Subject: RE: Difference b/w mountain bike and road bike The road bike is WAYYYY faster, unless you have a lightweight racing mtn bike (<25 lbs), and even then, the road bike is still faster (but not by as much.) Most mtn bikes weigh 28-32 lbs vs road bikes at 17-20lbs, and then you throw in bigger gears, thinner slick tires, and aerodynamics, and there's really no comparison. Going from mtn bike to road bike is one of the few truly game-changing equipment upgrades that you can do in triathlon. You can literally jump from MOP to FOP or BOP to MOP with no added training just by using the road bike. For me, riding the same roads, I went from 15-18mph to 22-25 mph instantly. As you might imagine, I went from barely being able to hang on the back of the pack even with drafting, to going fast enough to drop the entire group I had been riding with, and pretty badly at that. My steel mtn bike weighs 36-37 lbs though, so you can imagine that would happen going from that to a Cervelo P2C with aerobars! Unfortunately, after that, gains are small. Even those oh-so-sexy aerobikes with fancy aerobars and special forward-seat positions that you see the pros using will give only a few percentage points advantage vs a standard road bike of similar caliber. I'd recommend just going out to your tri and having fun on your mtn bike - you'll still pass a bunch of folks on it. However, if you suddenly get the urge to really see how well you can do in the next 2 weeks (not necessary, in my opinion), rent/borrow a road bike, and that will have the most dramatic improvement on your race performance. Edited by agarose2000 2009-03-12 8:52 PM
|