Speed on Hybrid vs Road Bike

I'm sorry, I think you're talking rubbish, and would like formally to take the opposite position.





My old hybrid was a typical Sirrus. My new roadie is a typical bianchi. Neither is special or weird.

The hybrid is MILES wider. 4.5" wider, or 6.5" wider once you take barends into consideration. I wouldn't dream of using a hybrid without barends. It's also taller. On the handlebars of both my hands are an inch or two higher on the hybrid, even higher if I'm on the barends, which I would be, a lot. I could reduce the stem further technically, but my hands feel sore then and it feels weird. Tried that already.

On my bianchi roadbike, even on the hoods, my body position is lower. My arms are closer together also. The wheels, despite both being 23mm tyres, are also lighter and have lower volume tyres. If I'm on the drops, my body postion is SO much lower!

How you can say this will make me less aerodynamic, god knows!

Some pics....











(p.s. I've never heard of a closed coach hybrid with fairings - can't imagine such a thing, do you have a pic or two? Can I buy it in Halfords?)

 

Are you talking about a recumbent bike, ie, one where you sit low between the wheels?

 

I'm sorry I'd have to take it all back. A hybrid to us folks here in Singapore (or at least to our group - and we form the biggest bikie group in the area) occassionally refer to what you call recumbents as hybrids. For the record, my comments go for recumbents. Sorry for the confusion, my fault.

 

Hehehehehe... I thought I was going mad for a moment...

 

I hear stories all the time about a person starting out with hybrid bike and *moving up* to a road bike and having a big speed gain, but.....

Most of going fast is the rider! so is the performance gain becuase of the new bike... or better riding skills and better fitness? A little of both maybe?

Thinner tires, better petals/shoes, different gearing.... all can help with performance. I'd try any of these without buying a new snazzy road bike if you're tight on cash.

On the other hand... buying bikes is really fun! What difference does it make how fast you're going if you're happy on the bike? Getting a nice road bike is generally a good thing, faster or not.

 

I've raced road bikes in my 20s and am now getting back into it.
Last year and the year before I commuted nearly every day on a hybrid(700 x 35, 80psi max tyres, flat bars etc) 19kilometers to work then 19kms home + some other riding on my roadbike.
The roadbike was faster for the reasons mentioned above.
My new roadbike is even faster but I'm also getting better technique and riding longer distances and with faster groups.
Anyway...when I was commuting nothing would give me as much pleasure as catching a roadie, riding beside them(with a friendly Hello), sitting on or even pumping the pedals past them on my heavy, suspened hybrid.
The joy of the pissing of the pretenious!!
Paulo

 

you forgot the world champion rainbow jersey. although I hope someday I can earn that......it's like only my BIGGEST DREAM!

 

Well I have a hybrid and I get at least a 5 kph slower average speed on a fairly flat park bike track I ride regularly compared with my good road bike (Klein). I also sometimes ride an older road bike (Peugeot) and it averages 1 - 2 kph slower than the Klein as well but is still much faster than the hybrid.

Speaking of recumbents, I was riding the same track recently and up ahead was a group of cyclists escorting a guy without legs on a hand driven recumbent. I was going pretty hard and only made slight progress on the uphill section, but when we hit the section that is slightly downhill this guy disappeared out if sight leaving all the road bikes in his wake. I suspect recumbents have a significant wind drag advantage.

Pat

 

I started out on a hybrid (Trek 7500FX) around Halloween. I increased from 13 avg. speeds to 15 plus by improving fitness alone. I went over 16 avg. speeds on 15-20 miles when I went to clipless pedals over Christmas.

Around January 10th I bought a Trek 1500 road bike. I have increased speed but not as much as I had hoped. If I really push it and am fresh I can average 18 mph for 30 miles.

My personal experience says there is an increase, especially if you are going from lower end hybrid to decent road bike, but not 3 mph. All things being equal, I would say 1-2 mph gain but only after you get used to the new riding position of a road bike.

I am no epxert. This is just my experience.

 

Absolutely HILARIOUS Red!

Besides, does this look gay?

 

On my regular ride (40 k's undulating), my mountain bike is only 1-2 kph maximum less than my road bike. Same time of day, exactly the same course. Mountain bike with a slick rear tyre and a well worn knobby front and 45 psi in both. Road bike with 100 psi each end and good tyres.

The claims of more than 3 kph improvement on the road bike are a joke. Even with new nobby tires on my mountain bike the difference in average speed over my course above is 3 kph (not even 2 mph).

You may think you are going faster ('cause you are on a road bike and you think you are supposed to go faster).

To make a real comparison, you have to have everything equal except the bike - and repeat the test many times.

You can't rely on "gut feel" as many of the posters above seem to have.

 

Agreed. Scientific methodology seems to be lacking on many issues around here.

 

LOL! now this has to be one of the funniest posts I have ever seen on any messagboard, regardless of the the boards subjetct content! LOL!!!!

Good job and I completely agree.

Oh and FWIW, theres ALOT of gay cyclist, from novie to professional.

 

Im just curious, where does the Trek 7500FX fall in most peoples opinion? Is that a "lower end" hybrid? Just curious.

 

been riding hybrids for years and this year bought a nice,trek 2300 road bike.seems to be about 5-6 mph on avg. can do 20 with the same effort to do 15 on the hybrid.

 

In your dreams man. YOur mind is playing tricks.

 

2kph? I dont think so! I have never ridden a decent mountain bike so I dont suppose I can really comment on absolute differences but what I will say is that when I first rode a road bike, having only ever ridden mountain bikes, the speed difference I was able to produce was quite a surprise.

If you're fast the speed difference will be considerably more than a slow person. Road bikes are for people who constantly produce high power outputs and for those people the difference will be considerable. For there to be only a 2kph difference in speed then I reckon whoever did that doesn't maximise his output and speed throughout the ride. Then again if your avg speed was only something like 20, 2kph is 10%!

 

Agreed. While one's top end speed may be quite a bit faster, riding around at a given effort level - 75% MaxHR, for exampe - will definitely not yeild such drastic results.

It's also important to do any kind of comparison tests under identical conditions - same course, same heart rate or power level, same weather condidtions, same time of day, same amount of time after a meal, yadda yadda. Otherwise any comparison is moot.

As I said back in March 2005, "Scientific methodology seems to be lacking on many issues around here." In other words, lots of "supposin' " going on.

 

LMFAO! Yout point is well taken! Never really thought about it but you are so right about the comparisons between the two.

No one has the right to say which one is more "gayer" than the other LOL!

Delta

 

I own a hybrid (ARAYA) and a roadie (VIANELLI) of the same height, size, shimano all the way and frame material (DOUBLE BUTTED CROMO). I always ride in them alternately in the same route, direction, wind drag and time of day. I can say that a roadie is truly much faster of the two, probably because the hybrid is a bit heavier in frame, with both rides in (ARAYA RM-20) front and rear wheels but the roadie in 700c 3/4 tires while the hybrid in 26 X 1.75 tires, plus wind drag in upright position.