In the summer, road is just a stop gap for when you don't have time for a proper mtb ride. Or over winter when you still want to ride a bike but can't be arsed with mud.
nahh. In the summer, road is just a stop gap for when you don't have time for a proper mtb ride. Or over winter when you still want to ride a bike but can't be arsed with mud.
Amen to that.
I love road riding, but it is always a bookend to other MTB rides. Sometimes several bookends, but it's those amazing MTB rides I live for. Sometimes life, the cost of petrol and crappy weather get in the way, and then it's far easier to reach for the roadie.
... although that's not quite true. CX - it's the closest I'll ever get to a road bike, simply cos I love being able to randomly head up a path I see at a moment's notice in the middle of a 'road' ride. The CX spends probably 95% of its life on road though - and I'm in baggies and a peaked lid. Can't be doing with Lycra nonsense and MTB kit is far more practical if it rains, or you want somewhere to put your keys..
CX - it's the closest I'll ever get to a road bike, simply cos I love being able to randomly head up a path I see at a moment's notice in the middle of a 'road' ride. The CX spends probably 95% of its life on road though
This for me too. Having a gnarmac bike has opened up a whole load of new routes, which just adds a bit of variety and keeps things fresh.
bikeneil - MemberI had the urge and bought one. It was as exciting as being on a treadmill so i sold it.
That's how it went for me... I've owned 3 road bikes as I sometimes get sucked into it... .but for me, they're just bloody awful to ride.
OK, so over the course of a 3 hour ride they're 1.5mph average quicker than my current 'road' bike which is a Charge Cooker running 2.2 Rocket Rons, but in all honesty, does that 1.5mph average matter ? Does it matter that I can commute into work 3 mins quicker... or even 8 mins quicker... Not really... them few minutes matter very little.
Using a HT as a dual bike means I can 'road' it into the office, then take a nice Thames Path back which adds on about 8 miles more of paths and Ridgeway... far more interesting and not that much harder in many ways.
I still ride on the road, I do road stuff 2-3 times a week for a quick lunch hour blast when WFH, I average a respectable 16mph, which I'm happy with. But it's just training, just pedalling, there's no pleasure, no thought, no love...
It's a spin bike, but with a bit more wind.
I've mostly ridden on the road over the last 6 years.
At the moment I have a 3 bike garage (5 if you include the 2 i'm selling!) which consists of a full sus, carbon road bike and a cx bike with 28mm gravel tyres.
The road bike is great for full on days but it is pretty uncomfortable to ride on UK roads. On smooth, European tarmac it is a joy!
My suggestion is you go for one is to get something that can accommodate wider tyres. My road bike can only just take 25mm and it's not enough for UK road surfaces. My CX with 28mm tyres feels a lot more comfortable and it's only the weight of the bike and cheaper components that makes it slower to ride.
Ignoring the obvious marketing, the new breed of "gnarmac" bikes do seem more suited to UK roads and would open your options for some light gravel riding too with different tyres.
Disc brakes are a bonus rather than a necessity on the road in my opinion so I wouldn't let that limit your choice.
Nah, a CX bike should be towards the end of the process....MTBing -> dabbling with a cheap road bike for commuting and the odd ride -> decide you quite enjoy road riding buy so full carbon ego chariot (join a club) -> cheap road bike is deemed only fit for winter duties until, of course, you discover you can spend large sums on a semi utilitarian steel framed road bike -> then you get talked into a CX bike by a friend... Then you realise you now own five bikes and the MTB hasn't been ridden in eight months...
The distinctive Baggies and camelbak on a "CX" bike look simply indictates a repressed MTBer with access to a C2W scheme; too afraid lycra might give them the gayness, but keen on the practicality of what is basically a road bike with discs...
Classic. So true.
Get a road bike, then go for the full on Lycra gayness.
My suggestion is you go for one is to get something that can accommodate wider tyres. My road bike can only just take 25mm and it's not enough for UK road surfaces. My CX with 28mm tyres feels a lot more comfortable and it's only the weight of the bike and cheaper components that makes it slower to ride.
Blimey what part of the UK do you live in?!
The more I experiment with tyres, the more I'm convinced that good tyres make the biggest difference to the feel and ride of a road bike. I went from budget wire-rimmed to Michelin Pro3s then Pro4s and the improvement was noticeable. Now I've gone one further and started using Veloflex Open Corsas, which have 320 tpi and very flexible sidewalls, with latex inners. This has taken the handling, comfort and "planted" feel of my bike into another dimension. They are certainly comfortable on worn-out UK roads, even at 100 psi. I won't ever be able to go back to a mid-range tyre.
mrblobby - MemberBlimey what part of the UK do you live in?!
if i had to guess; Sheffield.
Sheffield's road aren't 'worn out' or even 'patchy', they looked like they've sustained heavy shelling.
A road bike makes sense in the winter when the trails are muddy and unpleasant and it is cold so you don't want to be out for too long.
As soon as conditions improve, I am back on the MTB and I have normally kept or improved my fitness over winter.
Couldn't be a full time roadie but it has its place.
I think you have to have one if only to post sanctimonious comments on MTB forums
I like mine but I don't enjoy riding it that much. Carving through lanes and overtaking tractors is great fun but on main roads with cars and stuff I can't wait to park it
It's a spin bike, but with a bit more wind.
I would rather be on a spin bike, no chance of getting run over & hot chics to gawp at.