Faster on my MTB than my roadie!

[TonyEnjoyD]

After a month off commuting on my roadie, I started back but as I was letting her indoors use my roadie I did a few weeks with the MTB as well as a 40 miler at weekend.
Yesterday I rode my roadie to wok and it felt twice as hard as the MTB on which I fel like I am flying along and regularly in top gear so I took the MTB today!
I just can't fathom it!?

Anyone else had this?

 

[Boris Bajic]

If your MTB is set up as an MTB, with softie-softie off-road tyres and all...

And if your roadiferous rocketbike is set up for road use with 700c x 23 slicks at 100ish psi....

And if both have gearing appropriate to their intended use....

Then I am rendered speechless by the difference.

I love to ride an MTB on tarmac, but even on hard slicks it is not a patch on a road bike for speed. Not even close.

You is doing a strange magic thing to make your MTB fast. I do not trust you if you control the dark arts.

Today you control the speed of an MTB, tomorrow you gain control of all the fossil energy sources across the globe.

Scary...

Time for bed said Zebede.

 

[Crackle]

Maybe the mtn bike gearing suits you better.

 

[lukesdad]

I suspect spinning vs grinding maybe the culprit. have you timed the runs ?

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

My MTB is hardtail with full knobbly off roads at about 55psi and my roadie has at the moment 28mm semi-slicks.
Not actually timed it but seemed about 5 mins quicker today and Wednesday.
May be gearing and favouring the ratios as I was finding it really hard finding a gear to suit my need and was getting out of breath on the roadie.
Also, my cadence is way higher on the MTB!
Before having to take a month out due to cardio issues, I hated the MTB and was a sworn roadie man.I just cannot figure it out. My wife wasn't using the roadie but I preferred o get the MTB outta the shed!
As the yanks say - Go figure!?

 

[ColinJ]

But what speeds were you actually doing on the 2 bikes?

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

Didn't have my Garmin on ColinJ, so not sure however as a pointer, there's a downhill run with a speed sign half- way, the last 2 runs in the MTB were 24 and 26mph where yesterday I struggled to get to 22 on he roadie. There a little more headwind but shouldn't have been enough to keep me that slow!

 

[lukesdad]

I suspect spinning vs grinding maybe the culprit. have you timed the runs ?

...and headwind, 5mins may have been 3 ? Completely feasible.

 

[User16625]

I know whats going on, your road bike has a flat tyre that you haven't otherwise noticed.

 

[coffeejo]

Maybe you were just on form that day and would have gone even faster on the road bike, had you been riding it.

 

[ColinJ]

Didn't have my Garmin on ColinJ, so not sure however as a pointer, there's a downhill run with a speed sign half- way, the last 2 runs in the MTB were 24 and 26mph where yesterday I struggled to get to 22 on he roadie. There a little more headwind but shouldn't have been enough to keep me that slow!

The only 2 times I can remember struggling to go above 20 mph downhill (when there wasn't much headwind) were:

• After I'd knocked a brake taking my bike out of the back of a car. (The brake block was rubbing on one side of the rim throughout the ride and I didn't spot it until the end.)

• After my rear Crud Road Racer mudguard got packed with mud on a diversion down a mucky farm track. (Again - I didn't find the problem until much later.)

So my guess is that you have one (or both) of those problems!