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
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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
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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

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Tommi
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 you put rigid forks and 25mm Hutchinson Gold slicks on a mtb AND give it decent (read bigger) gearing i doubt there would be any difference.
mtb is lower and therefore big advantage in aerodynamics. road bike has (usually) lighter wheels making a bigger difference in acceleration.
Usually the only reason i drop off (eventually) the back of a roadie's wheel is cos i cant sustain 130+rpm!

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
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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.
B: 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 analyticcycling.comanalyticcycling.comOpen ↗

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 .6m^2, I need to produce
138.1 Watts, according to:

analyticcycling.comForcesPower Page.htmlOpen ↗

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

analyticcycling.comForcesSpeed Page.htmlOpen ↗

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