why our new bikes go faster...

Not I. I'm not worthy. I didn't quite feel it when I went from my mountain bike to my road bike. I think my cycling itself needs more attention (for me, it's not yet about the bike).

Don't let ODogg see this thread, he's all amped up about buying a tri bike. He's also about to get kicked out of his house!

Autumn, I was thinking the exact same thing last night. I just bought a Cannondale R600, and took it for its first ride on the hills. I worked a lot harder because I wanted to live up to the bike.

Kristen

Yes indeed, my road bike is way faster than my full suspension mountain bike. Lighter, geared differently, etc. For the same effort on my MTB that takes me to 16 mph, i can add 10 mph to my road bike speed.

-Frank

Living up to my bike: I think subconsciously I went with the lowest-end Felt available because I didn't feel I could live up to anything faster! Ack!

Frank, +10 mph! You got some legs, boy!

Watch it Ms Pilot. You know I'm reading this! I'm going to test drive a couple now! Woohoo!

26MPH? Sustained? Those are domestique speeds - if you are under 25 you might want to think about cycling professionally with some good coaching that speed will come up significantly. The average speed of the peloton in the Tour de France is 27.5MPH. Seriously if you can go that fast without coaching you owe it to yourself to look to the pro ranks.

On a completely flat course for 15 minutes, yes Any more than that and I'm toast... I have very muscular legs (i used to race bicycles in my skinnier/younger days - i just wanted to be a rockstar more), but the rest of me weighs too much to keep it up for long. Thankfully, I haven't lost my 20" calf muscles (circumference) in my 6 year period of inactivity, so I'll be fast once again. Someday... I joke with my friends that I'm fast for the first 100 feet running. If they manage to outrun me and I don't trip and fall on them at foot 101, they're home free

I figured with my size, it was assumed that it certainly wasn't time trial distances or anything. Sorry, no deception intended

-Frank

Edited by scuba-punk 2004-10-07 12:55 PM

Well I did move from 28LBS Santa Cruz Heckler freeride MTB bike to a Trek TimeTrial carbon frame.
How can I explain the difference ?:|
It was more like difference between hummer and a ferrari
The new one is waaay too fast and hard to handle

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Owen, you are gonna be in the DoggHouse!!! You can move in with me....

You'd like that wouldn't you?

Your stubby little legs won't be able to reach the pedals.

I keep reading my initial post over and over and it is obvious to me now that with the little bit of information that I typed, I misrepresented my cycling abilities by a long shot. It wasn't my intent to do so. I'm in no way any kind of uberbiker. Uberfata$$ maybe, uberbiker no. The speeds I posted were from an informal test that I did when I got my road bike this summer. I picked a 5 mile stretch of road that was as flat as it gets around here and pedalled by fat a$$ off for 5 miles. The stretch of road that I picked has maybe 50 feet of vertical change (overall) over the 5 miles. On my full suspension mountain bike with knobby tires and tiny little chainrings, the best I could muster was 16 mph and change. The next day, I did the same stretch of road and was able to keep the bike moving at 25 and change. The road bike test was barely a 12 minute effort, and both times I was close to puking by the end of it. I don't fudge my training logs, so I don't hide the fact that on my rides that are far longer than 12 mintues and include fat guy resistant hills (many of them sometimes), I'm looking at 13 mph avg speed - not very impressive at all, huh? Sorry, it's just been bugging me all day and I'm sure that I lost the respect of anyone who read this thread and saw my post so I wanted to make a formal appology and clear up any misunderstandings. Any misunderstandings are entirely my fault for not being clear. Sorry.

-Frank

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OK, now you're just overreacting...

-Frank

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I definately don't ride like I deserve my new 2004 Cannondale R800...pictures to come once I get home from SanDiego...I named her Phoenix...explanation later......I started out calling her by Baby, so my daughter calls her baby Pheeny....

I feel totally inept as a road bike rider. On my second ride out down the highway, I flatted....I don't even know how to change a tube for crying out loud!!!!! I walked back about 1km and called for a ride home. My dad helped me change the flat, but boy, do I feel like a newbie on that bike!!!!

As I toured around the neighboourhood to show her off to my girlfriend, a couple of boys who were riding mtn bikes took a look and one said, "I like your bike", the other said, " That;s a racing bike, isn't it?"......
It turns heads for sure.....I only wish I measured up to her.......keep riding....keep riding....keep riding.....


Darlene