MTB v Road Bike

Tommi said:

If a rider rode a MTB for 1 hour flat out on flat ground, and covered 30
k's.

What would the same rider do on a Road bike ?

Just how much faster can one go on a raod bike as compared to a MTB. ?

How long is a piece of string?
There are various factors that would influence the answer, such as
road surface
mtb tyre used
mtb tyre inflation

There are some mtb tyres that when inflated ride on a central ridge,
which on smooth sealed roads (hot mix) would enable them to go as fast
as a road bike. (Oh yes, there is also slicks)

However, in general, on such a surface, I would expect a road bike to go
further in the same time because the rider is pushing less mass.

However, on a rough gravel surface, I would expect the mtb to equal the
road bike.

And on a gravel road, I would expect the mtb to go further than a road
bike.

Too many factors involved: rider endurance, road surface, MTB tyres, style
of MTB, drafting... Wind resistence is the key factor, and the effort
required increases with the cube of the velocity. If the MTB is a hard-tail
with high-pressure slicks, I doubt that there would be a huge amount of
difference.

As our American cousins would say "Your mileage may vary".

"Tommi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

If a rider rode a MTB for 1 hour flat out on flat ground, and covered 30
k's.

What would the same rider do on a Road bike ?

Just how much faster can one go on a raod bike as compared to a MTB. ?

Conditions are:
Flat out on flat ground for one hour. I am a _very_ unfit amature and with
a 21 speed hybrid I can comfortably maintain 25km/h (25-30km in one hour).
On my previous bike (el-cheapo 15 speed) it was ~15km/h or roughly half the
distance in a given time. If I were _very_ *fit*, I might be able to go

Quoted message said:

200km in a day with little difficulty.

Road bike? = racing bike? Different kettle of fish entirely. I consider a
hybrid to be a _road_ bike compared to a mountain bike - gearing's
different, performance is different, saddle is oh-sooooo much better on my
hybrid (me bum appreciates it).

It isn't so much a matter of "how long's a piece of string", but the type of
bike that varies. Put it this way; a mountain bike is _always_ slower than
a "road" bike because of the terrain the MTB is designed to deal with. How
much slower depends on the bikes themselves.

--
Alan Erskine
We can get people to the Moon in five years,
not the fifteen GWB proposes.
Give NASA a real challenge
[email hidden]

"Tommi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

If a rider rode a MTB for 1 hour flat out on flat ground, and covered 30
k's.

What would the same rider do on a Road bike ?

Just how much faster can one go on a raod bike as compared to a MTB. ?

I beleive that with the same amount of imput from the rider, the road bike

(racer) would win all the time due to it's lighter weight than a MTB and the
fact that a road bike has taller gearing than a MTB.

Even a hybrid bike wouldn't match the performance of a road bike as the
gearing is closer to that of an MTB.(only going on what i've seen without
going into the technical side of things)
Also, the riding position of the rider of all 3 types of bikes are different
as the roadbike rider would be creating less wind resistance of either the
MTB or Hybrid.
I'm assuming that the rider of all 3 different types of bike are the same,
the power output is the same and the conditions are the same for the
comparisons.

I would consider this to be logical........

However, if you wish to throw in the many variables such as fitness of
different riders, terrain ridden, weather and the likes of it all...then it
could have a different outcome.(I'm trying to play it safe here hehehe)

Cheers

DJ

D&M is spot on, a MTB is no match for a raod bike.
My question was if a rider with the same energy output rode for 1 hour flat
out, on flat ground and covered say 30k's, what would a Road bike do it in ?

And I would say an extra 10 or 15 k's easy.
Doesn't matter if the NTB has slicks.
A road bike has taller gearing and bigger wheels.

If I follow a Roadie on my MTB, I try to keep the same cadence as him, and
in no time he is pulling away from me, and at a great rate.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Terry Collins said:

I would expect a road bike to go
further in the same time because the rider is pushing less mass

On flat ground, mass would make very little difference. Hills are a
different matter...

--
Shane Stanley

Shane Stanley said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Terry Collins said:

I would expect a road bike to go
further in the same time because the rider is pushing less mass

On flat ground, mass would make very little difference. Hills are a
different matter...

Mass has volume, which affects wind resistance. {:-)

Chuckle. The whole question is verbal [censored] really as it has no practical
application. We could [censored] on with theoretical physics for ages, then we
will get into antedotal stories and after a few more beers, the
impossible tales. (your shout {:-)

As is usual with these things, the question that was asked isn't the
question the first poster should have asked; aka why does my mate on a
roady go faster than I do when we keep the same cadence. Obvious answer
is gearing. Same gearing, then look at the tyres (assuming no suspension
anywhere), etc.

Terry Collins said:

Shane Stanley said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Terry Collins said:

I would expect a road bike to go
further in the same time because the rider is pushing less mass

On flat ground, mass would make very little difference. Hills are a
different matter...

Why don't you just try it and let us know?

Quoted message said:

Mass has volume, which affects wind resistance. {:-)

GonG! You loose!

Quoted message said:

Chuckle. The whole question is verbal [censored] really as it has no practical
application. We could [censored] on with theoretical physics for ages, then we
will get into antedotal stories and after a few more beers, the
impossible tales. (your shout {:-)

As is usual with these things, the question that was asked isn't the
question the first poster should have asked; aka why does my mate on a
roady go faster than I do when we keep the same cadence. Obvious answer
is gearing. Same gearing, then look at the tyres (assuming no suspension
anywhere), etc.

"Tommi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

D&M is spot on, a MTB is no match for a raod bike.

Oh so this was not so much a question for info, but more of a troll?

Quoted message said:

My question was if a rider with the same energy output rode for 1 hour

flat

Quoted message said:

out, on flat ground and covered say 30k's, what would a Road bike do it in

?

Quoted message said:

And I would say an extra 10 or 15 k's easy.

So you happily sustain an *average* of 40-45kmh on your road bike? I rode 12
km this morning over a few hills with several traffic light stops in 30 mins
ie. getting close to a 30kmh average. This was on a dully with knobbies. But
I know that on my roadie I cannot have a chance to maintain a 40-45 kmh
average (unless I had a tailwind).

Quoted message said:

Doesn't matter if the NTB has slicks.

Yes it does. put IRC Metro 100psi slicks on your MTB and it will ride very
spritely. Not as quick as a track bike, but quick as the average road
tourer/hybrid.

Quoted message said:

A road bike has taller gearing and bigger wheels.

Mtb gearing is entirely your own choice - want higher gears, get bigger
chainring.

Cheers
Peter

"Peter Signorini" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Tommi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

D&M is spot on, a MTB is no match for a raod bike.

Oh so this was not so much a question for info, but more of a troll?

Quoted message said:

My question was if a rider with the same energy output rode for 1 hour

flat

Quoted message said:

out, on flat ground and covered say 30k's, what would a Road bike do it

in

Quoted message said:

?

Quoted message said:

And I would say an extra 10 or 15 k's easy.

So you happily sustain an *average* of 40-45kmh on your road bike? I rode

12

Quoted message said:

km this morning over a few hills with several traffic light stops in 30

mins

Quoted message said:

ie. getting close to a 30kmh average. This was on a dully with knobbies.

But

Quoted message said:

I know that on my roadie I cannot have a chance to maintain a 40-45 kmh
average (unless I had a tailwind).

Quoted message said:

Doesn't matter if the NTB has slicks.

Yes it does. put IRC Metro 100psi slicks on your MTB and it will ride very
spritely. Not as quick as a track bike, but quick as the average road
tourer/hybrid.

Quoted message said:

A road bike has taller gearing and bigger wheels.

Mtb gearing is entirely your own choice - want higher gears, get bigger
chainring.

Cheers
Peter

*fart*

"Anus" <between_two_cheeks@the_moment.org> wrote in message
news:40af2c4d$1@news1...

Quoted message said:

*fart*

My, how sophisicated the conversation gets here

"Terry Collins" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]

[...]

Quoted message said:

Mass has volume, which affects wind resistance. {:-)

Not necessarily. It depends how dense the mass is.

--

A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

"Tommi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

D&M is spot on, a MTB is no match for a raod bike.
My question was if a rider with the same energy output rode for 1 hour flat
out, on flat ground and covered say 30k's, what would a Road bike do it in ?

And I would say an extra 10 or 15 k's easy.
Doesn't matter if the NTB has slicks.
A road bike has taller gearing and bigger wheels.

If I follow a Roadie on my MTB, I try to keep the same cadence as him, and
in no time he is pulling away from me, and at a great rate.

I doubt the difference is as great as 10-15k. The only significant
difference between mtb and road on flat ground is the comparison of
frontal area. A road bike (typically) provides a smaller frontal area
than mtb, so you don't have to push as much air out of the way.
Rolling resistance and weight differences matter very little on flat
ground - as others have said, wide 100psi slicks on a mtb give rolling
resistance that is as good (or even better) than narrow 120psi slicks.

The aero advantage doesn't mean much if the motor isn't tuned for it,
but assuming that the road bike is well fitted to the motor, you'll
probably go a little faster on average on the road bike.

If you find that roadies are rapidly pulling away from you when you
are on your mtb, they probably have a bigger motor than you.

Don't spend money on the chassis, Build that motor!

Ritch

"Tommi" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

If a rider rode a MTB for 1 hour flat out on flat ground, and covered 30
k's.

What would the same rider do on a Road bike ?

Just how much faster can one go on a raod bike as compared to a MTB. ?

This is the sort of thing that's fun to plug into the tools at
http://www.analyticcycling.com/

The main difference, as has been pointed out, is drag, because of the
different frontal areas. Tyre rolling resistance differences are trivial if
you use slicks on the MTB.

Let's say the rider in question is me. I weigh 84kg, I'm on a 13kg mountain
bike. To do 30km/hr (8.3333m/s) on flat terrain, assuming a frontal area of
0.6m^2, I need to produce 138.1 Watts, according to:

http://www.analyticcycling.com/ForcesPower_Page.html

10 percent less frontal area seems like a reasonable assumption for the
difference between an XC MTB and a road bike. Let's say the road bike
weighs 9kg. Plugging that into

http://www.analyticcycling.com/ForcesSpeed_Page.html

gives a speed of 8.64m/s or 31.104 km/h.

Of course the difference might be a lot more than that. A very upright
position on a mountain bike might present a frontal area of 0.7 m^2. 30
km/h then requires 155.9 watts. On a very aero road setup with a frontal
area of 0.4 m^2, that power output yields 9.92 - 35.7km/h.

So the answers are "it depends" and "probably not quite as much as you
might expect, except at the extremes"

Tommi said:

If a rider rode a MTB for 1 hour flat out on flat ground, and covered 30
k's.

What would the same rider do on a Road bike ?

Just how much faster can one go on a raod bike as compared to a MTB. ?

If that rider was a MTB rider who had a traditional MTB setup, they
probably wouldn't go much faster over 1 hr because of the pain of being
in such a different setup. I can vouch for this because I made the
transition last year and despite being very flexible and being quite
strong on the MTB, being on the roadie killed me after about 45 minutes.

If that rider normally rode a racing bike they'd probably notice the
differeence. These days I go way way way further on my roadie than on my
MTB because I've adapted, developed different muscles. There's lots of
little stability and postural muscles which work harder when you're in a
different position.

Tamyka