I have just returned to cycling after a layoff of a few years. I am now 51 and have been riding my 15 year old Miyata titanium racing bike (Ultegra group set, double) for the past 3 months. Last week I had a flat that came a week before my new tires arrived so I continued training substituting a 3 year old Trek 8500 mountain bike.
I was surprised to find that on the MTB my speeds were 2-3 mph more than on the racing bike. Training distance similar, heartrate about the same and cadence perhaps faster on the mountain bike.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what might have caused the better performance? Change as good as a rest, better set-up, advances in bike design and implementation?
Maybe the MTB suits your build better than the roadbike and your roadbike needs to be analysed for aerodynamic position, seat height e.t.c. The problem may be more to do with the roadbike than the MTB or maybe the MTB has revealed you're more efficient as a spinner than lugging bigger gears on your roadbike. Or maybe you're using a different bike computer on each bike and they don't quite match up. A good roadbike is always a bit faster than a MTB.
Darrill said:
I have just returned to cycling after a layoff of a few years. I am now 51 and have been riding my 15 year old Miyata titanium racing bike (Ultegra group set, double) for the past 3 months. Last week I had a flat that came a week before my new tires arrived so I continued training substituting a 3 year old Trek 8500 mountain bike.
I was surprised to find that on the MTB my speeds were 2-3 mph more than on the racing bike. Training distance similar, heartrate about the same and cadence perhaps faster on the mountain bike.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what might have caused the better performance? Change as good as a rest, better set-up, advances in bike design and implementation?
I have just returned to cycling after a layoff of a few years. I am now 51 and have been riding my 15 year old Miyata titanium racing bike (Ultegra group set, double) for the past 3 months. Last week I had a flat that came a week before my new tires arrived so I continued training substituting a 3 year old Trek 8500 mountain bike.
I was surprised to find that on the MTB my speeds were 2-3 mph more than on the racing bike. Training distance similar, heartrate about the same and cadence perhaps faster on the mountain bike.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what might have caused the better performance? Change as good as a rest, better set-up, advances in bike design and implementation?
Darrill
All other things being equal what's the advantage of 2-3 mph?
Thanks for the comments. I suspect it may have to do with set-up. I much prefer bigger gears and a slightly slower cadence to spinning though I am trying to improve in this area.
Same Polar S710i used for both though I will check that both tire sizes are entered correctly.
No advantage to 2-3 mph just the anomaly when I assumed I would be quicker on the road bike.
