Cycling - Slicks on a Mountain Bike

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How big a difference will slicks make on a mountian bike as far as speed/ease of ride and handling go.

I am one of those folks who is really fast on my mountian bike, but everyone is telling me that I would be like super dooper fast on a road bike.

Before I invest in a road bike (and since my first triathlon is on Sunday), I was wondering whether replacing my knobbies with slicks would have any impact without decreased handling, of course.

T.I.A.
 
I don't think slicks would make any difference because:

1. Mountain bike tires are about 2X as wide as road bike tires
2. Mountain bike tires hold less pressure than road bike tires

Becuase of 1 and 2, mountain bike tires have a lot more friction than road bike tires.

3. a mountain bike is a heckuva lot heavier than a road bike

I agree that if you are fast on a MB, you should be super duper fast on a road bike for the above reasons.

But, you might want to post this on a biking forum. Why not try out a friend's road bike before dropping coin on a road bike for yourself?
 
Yes it will make you go heaps faster and it is way easier to pedal. I have a specialised hard rock comp frame that I run both slicks and knobs on. Easy to interchange as well. The only thing I would make sure is that your tyre pressures are spot on with the mountain bike.
 
Actually it makes a huge difference... depending on what tires you've got in the first place.

Biggest problem isn't the tires though, it is that between the additional speed and the decrease in tire diameter after you go to slicks, sometimes you will max out your gearing on your mountain bike. I mean, think about it, you're running a 44t gear at most up front on a MTB, with 26" wheels. Basically most road bikes are going to have maybe a 52t on 29's. Big difference there. Also you're taller than on a road bike, so when you're in a pace line, you can feel your head and shoulders getting out of the slipstream.

If you are by yourself and not in a pace line and not going nearly 30 mph, it's not a problem, you really just need to find some slicks. Also keep in mind that some companies such as Hutchinson make tires such as the Top Slick, which are basically road bike tires that go on a mountain bike, and these are way fast, but the side effects are mentioned above.

As for the tire pressure thing mentioned above... well... first of all it's just not a big deal with slicks, but second of all, if you do get something like the Top Slicks, hell, you can air the things up to like 90 psi.

Last but not least... keep in mind that most mountain bikes will in fact accept road bike wheels. They even make road bike wheels with discs, assuming you have discs, cyclocross bikes do this alot. What I'm getting at is that not only will your gearing take a hit, but it's a PITA to swap tires. A good middle ground would be to get something like a road bike wheelset, put on a Shimano 105 cassette, road bike tires, and stick it on your mountain bike. That way you get all of the benefits without as many bad side effects.

Personally, I'm selling my road bike tomorrow. I can keep up with all but the fastest of the local roadie snobs on my nearly 6" travel 35 pound heckler on 2.1's. I can pull a pace line at 22 mph just fine on it. Owning an additional bike simply isn't worth it unless you're the kind of guy that just HAS to go 30 mph in a pace line like a roadie snob. It's funny to see roadies disagree on this. Yes, road bikes are a little more EFFICIENT, and that's it. Mountain bikes will always be more comfortable, and quite honestly, you can go just as fast as most roadies... you'll just be putting out a few more watts than them, yet they think they're the real men for some reason. They'll probably even have matching clothes while doing so. :rolleyes:
 
g8r80 said:
3. a mountain bike is a heckuva lot heavier than a road bike
Click to expand...

This doesn't really matter at all unless you're on hills. But even then, it's your wheel weight that matters the most. Your aerodynamics aren't going to matter much on the hills where this comes into play. If you put road bike wheels and tires on a mountain bike, crap, worst case scenario you're only looking at a difference of 5 or 6 non-rotating pounds between most bikes. I've taken a good dump and lost 5 pounds before.


OH yeah, if you do in fact ever get a road bike, forget the expensive crap. You'd be plenty fast on a Trek 1000.
 
corndogggy said:
Actually it makes a huge difference... depending on what tires you've got in the first place.

Biggest problem isn't the tires though, it is that between the additional speed and the decrease in tire diameter after you go to slicks, sometimes you will max out your gearing on your mountain bike. I mean, think about it, you're running a 44t gear at most up front on a MTB, with 26" wheels. Basically most road bikes are going to have maybe a 52t on 29's. Big difference there. Also you're taller than on a road bike, so when you're in a pace line, you can feel your head and shoulders getting out of the slipstream.

If you are by yourself and not in a pace line and not going nearly 30 mph, it's not a problem, you really just need to find some slicks. Also keep in mind that some companies such as Hutchinson make tires such as the Top Slick, which are basically road bike tires that go on a mountain bike, and these are way fast, but the side effects are mentioned above.

As for the tire pressure thing mentioned above... well... first of all it's just not a big deal with slicks, but second of all, if you do get something like the Top Slicks, hell, you can air the things up to like 90 psi.

Last but not least... keep in mind that most mountain bikes will in fact accept road bike wheels. They even make road bike wheels with discs, assuming you have discs, cyclocross bikes do this alot. What I'm getting at is that not only will your gearing take a hit, but it's a PITA to swap tires. A good middle ground would be to get something like a road bike wheelset, put on a Shimano 105 cassette, road bike tires, and stick it on your mountain bike. That way you get all of the benefits without as many bad side effects.

Personally, I'm selling my road bike tomorrow. I can keep up with all but the fastest of the local roadie snobs on my nearly 6" travel 35 pound heckler on 2.1's. I can pull a pace line at 22 mph just fine on it. Owning an additional bike simply isn't worth it unless you're the kind of guy that just HAS to go 30 mph in a pace line like a roadie snob. It's funny to see roadies disagree on this. Yes, road bikes are a little more EFFICIENT, and that's it. Mountain bikes will always be more comfortable, and quite honestly, you can go just as fast as most roadies... you'll just be putting out a few more watts than them, yet they think they're the real men for some reason. They'll probably even have matching clothes while doing so. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Corndoggy,

Thanks of the advice. I think I may rent a road bike for a day and if I feel comfortable and faster, rent it again the day of the race - then decide if I want to make the investment. There are tons of bikes on Craigslist, so if I find something I love, I can just shop until someone my height gets tired of theirs.
I'm certainly not a bike snob and I suppose I will never be a real man, as I am a female. :D

Red

Swims/Bikes/Runs like a girl. Try to keep up.
 
Also if you do decide to look at road bikes, try to find a tri bike if you're getting one anyway. Some aren't too bad, like there was a full Ultegra equipped Motobecane for like $995 not too long ago. I bet you could find a used one even cheaper. There's not that big of a difference... yeah they're a little more aerodynamic, but supposedly the biggest difference is that they are much more comfortable than normal road bikes when in the aero position for extended periods of time, plus the geometry on them somehow saves your thighs for the running section of the tri. The drawback to this is that they don't handle as well on the tight corners, they were meant for going straight and fast.

But yeah, for triathlons, the aerodynamics will be the biggest thing. You cannot draft in a tri, which is the biggest problem, and you're not exactly going at a training pace. If it's a short triathlon, personally I still don't think it's worth it. Once you start putting some serious milage in at race pace on the road, a triathlon bike is going to kill a mountain bike, with the biggest difference being that with one you're sitting pretty straight up, and the other you're in an aero superman position, which is going to be more efficient.

I'm trying to get into tri's too, but I'm mostly interested in Xterra's. Right now I'm having trouble with swimming but I'm getting alot better pretty quick.
 
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corndogggy said:
I'm trying to get into tri's too, but I'm mostly interested in Xterra's. Right now I'm having trouble with swimming but I'm getting alot better pretty quick.
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I feel your pain. I've came in in the top 16% on the bike, top 6% on the run, but only the top 40% on the swim.

Word on the street is that it has more to do with form than speed, so I've ben working on my form, but I am still slow as heck.


One more question, I went out for a bike ride with a buddy of mine who has a Giant road bike. In your opinion is this bike any good? There just didn;t seem to be enough gears (I noticed that she stopped pedallin gon the downhill long before I did with my 21 speed) - or does that matter?
 
It's probably fine. It sounds real similar to a Trek 1000 that I had and that thing did great. I never ran out of gears. Maybe she just didn't bump up to the big ring or just doesn't pedal at high rpm's, or simply wanted to coast? I could fly down a steep hill at 35 mph as fast as I could and still have gearing left.
 
PeteTheMan said:
i got 2.5 inch tick tires on my norco at around 100 psi for the trails
Click to expand...

Are you serious? Why so much pressure for trails?
 
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