average speeds mtb v road bikes

quackers · 24 Feb 2016 at 19:20

Hi all,

I try to ride to work a couple of times a week, it's about 4 miles each way so nothing mind blowing. I'm riding on an old 90's Kona and since I've been off today I thought I'd do a bit of a bike ride this afternoon and it's also the first time with my new running/cycling GPS watch.

I did 20 miles and averaged 10mph according to said watch, it's something I've never really considered before and it got me thinking what average speeds are people seeing on their road bikes?

The main reason this has suddenly popped into my head is that we might be moving in work, so the commute will be going from 4 miles to around 12 each way. I'm wondering if I did invest in a road bike (which is something I've been thinking about for a while now) how much quicker could I possible go?

I know this involves a lot of factors, but what sort of average speeds are people seeing on their commutes?

teenwolf · 24 Feb 2016 at 19:24

Depending on your fitness and road bike you should average 16mph plus on a road bike

PermaBanned · 24 Feb 2016 at 19:27

Hard to put a number to it, but lots. If you can average 10mph on a MTB, I'd say you could probably easily average 12mph on a road bike. Maybe more. 14-18 is achievable with a decent level of fitness, but average speed depends more on the route you take than anything. How often will you have to stop, what's the road surface like, are there any hills? Hard to tell how long a commute will take until you ride it.

quackers · 24 Feb 2016 at 19:29

Thanks guys, this is what I'm reading online as well. I'm pretty fit and I didn't really push it that much today and had the wind in my face for large parts of the ride. When I next ride to work (weather dependant) I'm going to use the watch and see what the average speeds comes out as.

I would be happy with 15mph, after today I'm seriously considering a road bike.

lordrobs · 24 Feb 2016 at 20:14

Personally speaking on short flatish routes approximately;

Hard tail MTB - 15 mph
Hybrid - 16.5 mph
Road Bike - 18 mph

That average for the MTB is for my craggy old GT, on my new one I think I'd be pushing towards 16 mph but I've only done very short on road stints on it.

Vonhelmet · 24 Feb 2016 at 20:49

I'm not very fast, but my best effort so far on a road bike on a flat course was 28 miles averaging 17.9mph. I've got friends who can beat that on a hilly course, though.

But yeah, 15mph on a road bike is easy, so a 12 mile commute would take under an hour, depending on how stop-start it is and how hilly.

I've just started a new job and the commute is about 11.5 flat miles. I rode in yesterday and it took me under 50 minutes, of which about 5 minutes was waiting at lights and the like.

Jono · 24 Feb 2016 at 21:27

MTBs on a road are no fun at all, for any distance really.

Mr-White · 24 Feb 2016 at 21:33

All depends whether you can cope with the stigma of being a roadie

MW

lordrobs · 24 Feb 2016 at 21:49

Jono said:
MTBs on a road are no fun at all, for any distance really.

They aren't as efficient but I've had some very enjoyable rides on the road on a MTB. Each to their own I guess.

DaleTheWhale · 24 Feb 2016 at 22:23

When I first started on my road bike commuting 4 miles, my average was around 14-15mph without much traffic.

You should easily be able to achieve that across 20 miles on a road bike, I can average 16mph on a hilly route (2000ft+) now with 12 months of cycling behind me.

PinkFloyd · 24 Feb 2016 at 22:30

Jono said:
MTBs on a road are no fun at all, for any distance really.

You can liven it up by trying to get air on speed bumps, pot holes and kerbs

Jono · 25 Feb 2016 at 08:52

lordrobs said:
They aren't as efficient but I've had some very enjoyable rides on the road on a MTB. Each to their own I guess.

Oh so have I... before I got my road bike... but compared to a road bike on a road, no fun. It's like riding a road bike through mud. That's not much fun either. Horses for courses and all that

UTmaniac · 25 Feb 2016 at 09:45

Jono said:
MTBs on a road are no fun at all, for any distance really.

Oh they are great fun, especially when you have 4" tyres and shocking road surfaces on your commute that makes riding your nice carbon racer on 25mm tyres positively scary!

Regarding average speeds, if you have silly amounts of traffic lights on your route and you are not a red light jumper, the time difference will not be that much (maybe ~5 minutes over a ~5 mile journey).

On the way to work, I could normally get there quicker on my heavy Alfine hybrid, compared to my single speed CX racer.
But coming home, the CX racer would be quicker, because I live at the top of a decent incline.

Road bikes only come into their own if you have few traffic lights, a really good run of reaching lights when green and when ascending hills.

Liefrich · 25 Feb 2016 at 09:57

UTmaniac said:
Oh they are great fun, especially when you have 4" tyres and shocking road surfaces on your commute that makes riding your nice carbon racer on 25mm tyres positively scary!

Regarding average speeds, if you have silly amounts of traffic lights on your route and you are not a red light jumper, the time difference will not be that much (maybe ~5 minutes over a ~5 mile journey).

On the way to work, I could normally get there quicker on my heavy Alfine hybrid, compared to my single speed CX racer.
But coming home, the CX racer would be quicker, because I live at the top of a decent incline.

Road bikes only come into their own if you have few traffic lights, a really good run of reaching lights when green and when ascending hills.

I don't agree with this at all. Road bikes are far better and offer a vastly more pleasurable experience when riding on roads than mountain bikes. Also riding 25mm tyres is not a scary experience at all and any concerns can be alleviated by simply buying a decent set for the conditions...

UTmaniac · 25 Feb 2016 at 10:10

Liefrich said:
I don't agree with this at all. Road bikes are far better and offer a vastly more pleasurable experience when riding on roads than mountain bikes. Also riding 25mm tyres is not a scary experience at all and any concerns can be alleviated by simply buying a decent set for the conditions...

As I wrote, the roads are positively shocking near me, full of potholes and "tram line" ~40mm craters that run parallel to the direction of travel. Perfect to drop a 25mm tyred road wheel into and have a serious "oh ****!" moment.

While wider tyre clearance has become a more common option on "do it all" adventure bikes in recent years, there are still road bikes being shipped where 25mm tyres are the widest you can fit.

On well maintained roads with few traffic lights and on an undulating route, road bikes are a lot faster, if old age has not caught up with you and given you a bad back.

FrenchTart · 25 Feb 2016 at 10:24

I also cycle on incredibly poor roads and I'd choose a road bike over a mountain bike any day for those. 25/28mm tyres provide a perfectly reasonable experience and you're not having to push 500W to maintain 10mph average moving speed.

MTBs have their optimal use - and that use isn't the road. Yes, you can ride an MTB on a road just like you can ride a road bike on a bridle path. Neither one of those options is going to give you the optimal riding experience though.

edit: I ride on bikes with wide tyre clearance and disc brakes (which are now indeed called gravel/adventure bikes by shops trying to sell more bikes) but I still haven't ever felt the need to run wider than 28mm for road use despite how awesome Manchester roads are.

lordrobs · 25 Feb 2016 at 10:29

UTmaniac said:
As I wrote, the roads are positively shocking near me, full of potholes and "tram line" ~40mm craters that run parallel to the direction of travel. Perfect to drop a 25mm tyred road wheel into and have a serious "oh ****!" moment.

While wider tyre clearance has become a more common option on "do it all" adventure bikes in recent years, there are still road bikes being shipped where 25mm tyres are the widest you can fit.

On well maintained roads with few traffic lights and on an undulating route, road bikes are a lot faster, if old age has not caught up with you and given you a bad back.

I completely agree. Near me there are many roads that I won't take my road bike on because they are in shocking condition.

While I'm a lone voice I'll quite happily state that if I could only have one bike it would be a MTB. If I were allowed two I'd add a hybrid*. I do own a road bike and on decent roads it trumps the other two for pace and efficiency, that is why I own it but I only have it because I have the space for three bikes.

*I would consider an adventure/gravel/cyclocross bike but I haven't really looked into these enough to say definitively if I would have one or not.

Here is my quickest ride from last year on my road bike - http://www.strava.com/activities/344776018
...and my quickest on my hybrid - http://www.strava.com/activities/410287394

1.5 mph average speed difference on a 30LB hybrid that cost less than half the 20LB road bikes price... and I paid RRP for the hybrid but got a last season deal on the road bike

If I was to drop £450 on a nice hybrid from last season I imagine that gap might close slightly.

I don't want to make it sound like there is no difference because clearly there is. I just think sometimes the difference is overstated.

touch · 25 Feb 2016 at 11:18

UTmaniac said:
especially when you have 4" tyres and shocking road surfaces

No matter how rough the roads are, a fatbike is not the answer!

Jono · 25 Feb 2016 at 11:27

lordrobs do you have slicks or semi slicks or whatever they're called on the hybrid?

SDK^ · 25 Feb 2016 at 11:40

lordrobs said:
Here is my quickest ride from last year on my road bike - http://www.strava.com/activities/344776018
...and my quickest on my hybrid - http://www.strava.com/activities/410287394

1.5 mph average speed difference on a 30LB hybrid that cost less than half the 20LB road bikes price... and I paid RRP for the hybrid but got a last season deal on the road bike If I was to drop £450 on a nice hybrid from last season I imagine that gap might close slightly.

I don't want to make it sound like there is no difference because clearly there is. I just think sometimes the difference is overstated.

You live in the flattest part of the UK - The largest hills in that area are the traffic calming speed bumps

Add some proper hills in the mix and the difference between MTB and Road bikes is significant.