MountainBike.com's answer but it is not nearly the whole story.... just take a roadie on a MTB ride sometime.
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ink:How do road and mountain bike skills compare?
- Thread starter N8 v2.0
- Start date
It does go both ways. I race mountainbikes with a handfull of roadies and can kill them. On the road they hand me my ass, I'd like to think a lot of it is my 25lb POS road bike but I'm just making excuses.N8 said:MountainBike.com's answer but it is not nearly the whole story.... just take a roadie on a MTB ride sometime.
"...the best mountain biking skill that transfers to the road: controlled slides. On the road, people panic on slides. In dirt, you're relaxed--when you slide, you can balance and keep your bike upright."
I used that a couple of times last week - the snow having melted, there's a lot of sand and gravel on the road. Reminder to self: road bikes don't stop worth sh1t...
I used that a couple of times last week - the snow having melted, there's a lot of sand and gravel on the road. Reminder to self: road bikes don't stop worth sh1t...
I have a number of friends who race MTB and they say logging looooooong boring road miles is key to winning MTB races.Westy said:
I like to log long mountain rides for MTB races. But I will hit the road for 6 hour plus rides. The logistics and bike reliability make mtb rides that long a real pain. Anymore I find road bikes silly and just put a pair of slicks on my old hardtail.N8 said:
I was in decent shape road riding this past summer.. not great, but decent. And I did an xc race. I decided to skip beginner and go straight to sport because I thought I was in good shape.. bad idea. I got my ass handed to me.
Much as I hate to admit it,LordOpie said:
Having been dabling more and more into the Road scene I can definintly feel it making me stronger. I just had this conversation with a mixed group or cyclists the other day. The conclusion was this.
It is significantly harder to become an "intermediate mountain biker" then it is to become and "intermediate road biker." Getting to that elite level is hard no matter which discipline
It is significantly harder to become an "intermediate mountain biker" then it is to become and "intermediate road biker." Getting to that elite level is hard no matter which discipline
but the question was about skills, not conditioning.
I ride road, I hardly ever need to use any skills when doing so
I ride road, I hardly ever need to use any skills when doing so
Mtb_Rob_FL said:
What are you calling intermediate?
I doubt that most sport riders can hang in a Cat 3 road race.
I pretty much only ride MTB now. My "road bike" is currently my jekyll locked out shock & fork and semi-slicks on it. I used to always ride my old Trek Hardtail. Everyone tells me to get a road bike and log lots of miles to make me faster for races. We shall see I guess.Westy said:
Try unlocking your suspension on the road and check for suspension bob, it is a good way to smooth out your pedal stroke. I've noticed then if I'm bobbing along I need to downshift and pedal smoother, an increase in speed seems to follow.TreeSaw said:
I don't like doing road rides on my mountain bike because it wears the components out even faster.TreeSaw said:
Personally, the whole road makes you stronger thing is just what some racers want to tell you to justify riding all those road miles. Road is good if you want to do structured interval training. Otherwise, just ride hard off road and you will be fine.
I dont even race MTB at all, but I can easily hang, and feel comfortable with my handling skills in a group doing 20+mph on pretty much anything short of a century.Wumpus said:
What are you calling intermediate?
I doubt that most sport riders can hang in a Cat 3 road race.
I'm sure racing is a bit of a different story though.douglas said:
That's funny. The one road race I went to I had friends racing 4/5 in a crit. They were pushing 27-30 miles for the whole thing. 20mph isn't going to cut it.Mtb_Rob_FL said:
Living in San Jose without a car means that getting to trails is difficult at best. Going out on a road ride with a local club has been my primary means of training for me. A few years ago when I raced I was a mid pack beginner. After a few months of road training with a fixed gear I podiumed in my first two sport SS races and took 8th in my first expert race. It gets you fit alot faster than mtnbiking does.
As for skills. I've learned how fast and tight I can turn by riding road so much. I've also gotten comfortable passing people and being close to them in tight sections(really only good in a race situation), thanks to riding in a pack. My handling was always good, but I've noticed that I'm going faster on my rigid bike than I ever used to on my hardtail. As long as the trails aren't too rocky I've improved my times greatly. Part of that is the fitness allowing me to go faster and not get tired, but part of it is learning to handle a road bike in tight sections.
The Ito
Roadies are WAY more skilled!!!
I couldn't squeeze my fat ass into those cute little shorts that they wear if my life depended on it.
I couldn't squeeze my fat ass into those cute little shorts that they wear if my life depended on it.
I 100% disagree with you. That's all.Wumpus said:
I definitely disagree. Riding at a consistent pace is so much easier on a road bike. On an MTB (at least on the trails around here) there's a good amount of stop and go, tight corners etc- it's hard to get into a rythm. Building good base fitness and endurance is easier on the road.Wumpus said:
As far as road skills, I think they are certainly different. I race DH and can hold my own but descending on a road bike is a lot scarier for me. I can do it but I don't charge into things like I will on dirt. Riding in a pack is the same kind of thing. I can do it but it freaks me out a bit. The skills are different, the mentality is different.
Its hard to quantify "skills" but there are actually road specific bike skills that enable you to outsmart those you cannot outpeddle. Just riding along by yourself requires no high degree of skill but riding with others in close quarters at speed requires more experience and intuition than non-roadies might suspect.
Anyhow - just as a tip, never draft a roadie who checks speed with their rear brake.
Anyhow - just as a tip, never draft a roadie who checks speed with their rear brake.
In loose conditions its best to use only your front brake in a panic stop situation, with the bulk of your load on the front wheel your rear wheel is likely to lock up and skid.johnbryanpeters said:...there's a lot of sand and gravel on the road. Reminder to self: road bikes don't stop worth sh1t...
With the proper skillz you too can learn how to stop a road bike.
The biggest skill set that you need for road racing is good spatial awareness. In a 1/2 sprint, youre going to be hitting 40+ and you will be standing, getting bumped on all sides, and you will be doing this while utterly exhausted. You need to be able to handle the bike while riding in a tight group, which isn't as easy as it sounds. Ever try diving into a corner on your road bike at 35 with both wheels sliding? It's tough to control- now add people surrounding you on all sides giving you 6 inches or less to move around. It's incredibly tricky.
I think I learned more about sliding the bike while riding road descents in NC than I did racing XC, though it is something you do a LOT more in a mtb race or ride. MTB racing is good for building fitness and for increasing your sustained power output, which transfers to the road for TT's and breakaway situations. The big thing to overcome is having to accelerate all the damn time- cruise at 25 mph, just relaxing, hit a corner and a break goes and you will be up to 35 in a blink or two- or you'll be off the back with me
I think I learned more about sliding the bike while riding road descents in NC than I did racing XC, though it is something you do a LOT more in a mtb race or ride. MTB racing is good for building fitness and for increasing your sustained power output, which transfers to the road for TT's and breakaway situations. The big thing to overcome is having to accelerate all the damn time- cruise at 25 mph, just relaxing, hit a corner and a break goes and you will be up to 35 in a blink or two- or you'll be off the back with me
Westy said:
I've never even thought about that. Now I have something to try out tomorrow afternoon. Maybe I'll ride down to Sq-Earl's work and hitch a ride back...I have a MTB ride planned in the early evening so it might be a nice warm-up! 
I'm going for a ride.
ps road sux.
ps road sux.
About the same....
FInished my ride
it was DH
stupid groms decided to put some slippery bridges about a foot off of the ground in some of the berms of a rooty raily fast section.
So I made them fix it.
Then I rode a BMX on a bridge and faceplanted 'cos I caught the small wheel in a hole on the landing they (badly) built.
fan anyhow
it was DH
stupid groms decided to put some slippery bridges about a foot off of the ground in some of the berms of a rooty raily fast section.
So I made them fix it.
Then I rode a BMX on a bridge and faceplanted 'cos I caught the small wheel in a hole on the landing they (badly) built.
fan anyhow
I don't give a good god damn what I pedal, so long as when I want to pedal, I'm pedaling. Here, I can't ride trails till mid May/early June so that leaves me roads, paved or dirt. You want to improve your bike handling, ride a road bike on a dirt road and learn how to corner there w/ some road slicks at 110psi. The base fitness level when trails open is very kewl when you start on a road. Plus, my trail bike is a full squishy fully active FSR. Every little bit of inefficient pedaling will be magnified by the lack of resistance in the ass-end of my trail bike. The best skills that transfers to mtb is the pedaling efficiency gained from milage on road bikes.
The Amish said:Thats like asking how to make apple juice out of an orange
I would think it's like asking people what's better, apple juice or orange juice. I say mix 'em.
No, no, no. Vodka and orange juice.
C'mon people.
C'mon people.
pnj said:
-S.S.-
SkaredShtles said:
-S.S.-
I was serious in my questioning.
I don't race and would have never thought about riding highspeed, in a pack. that is a skill for sure.
there are all kinds of mtn. bikeing trails. some are smooth gravel roads that are very close to the same type of road one would cycle on but some have tight twists, roots and rocks and ups and downs.
I guess you could say it takes some skill to be able to ride over a root but I think it's more confiedence then skill.
whenever I ride on the road, it seems like I'm doing nothing but pedaling..but when I ride in the woods, it seems like there is always something I have to ride over or around. it takes more body movement...
are there other skills needed for cycling?
riding in/with traffic may be one...?
I was serious in my agreement.pnj said:
The only skill I think about when I'm anywhere near a road is how *not* to become a road pancake.We rode a fantastic trail in Fruita called Holy Cross, and it required all sorts of crazy body english. There was this one section that had a very rocky entrance to a left hand turn that had an overhanging rock on the left - so you had to turn left whilst leaning right to avoid the rock. What a blast.....
Never a dull moment on my mt bike. Unless I have it on the road.
-S.S.-