Any roadies thinking about trying MTB, or vice versa?

[bvibert]

Dirt/gravel/stone/etc. and road bikes don't mix. I'd rather ride with traffic than on dirt.

I was planning on building some sort of hybrid/commuter type bike if I were to ever try commuting, not a dedicated road bike.

 

[riverc0il]

I just bought a road bike. I like the idea of just being able to walk outside and get going. It's hard to imagine buying a mountain bike, loading it up on my car, driving to someplace, riding around, putting it back on my car, driving home, and taking it back off my car to put in the garage. If I was gong to do that, then I might as well get a kayak and drive to a river instead of a mountain - now THAT sounds like fun.

That is one of the first things I thought of as a con to MTB.

Greg, you may have been joking about MTB being safer, but having been a road biker in well traveled suburbia and through some cities, it is no joke. There is a fine art of looking a head to the parked cars on the side of the road to ensure no one is going to slam open a driver side door into your path while also trying to maintain a narrow lane of passage with moving cars on your left.

I have tons of fond memories of burning past cars in 35 MPH zones and cruising on a wide break down lane down a wide and flat stretch of road is pretty neat. I am really starting to lean on going back to road instead of trying MTB the more I think about it. As Marc mentioned, so cool being so many miles from home and self sufficient.

Suffice to say, it would seem to me that the ideal situation would be a bike quiver :lol:

 

[Warp Daddy]

Rt 11 qualifies as a bike friendly side road compared to some of the roads I ride on.

LMAO RT 11 is very busy by North Country Standards !! But you Golden Knights are tuff !!!

I've ridden in Boston regions and in NW greater Boston in the orchard regions and in NYC too with my kids Pretty intense at times


UP here I wouldn't ride 11 or 37 ---- 12 along the River Maybe but otherwise all county or town roads

 

[bvibert]

It's hard to imagine buying a mountain bike, loading it up on my car, driving to someplace, riding around, putting it back on my car, driving home, and taking it back off my car to put in the garage.

Isn't that pretty much what you do to go skiing? MTB is definitely worth the very small amount hassle for me.

 

[Greg]

I just bought a road bike. I like the idea of just being able to walk outside and get going. It's hard to imagine buying a mountain bike, loading it up on my car, driving to someplace, riding around, putting it back on my car, driving home, and taking it back off my car to put in the garage. If I was gong to do that, then I might as well get a kayak and drive to a river instead of a mountain - now THAT sounds like fun.

Throw the rack on the car: 90 seconds
Load the bike: 30 seconds
Gather and throw the rest of the gear in the front seat: 60 seconds

Under 5 minutes and I'm off. No big deal at all. Would I like to have an out the door option? Hell yeah, but hopping in the car is no biggie. If I'm heading out early in the morning, I'll have the car loaded the night before, despite it being easy and quick to do anyway.

 

[marcski]

I ride both. For years only a mountain biker. I think this is my 3rd season now on my road bike. I love both. I think road biking is very helpful in enhancing one's mountain biking. Helps keep you pedaling through some difficult terrain, while mtn biking is much more anaerobic, with upper body involvement....which I find is more akin to interval training which helps on the road with accelerations...especially uphill.

I agree with a lot of what people have written so far: I love being in the woods....no vehicles, people, or buildings. But, then again when I'm on the road, I tend to ride on pretty rural and quiet suburban roads so I don't encounter much traffic. I'm also usually on the road in the early morning hours. I am lucky enough to be able to mountain bike and road bike right from my garage. Right at the end of my block, I have about a 1/2 mile or so up a good sized hill and I'm in the local woods where we have some sweet single track. I also can ride my road bike 10-15 mins and ride past rolling fields with cows and other herds grazing. The speed and acceleration on a road bike is awesome. I feel I'm a bit of a woos .... as my greatest speed on a bike was 45 and....I started to brake right after I hit that coming down a good long hill out in Harriman State park. My buddies were up over 50 on the same hill. As Marc said, a nice modern road bike is so nimble and light..after riding my road bike for a few days in a row, I get on my mountain bike and it feels as though I'm sitting on a Harley and I need to kick start her.

Conclusion: They're both awesome in their own right...and they each give you a different rush and different conditioning. They're also each dangerous in their own right.

 

[hrstrat57]

As one who road a hardtail mtb with slicks on the road quite a bit... I'd still urge MTB'ers not to blindly dismiss road riding without trying it.

Road riding was more to get places before my road bike.

Then I started riding on my road bike, and let me say, there isn't much that can compare to the speed and acceleration possible on the road bike geometry, and the fact you run 120 psi super skinny slicks and the bike itself only weighs about 15 lbs. I out accelerate cars on a regular basis right through an intersection.

Also, once you get into longer range road riding, being 50 miles from home on nothing but your leg powered machine, especially in an area with which you're not terribly familiar, it feels pretty adventure-like. Speaking from both sides of the bike spectrum.

As far as safety goes... I'd agree that in a group, mtb'ing is generally safer. But I go out on the road alone all the time, and hesitate to go out in the woods alone, simply because if I did hurt myself... who knows how long it'd be before someone found me out in the woods.

Great post

 

[boston_e]

Throw the rack on the car: 90 seconds
Load the bike: 30 seconds
Gather and throw the rest of the gear in the front seat: 60 seconds

Under 5 minutes and I'm off. No big deal at all. Would I like to have an out the door option? Hell yeah, but hopping in the car is no biggie. If I'm heading out early in the morning, I'll have the car loaded the night before, despite it being easy and quick to do anyway.

Plus the time to drive to wherever you are going to Mt Bike, plus unloading when you reach your destination (and to be fair I think you are underestimating the loading time).

I do both... and love both pretty much equally. For me I can ride to a state park to go mt biking (about 2 miles on the road to the state park)... but it is not great mt biking (mostly fire road and carriage path etc)... to get to good mt biking, i'm 20 min in the car each way. So if I only have an hour or 90 minutes, I can jump on the road bike and get a good fun workout in right from the house.

The road riding is great since i can be on fairly rural roads right from the house... and also, I would say that since I picked up road riding, my fitness level has improved and has made me a better mt biker. (A lot of people say road biking fitness helps your mt biking).

I'd suggest trying it for sure, almost everyone I know that does both loves both.

 

[Greg]

Plus the time to drive to wherever you are going to Mt Bike, plus unloading when you reach your destination (and to be fair I think you are underestimating the loading time).

I've got decent options well within 30 minutes drive time. I commute an hour to work everyday so a 20-30 minute drive is nothing to me. And I thought I was being generous with the loading time, but I'll time it for you next time... :razz:

With that said, I'm still looking for an option I can ride right out the door. Might have found something, but I doubt it will be more than a once a month thing since I don't think the trail network is that expansive or even ridden by MTBers normally

 

[boston_e]

I've got decent options well within 30 minutes drive time. I commute an hour to work everyday so a 20-30 minute drive is nothing to me. And I thought I was being generous with the loading time, but I'll time it for you next time... :razz:

With that said, I'm still looking for an option I can ride right out the door. Might have found something, but I doubt it will be more than a once a month thing since I don't think the trail network is that expansive or even ridden by MTBers normally

That is my problem too... I dont have any compelling Mountain Biking that is a ride right from my house... so the road bike is a good option for that.... and even if you have a 20 minute drive time... that still adds 45 min to an hour by the time you load up, drive, unload, then load back up and unload again.... if you dont really have a ride from the house option, that means you are not getting on the bike if you only have an hour after work or something to squeeze in a workout.... in that same time on the road bike I can jump on and spin for 45 mintues (15 miles or so) and get a half decent workout in.

Believe me, I'm not knocking mountian biking... if I were forced to choose one or the other, I'd pick my Mt Bike... but also, once I got a road bike I started wondering why I didn't try it sooner.

 

[RootDKJ]

Throw the rack on the car: 90 seconds
Load the bike: 30 seconds
Gather and throw the rest of the gear in the front seat: 60 seconds

Under 5 minutes and I'm off. No big deal at all. Would I like to have an out the door option? Hell yeah, but hopping in the car is no biggie. If I'm heading out early in the morning, I'll have the car loaded the night before, despite it being easy and quick to do anyway.

I've been leaving my bike in the back of my Escape for the past few weeks.

While I'd rather have the back full of smelly ski gear, it will have to do for now.

 

[Greg]

That is my problem too... I dont have any compelling Mountain Biking that is a ride right from my house... so the road bike is a good option for that.... and even if you have a 20 minute drive time... that still adds 45 min to an hour by the time you load up, drive, unload, then load back up and unload again.... if you dont really have a ride from the house option, that means you are not getting on the bike if you only have an hour after work or something to squeeze in a workout.... in that same time on the road bike I can jump on and spin for 45 mintues (15 miles or so) and get a half decent workout in.

Believe me, I'm not knocking mountian biking... if I were forced to choose one or the other, I'd pick my Mt Bike... but also, once I got a road bike I started wondering why I didn't try it sooner.

Well, I guess I'll just say that MTB is fun enough for me that the slight inconvenience of driving to ride is worth it. I do see road riding as having a huge advantage in terms of hopping on the bike and just going. Anyone that has good singletrack right out there door is extremely lucky. Again, there's a rec area within riding distance from my house. There's a powerline nearby that links right to it that based on satellite imagery has a trail down it (mostly likely ATV), but at least I'll be on the dirt. Might scope it out today on foot if it dries up enough.

 

[gorgonzola]

never considered road riding until this

http://www.lizhatch.com/Smoke_Show.html#9

 

[Marc]

never considered road riding until this

http://www.lizhatch.com/Smoke_Show.html#9

.... I'll be in my bunk ...

 

[mattchuck2]

Isn't that pretty much what you do to go skiing? MTB is definitely worth the very small amount hassle for me.

Nah. I leave my skis at the mountain, so it's mostly just packing a bag and tossing it in the backseat. It's a hassle to drive anyway, though. Summer is the time when I don't spend much money on gas, and I'd like to try to keep it that way.

I'm not completely ruling out getting a Mountain Bike. I'm just saying for me, right now, it's nice to walk out of my garage and get on my bike and go.

And Liz Hatch is sexy as hell.

 

[Marc]

I thought of another analogy for road biking on the road vs mountain biking on the road, especially with knobbies.

H1 Hummer driving off the road.... lots of fun
H1 Hummer driving on the road..... not fun.
Ferrari F430 driving on the road..... lots of fun.

:dunce:

 

[mondeo]

Summer is the time when I don't spend much money on gas, and I'd like to try to keep it that way.

+1

Although 30 minutes in the car vs 3 hours is a big difference.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

never considered road riding until this

http://www.lizhatch.com/Smoke_Show.html#9

giggity giggity goo..

 

[Rambo]

Road biking can be quite extreme:

 

[mattchuck2]

My wife, who recently bought a road bike so she could ride with me (a far superior road bike to mine, by the way), now thinks that we should take up mountain biking too.

So it looks like I'll be buying a mountain bike sometime before next spring.

:-o