I Tried Riding a Mountain Bike on the Paved Road |
Posted: October 21, 2019 |
I like to ride my mountain bike on some pretty exciting terrain and while I never really planned on taking a trail bike on the road, it was something that came up recently among friends. While I'm well-versed on trail bikes, I don't ride road bikes that often so I'm sure I don't know all of the differences. From a safety perspective, I thought I should do a quick search on the differences and what to expect when riding a mountain bike on the road. I found an article at over at MountainBikeExperience.com on just that. It had what to expect for differences as well as why. It's a great read. Taking advice from the article, I locked out the front and rear suspension on my trail bike since it would waste a lot of energy. Well, I didn't entirely lockout the front suspension so that I would have a little to absorb potholes and such in the roads. So I tried it for 3 hours. What's the verdict? Well, it actually wasn't too bad. It felt easier to pedal than on dirt roads. I then borrowed off of a buddy a road bike since I didn't have anything to compare it to. At that point, I could feel the difference. The road bike had a smoother ride on good roads, but the biggest thing was that it felt like I had to work less for the same speeds. It seems the heavier bike with the wider knobby tires really create some resistance. So I guess you can road a mountain bike on the road but if you're going to do significant road riding on very tame roads, then a road bike just does it far easier.
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