Different Distances MTB vs Hybrid vs Road Bike

[Witterings]

A few times I've seen or heard comments like "if you're doing 35 miles on a 29er you'll easily do 55 miles on a road bike"

Do people generally find this to be true and if so what's the reason is it efficiency for the same energy spent or more comfort of the different bikes as I would have thought a MTB / Hybrid is more comfortable than a Road or Gravel bike to ride.

If you do find it's true roughly what might be the ratio of one to another just as an approximate.

My reason for asking we live on a peninsula and whilst I love my 29er, taking routes with less traffic it's about a 25 mile round trip to get off it and then back home again so not wanting to do much more than 30/35 miles on the MTB end up always doing pretty much the same rides .... if suddenly that was pushed out to 60 / 70 miles it offers a lot of variance in routes once you're off the peninsula.

[Brucey]

you might (between the added drag of fat tyres, different routes taken and a distinctly non-aero riding position) find that you are likely to go ~5mph faster on a road bike than a 29er. This might be enough to make your rides more varied.

Comfort is all relative; folk don't ride on road bikes all day in an 'uncomfortable' riding position, but if you are not used to it you may well find it not at all comfortable to start with. If you sit up and catch the breeze, much of the potential speed increase is lost, regardless of the bike used.

cheers

[PH]

5 mph sounds a lot, maybe between the most upright chunky tyre 29er and the sleekest road bike, but I'd think most of that difference could be achieved without changing bikes.
Of the bikes I've owned, the slowest was a 20" wheel Dahon folder (The cheapest model) and the fastest a Linskey Titainium sportive, if I was having a bad day on the first and a good day on the other there might just have been 5mph between them. More typically, between a 28mm tyre lightweight Audax bike and a 32/35mm tyre Hybrid bike there's less than 2mph, on rides over 100 km that comes down to 1mph or less. So little difference that I've just sold the Audax bike.
IMO - a reasonable quality and comfortable 29er with hybrid/touring tyres should be capable of doing similar distances to a road bike at very little disadvantage. Something that might increase the disadvantage, so I'm told as I have no experience, is suspension. Does your bike have it? Can it be locked out?
The biggest difference is always the engine, I ride regularly with people who do the sorts of distances you're talking about on hybrid type bikes. In a mixed group with all sorts of bikes, it becomes obvious that the bike isn't the main factor.

[hamster]

I reckon based on time riding at the same effort that 1km on an MTB off road is the same as a mile on the road bike...or a distance on an MTB off road is the 1.5x on the road. You can fiddle that into average speeds: 12mph off-road is the same as 18mph on.

[Alan O]

I tend to ride in groups at about the same speed whatever bike I'm on, and I find 30-40 miles on my MTB (with slick-ish city tyres) is about as tiring as around 60 miles on a road bike.

[Vorpal]

I'd say it depends on circumstances and what kind of miles you are comparing.

In my estimation and for me, there is maximum 10% difference between the distance I can ride on a MTB with slicks on the road and a road bike. However, it will take me more time on the MTB.

The difference is smaller if the road is rough, or the ride includes some off road. Even though I can go faster on the road bike, this is somewhat offset by suspension which generally means that my arms and shoulders don't get tired quite as fast.

The difference is bigger if I have knobblies, or am riding without any suspension, or if I am riding completely off road. My hybrid probably falls in between the two, both for speed and the distance I can ride. I have butterfly bars on my hybrid, so even though it lacks suspension, I have plenty of options for hand position, and the bars are wider, so it's maybe a little easier to control.

I am more comfortable on my tourer and, excluding wholly off road riding, can go farther on that bike than the others. In terms of speed, the tourer also falls between MTB and road bike; probably not too different from my hybrid.

When comes to MTB off road rough surfaces, compared to riding on the road, I'd say it's more like a 30 - 40% difference. So 50 miles off road rough surfaces is more like 80 - 85 miles on road with a road bike, in terms of how I feel afterwards.

Comfort makes the biggest difference to me.

I don't know if that has helped, but now you know that I have too many bikes

[foxyrider]

If there was no difference in performance it wouldn't be necessary for anyone to need more than one bike. All things being equal you could use any bike for any job but clearly some will do each job better than others. Indeed, at the height of my racing prowess, I used a mountain bike on the club rides and was never found wanting!

Generally i'm with Vorpal et al on this - and it's all down to comfort. For road riding my comfort zone on any flat bar bike is maybe an hour, two hours will have me in some discomfort. On a drop bar machine I won't even be thinking of comfort even after a full day.

Difference between mtb and hybrid will be as much down to lack of suspension, tyres and weight as anything. So the difference could be anywhere from nothing to lots.

Of course gearing will vary too which may well affect distance covered for a given effort. Of course for a short journey the difference may be negligible but get over an hour effort, say 20km and even a small % difference can end up being a big difference not just in speed/distance but in fatigue.

So for the OP, you could change tyres (29 ers actually have 700c wheels the same as road bikes), bang in a few extra psi and lock out any suspension to get a pseudo hybrid. It will probably extend your range a bit but maybe not hugely. If you want to really step up distance wise (regular 50km plus rides), in the long run you will be most comfortable on a road bike of some sort.

[pjclinch]

My distance limits on upright bikes are comfort-based. Something ends up aching to the point it tells me I'm not having fun any more, so for long trips I ride a recumbent. On the 'bent I can keep rolling until my legs stop turning

Pete.

[Witterings]

Cheers for everyone's comments ... not surprisingly there's not 100% agreement but there never is in something like this and different people have different aims / goals out of what they want to do.

It's inevitable I'll end up with another bike anyway ... it's just when but was interested to see people's comments in the interim ... maybe to help me justify the purchase

I keep the fork locked out as most of the gravel tracks aren't that bad and run about 50 psi as about 65/70% is on the road and currently run Smart Sam Plus's on the bike as we get quite a few thorn punctures around here.
I had thought about switching to narrower more road orientated tyres for the summer (and to help a road charity ride I'm probably signing up for) but there doesn't seem to be a huge choice that'd make a lot of difference and still seem to have half decent puncture protection ... if anybody has some suggestions I'm all ears.

Thanks again for everyone's input!

[mattsccm]

Rtaher bemused by the OPs last paragraph in the post above. He says little choice but reality says the opposite. Its huge. For that size wheel he can generally fit anything from 23mm wide to probably 75mm. Yes there may be a less than sweet spot at the bottom depending on his rim width and frame clearance may be an issue at the other but on the whole it will work. Puncture resistance could be much improved as well.
I would have at least 2 different pairs of tyres in the shed. Knobblies for off road and slicks for road . Swapping tyres might be a bit annoying every day but the chuck a different set on for a weekend ride on different terrain takes less time for me than to drink the accompanying can of beer. 2 pairs of wheels is ultimately better.
Each to their own. 12 hours on the road bike has no comfort issues, an hour on the MTB and I ache.

[hamster]

I had thought about switching to narrower more road orientated tyres for the summer (and to help a road charity ride I'm probably signing up for) but there doesn't seem to be a huge choice that'd make a lot of difference and still seem to have half decent puncture protection ... if anybody has some suggestions I'm all ears.

Schwalbe Marathon Greenguard would be a good starting point for a road tyre that will be fine on light gravel (and I've ridden it on far worse with touring loads with no bother). Alternatively a MTB semi-slick like Continental Speed King or Race King would be fine depending on the balance of what you want to do. There is LOADS of choice!

[foxyrider]

I had thought about switching to narrower more road orientated tyres for the summer (and to help a road charity ride I'm probably signing up for) but there doesn't seem to be a huge choice that'd make a lot of difference and still seem to have half decent puncture protection ... if anybody has some suggestions I'm all ears.

Schwalbe Marathon Greenguard would be a good starting point for a road tyre that will be fine on light gravel (and I've ridden it on far worse with touring loads with no bother). Alternatively a MTB semi-slick like Continental Speed King or Race King would be fine depending on the balance of what you want to do. There is LOADS of choice!

Just remember that 29 is a bit of a misnomer - your wheels are just wider rimmed 700c for which there are literally hundreds of tyres to choose from!

[Alan O]

...currently run Smart Sam Plus's on the bike as we get quite a few thorn punctures around here...

One of my cycling companions has those on his MTB. I've ridden his bike, and they seem to be really good on soft surfaces - and I'm considering them for autumn/winter knobblies this year. But on hard dry surfaces (not just tarmac cycle paths, but hard earth too), they feel very sluggish to me - possibly no more sluggish than most knobblies on hard surfaces, but I'm comparing to my current Sport Contact tyres with very little tread. Even with them pumped up fairly hard, I find the Sport Contacts are very comfortable on hard off-road surfaces and they do not feel tiring - and I can ride considerably further on them with similar effort than I can with knobblies. I've no idea how they'd cope with thorns, as I don't really face them here, so I can't help on that.

As intermediate tyres, I also have a pair of Land Cruisers, which seem to fit the middle ground when you need a bit of tread for soft-ish surfaces but don't need full-on mudbath knobblies. They definitely feel more sluggish than the Sport Contacts, but they're less hard work than knobblies.

When it comes to MTBs and the distances you can comfortably ride on them, I think tyres make the biggest difference.

[PH]

there doesn't seem to be a huge choice that'd make a lot of difference and still seem to have half decent puncture protection ... if anybody has some suggestions I'm all ears.

You started out asking about a comparison between the speeds of road bike and your MTB - whatever that is, putting tyres with a similar level of puncture protection on the road bike will eat into it, likewise accepting the slightly increased risk of lighter tyres on your present bike will reduce it. People experience on how much difference will differ, but I don't think it's existence is contentious
The forum favourites that will fit your bike are the Hypers, I prefer the Marathon Supremes, but the Hypers are a cheap way to get an idea of the difference.
https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/TYVIVOHY/ ... lding-tyre

[Witterings]

Something else I probably should have been a bit clearer about and there was a certain amount of assumption on my part.
I rang the store that the bike came from and they said you ideally want to stay above 1.75 which translates pretty much to 45mm which would knock out an awful lot of the ones suggested and I’ve already looked at the likes of Schwalbe Marathon Greenguards, G-One’s (good puncture protection) Supremes, Land Cruisers to name but a few but they all come in around the 38 possibly up 40mm so have discounted them.

Are the shop being overly cautious and can I go narrower without changing the rims on a 29er with I would have though pretty standard width rims???

That said they’ve all been earmarked anyway for when I get a gravel bike