My first commute - on a road bike

[mattyashy]

So today I stepped up to a road bike for the first time - my Cannondale R400. Felt brilliant compared to my old MTB - but a few points/observations from my end..

- I was a lot less confident looking over my shoulder/hand signalling due to the twitchiness in the bikes handling.
- when riding on the hoods, my hand between the thumb and the index finger was hurting (wrong hand positioning? or too much pressure?)

Any tips for these?

 

[Bollo]

Yay, saved from the dark side of filthy dirty pedal tractors!

A few ideas. You could just be holding on too tight because you're new to the position of a road bike. You shouldn't generally be holding on for grim death. Secondly, you do need to move your hands around on a road bike. On the hoods can be a very comfortable position, but even then you should try to mix it up by holding the tops when you're climbing or getting in the drops now and again. Road surface can make a difference as more buzz is translated into your hands on a road bike.


Now we start to spend money. Riding with gloves - if not, get some and look for some with padding or gel. Gloves can be like saddles - I've an Endura pair that stay very comfortable. I've no idea why these are 'the ones' as they've no more or less padding than other gloves.

Failing all this, look at your position on the bike, as you may be putting too much body weight on your hands. Also look at how you've set up the bars and where the brake hoods are fixed to the bars.

You can try and fix this by trial and error, or get some advice from a decent LBS. I'm not sold on bike fix systems, but they might work for you. You might find you have to start swapping components (stem length, handlebars)
but there's no need to rush into this until you've got used to the bike.

 

[thomas]

- I was a lot less confident looking over my shoulder/hand signalling due to the twitchiness in the bikes handling.

Just give it a week and you'll be fine. My Mum was without her road bike for a couple of weeks so had to use her MTB. When she got back on the road bike she said she didn't feel as confident.

Same with anything really, the more you use it the better. I should imagine it won't take long to get used to the road bike's handling and you'll be able to signal/etc just fine

Gloves are a good idea! Bit of padding, and something to blow you nose on when you're speeding along

 

[ttcycle]

Yep I agree re gloves - but it also might be worth tilting the handlebars slightly upwards as this might take a bit of pressure of the hands - as I suffered with a soreness in between my thumb and index finger initially.

You will get used to the twitchiness and end up loving the responsiveness of a road bike- my favourite is leaning into a turn and putting an ever so slight amount of pressure onto the handlebar instead of pushing and pulling it -so easy, so fun!!

Keep enjoying the bike!

 

[mattyashy]

Cheers guys - the MTB looks like the ugly fat girl in the corner now - whilst I'm now blessed with riding Cheryl Cole. Looking at starting my 10 mile commute to uni this week, and then get in to some longer leisure rides. And spend some funds on decent attire.

 

[fossyant]

To be honest, you'lll get aches and pains to start with. They are great machines, and very quick for commuting.

 

[HLaB]

When I first converted my sirrus from flat bar to dropped I got quite sore between the thumb and the fore finger too but as fossyant says, you'll get used to it, padded gloves help too.

Also when I bought my first road bike for over 20 years I thought it was really twitchy too and didn't feel comfortable looking over my shoulder either. You soon get use to that too, and if anything a road bike feels even more stable IMO for looking over the shoulder and its benefits far outweigh that of a mtb on road.

 

[Perry]

Interesting thing about the confidence.

I use both bike on the same day but definatley feel more confident on the Hybrid.

 

[John the Monkey]

It won't be too long before "twitchy" feels like "responsive".

 

[Twenty Inch]

Just give it a week and you'll be fine. My Mum was without her road bike for a couple of weeks so had to use her MTB. When she got back on the road bike she said she didn't feel as confident.

Same with anything really, the more you use it the better. I should imagine it won't take long to get used to the road bike's handling and you'll be able to signal/etc just fine

Gloves are a good idea! Bit of padding, and something to blow you nose on when you're speeding along

Thomas reckons you ride worse than his mum!!! Are you gonna take that? Are ya?!?

 

[BrumJim]

Changed from an old cheap Peugeot dropped bar bike to a modern road bike, and it was a good three days before I had the confidence to ride it with the same enthusiasm as my previous steed. It was very twitchy, and just not used to the different turn-in points.

Now I am used to it, life us much better. Hills are flatter, I can change gear at will, and I don't need to scuttle away from lights as quickly as possible before anyone notices how old and crummy my bike is.