Friday, January 17, 2014

Road biking - 1 year of experience

I have been a die hard mountain biker for 25+ years. I scoffed at road bikers, thinking that type of biking was boring and more suited to folks who are only interested in "fitness". I always say that I ride bikes for fun and that if it made me fat rather than kept me in shape, I'd be morbidly obese.

Last fall I had an epiphany about the number of bikes in the garage - I had NINE bikes in the garage and I really ever rode two of them. One by one I put the bikes up on Craigslist and got rid of them. After all that I ended up with some cash in my pocket. I was strongly considering buying one of those slack angled hardtail 29ers. My better half (and I use that phrase on purpose) convinced me that I would probably ride a road bike more often than I would a new hardtail. She reasoned that I already had a hardtail in the garage and it hardly ever got ridden.

I searched around a bit for road bikes, figuring late fall is a good time to find either used or new bikes, eventually settling on a Trek Madone 3.1 from one of the local bike shops (I should say it was surprising how few bikes in my size were in stock ANYWHERE).

I am completely surprised at how much I enjoy riding a road bike. Contrary to what I thought its not boring at all. Its not quite the thrill a second that mountain biking is, but its pretty exhilarating to go 50MPH down a steep hill with a turn at the bottom. Incidentally my max speed on the road bike is about 51MPH - I tried for a long time to break 50MPH, the only time I was able to do it was by drafting off a box truck, I am not sure it would be possible without drafting. I love the fact that I can jump on the bike and crank out a ride right from my house with very little set up and no drive time. I do hour long rides at lunch time pretty often.

The interesting thing about road biking is that you really get out of it what you put into it. In mountain biking you encounter a steep hill - you have to go up it and on the steeper ones your heart rate is going to max out no matter how you get up. Roads tend to have less steep grades, so its possible to do a road ride and not really push your heart rate up - certainly you CAN max out your heart rate easily, but you don't HAVE to. I really don't know what that means from a fitness perspective, but it is interesting.

I have a lot of friends who talk about how much the road bike helps them in the woods. I'm honestly not sure how much I see/feel that. I guess I'm in better shape than I would be if I didn't ride all the times I did a road ride, but I don't feel it has really increased my speed in the woods all that much.

I hate riding when the trails are sloppy, the road bike really takes the pressure off that decision. If its above freezing, road bike is relatively comfortable, so its a really good option when the trails are wet.

Talking a bit about warmth - in mountain biking because you're moving slower and putting in more effort you can ride in lower temps and still be warm. In the winter I am almost always cold when I jump on the bike for a mountain bike ride. Its a lot harder to generate heat on the road bike, you pretty much have to have enough clothing on to be comfortable standing outside, if you are cold before the ride, you will be cold for the ride. In my case that means 30 F is about the lowest comfortable temp for road riding, any colder than that and its really hard to keep the warmth in and not be so bundled up that you can't pedal.

YMMV and all that stuff, just my experience.

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