Road Bike Tyres / Wheels versus Speed Humps

[pete.yates]

I have a commute of 11 Miles, all road. 1 mile in the middle is through a village with speed humps, the rubber ones that are only 3 or 4 inches wide but quite steep. I currently do the journey on my Apollo CX10 Halfords bike in 55 mins. I came home with a colleague Tuesday, he rode a Road bike (£300 from Halfords also). We are evenly matched for fitness but on the main roads he pulled away from me with ease, however he was very cautious of the speed bumbs.

I would love the opinions of you experienced guys, at the moment I feel I want to have the speed on the road and I'll slow done on the humps. But that could just be that the Grass is always Greener, would travelling over speed humps on a road bike regularly do that much damage? and would i be wishing I had my comfier hybrid back?

The option of a reroute to avoid the speed humps is not really practical. The commute is Southwick, through Wickham, Whiteley to Swanwick Hants. If anyone does a similar route

 

[paddy01]

I have speed humps of various types on most of my usual routes and riding the more out of the way byways in Devon, some of the road surfaces can ge, well variable would be putting it nicely

I ride a road bike with Mavic Aksium wheels and 700 x 25c tyres (Gator Skins), I'm not exactly svelte at 15 stone and average speed over a 30 to 40 mile ride (riding solo) is 15 to 16 mph.

It's fair to say these wheels have taken a fair battering over the year or so I've had them and whilst they're not 100% perfectly true, they've never gone out of true enough to require actually doing anything about it.

Where possibly I will un-weight the bike, almost like a bunny hop but not actually leaving the road in order to spare impacts where I can but there's been plenty of times I've clattered through some nasty pot-holes etc.

I'd imagine you'd have no particular problem with wheels.

 

[RedBike]

My 29er mtb has road bike wheels on it. It gets hammered down rocky bridleways and launched off SMALL drops.

Similarly Cyclocross bikes get raced across rough terrain using bog standard road wheels .

It all depends on the quality of the wheelset and the tyres your using.

=

 

[pete.yates]

Thanks, with the Winter we've had you're not the only ones with awful roads.

I bunny hop to help just tough to time it when doing 20mph, my fear was that the slim wheels of a faster bike would just collapse, i doubt they would sell many though if that were the case

 

[RedBike]

If you catch a pothole wrong it is perfectly possible to buckle or collapse a wheel.

Narrow racing tyres don't absorb or disipate much energy from the impact so the wheel takes quite a beating.

With a little care potholes / speed bumbs shouldn't be a problem.

 

[jimboalee]

Thanks, with the Winter we've had you're not the only ones with awful roads.

I bunny hop to help just tough to time it when doing 20mph, my fear was that the slim wheels of a faster bike would just collapse, i doubt they would sell many though if that were the case

Don't worry about 'bunny hops'. The pros do it over the concrete speed bumps in Holland and Belgium.

 

[PpPete]

With good quality wheels and properly inflated tyres. all you really need to do is get off the saddle as you get to the bump or pothole and relax. A death grip on the bars, a faile bunny hop, or legs too rigid is going to hurt.

My suggestion would be a road bike which has clearance for 700x28 tyres, often drop-bar tourers or cyclocross** bikes wil be appropriate (which ever suits your riding style better). Narrow wheels*** will be fine, but put the some 28mm slick tyres on, which will absorb the energy of any bumps better than a 23mm tyre supplied with most pure "road" bikes

** cyclocross bike will be quicker, tourers more comfortable over long distance.
*** but avoid the ones with less than 32 spokes