hybrid vs. road bike speed

[seniorsimon]

I have a hybrid and am planning to purchase a road bike. For those of you with both, what is the difference in speeds that you see? I'm curios to know how much of a difference in speed can be gained just from going to a hybrid to a road bike.

On flats I ride a very slow 20-25 km/h on rides up to 100 k.

thanks in advance

simon

[gclark8]

Simon,

It all depends on whether the hybrid is MTB based or Road based.

A good hybrid, will be a road frame and compoents with flat bars/shifters and narrow tyres. Its speed will be similar to a drop bar comfort road bike.

Which country are you in as diffent markets have different bikes.

I suggest Felt SR*, Orbea, Giant FCR/CRX*, as good examples.

[Archibald]

i started on an avanti hybrid (blade sport) and now have a giant ocr1.
commute speed from work to home is about 5mins difference over 15kms, but that's not using the big chainring on the OCR yet...

the ease of that commute is another noticable difference.

[Dexter1225]

i have a raleigh c30 hybrid and a raleigh grand prix (don't ask me why i have a thing for raleigh :p )

i started on my hybrid 3 years ago and i would ride every day at least 14 miles. i would ride the 14 miles in 1 hour and call it a day. the bike needed much more power to keep it moving.

going into my 3rd summer biking i decided i needed a road bike so i picked up the grand prix. good bargain for the price - good gear, nice aluminum frame (for the price), carbon-fibre fork and seatpost. i now bike 30-40 mile rides every day at 20 mph (sorry i don't know the metric equivalent). and after that i'm still able to go further and go to work for 8 hours.

it is definitely much faster and i find it much more fun to road bike. it depends on what you want a bike for. i still use my hybrid to commute to work/school/wherever because it has a nice pickup at a slow speed and the shocks are nice too when you're wearing slacks =D. but when looking to workout at 60-80% my max heart-rate and go long distance, i jump on the road bike. i personally enjoy taking the long roadtrips on the grand prix more. i recommend the road bike

[kkelm]

4 years ago I did a 2-day 170 mile ride on a Gary Fisher Utopia hybrid (equivalent to a Trek 7500) and averaged 13.7 mph. This year I did the same ride on a true road bike and averaged 18 mph.

Recently, my wife upgraded from the same Gary Fisher Utopia to a Giant OCR Composite. The original plan was to keep the GF around for riding in the neighborhood, etc, but after riding both bikes back-to-back, she wants to sell the GF.

With this particular hybrid, there is a significant difference.

[RickF]

I will let you know how I fare in a week or so. I have been riding a Specialized Crossroads Elite (similar to a Trek 7300) for about two years. I am waiting for my Specialized Roubaix Elite to come in, hopefully in the next few days. On the Crossroads, I usually average between 13 and 14 mph on rides of 25 to 40 miles and 14 to 15 mph on rides up to 15 miles. Cruising speed in the flats is 20 to 22 mph (24 mph in a good paceline), but on long hils, I am down to 7 to 10 mph.

On the test rides of the Roubaix and the Trek Pilot 5.2, the biggest difference I noticed was in acceleration. It is much easier to get up to speed. Also, it feels like a lot less work, but I have not riden either bike farther than about 2 miles. I have several long rides planned in the next few weeks, culminating in the MS 150 on September 9 and 10, so I will know soon how much faster I can go on the road bike.