Is a road bike really worth it?

[greencat]

Re: Re:

Interesting take on the whole mountain bike vs road bike culture. Locally I'm seeing a lot more people riding in regular clothes on road or street bikes. Yes, many of them are hipsters on single speed converted vintage racing bikes and others are riding touring bikes, city bikes, and whatnot. I've found that mountain biking is the branch that has become heavily specialized over the past 15 years with the move to single purpose downhilling, freeriding and all mountain style bikes. Those late 80's and early 90's mountain bikes were incredibly flexible with the swapping of tires and the adding of a few accessories you could go from trail to tour quite readily. Can't imagine doing that on a modern mountain bike with suspension. I do have to admit at the higher end of racing those bikes are pretty specialized as well, but there are lots of CX bikes and sport bikes and touring bikes with more relaxed geometry, braze ons for racks and fenders and lots of room for fat tires that are pretty flexible and can go from dirt to pavement quite easily.

Maybe it varies from country to country? I notice for example, you're in Canada while I'm in the UK.

I do recognise what you're saying. I have some mountain biking friends who have all of the gear, specialised bikes etc - and are extremely good. They are, however, still welcoming of me who turns up wearing, and riding, something less than optimal. I draw the line at, for example, tapered suspension forks and those that don't use standard QR. My current go to ride doesn't have discs or suspension. For me, a mountain bike should be able to do anything - not need highly specialised boutique equipment. But damn, they considerably faster than me.

I dunno I just think generally mountain bikers are more accepting of someone starting out - but I'm not basing that on much more than a few anecdotes from friends and my own.

 

[hamster]

Not my experience about unwelcoming; seen the local road club gone from sub-50 to 250 members in 5 years. I think road cycling is at its least elitist for years.

The exception is a small contingent of sportive participants who are needlessly aggressive as they pretend to be racers.

 

[Woz]

Re:

This is developing in one of the best threads on RB at the moment

I think a major part in the decision is actually if you feel safe on the roads / have access to worthy tarmac. Head banging on A roads requires stupidity or nerves of steel.....personally I went for a CX, where the C roads are used to link off road tracks when its dry.

 

[dirttorpedo]

Re:

Maybe it varies from country to country? I notice for example, you're in Canada while I'm in the UK.

I do recognise what you're saying. I have some mountain biking friends who have all of the gear, specialised bikes etc - and are extremely good. They are, however, still welcoming of me who turns up wearing, and riding, something less than optimal. I draw the line at, for example, tapered suspension forks and those that don't use standard QR. My current go to ride doesn't have discs or suspension. For me, a mountain bike should be able to do anything - not need highly specialised boutique equipment. But damn, they considerably faster than me.

I dunno I just think generally mountain bikers are more accepting of someone starting out - but I'm not basing that on much more than a few anecdotes from friends and my own.

Not my experience about unwelcoming; seen the local road club gone from sub-50 to 250 members in 5 years. I think road cycling is at its least elitist for years.

The exception is a small contingent of sportive participants who are needlessly aggressive as they pretend to be racers.

Yes, there may be some cultural differences. My wife, who's Mom was born in the UK, is always telling me that Canadian's must have all the gear before they can do a sport while the Brits just tend to make do. Although part of that may be that the gear is so much more affordable over here - when I was a student in London in the 80's I was blown away by the price of a bike.

Not my experience about unwelcoming; seen the local road club gone from sub-50 to 250 members in 5 years. I think road cycling is at its least elitist for years.

The exception is a small contingent of sportive participants who are needlessly aggressive as they pretend to be racers.

I think I'm seeing this locally as well. A lot of it is being driven by I think two things - 1 the emergence of sportive/granfondos and charity rides which are encouraging more people to get out and ride longer distances (100k to 160k). 2 - as the mountain bike community ages they seem to be moving to road bikes as they age. I think that in part is because mountain bike trails around here tend to be pretty extreme.

 

[marge602]

Re:

I'd say go for it. I'm a roadie too, and have 2 modern road bikes and a cx bike. I understand when people say that motorists drive like idiots, but there are plenty of interesting back roads, you just need to go and find them. Oh, and ride a bike that has just enough comfort to ensure it's not a complete nightmare. Going on past experience, this may take you some time.

Regards

Marge