I recently bought a dual suspension mountain bike to commute to work a few times a week...?

Question

does a road bike make it much easier on paved roads? i've never been on anything but a mountain bike. and on some of the trip, my 24th gear just doesn't get me going fast enough. is it possible to urgrade and get more gears? how about smooth tires, will that make the trip easier?

Answer 1

first, yes a road bike will ride faster than your full suspension rig. for many reasons. 1-you give up pedalstroke efficiency with your rear suspension. and your bike weighs significantly more than the average road bike, nevermind sweet high-end, all carbon rides. hopefully you have a higher-end full suspension bike, with a stiffer rear shock, possibly even with a lockout, but even that isn't 100% effective. even a hardtail mountain bike would be better. 2-the higher gear ratios of a road bike (larger big ring) make it faster, as it takes fewer pedal strokes to rotate your wheel. (second question - more gears won't make your bike faster, larger ratios will). if you have a high-end MTB, there wont be much, if anything to upgrade to. if you've got a low-end MTB, it'd be cost prohibitive to upgrade, gears, shocks, wheels, tires. you'd be best off with a whole new ride. 3-your MTB knobbies have a higher rolling resistance than skinny high psi road tires. your tires are meant to grip, to assist with travel over rough terrain. road tires are designed for speed. you can get slicks, and will notice a significant difference to the knobbies, but slicks are still wider (more surface resistance) than road bike tires, and run at lower psi, so they will stay wider.

long answer short, your best fix with your current bike, is to get some street slicks to fit your bike. you'll still be handicapped by an inefficient pedal stroke, and lower gear ratios, but if you do entertain the notion of any other changes, keep in mind it would be cheaper to just buy a road bike for your commute..

Answer 2

These dudes got it right. If you are riding mostly paved roads, I would HIGHLY recommend getting a road bike. You will feel the difference instantly. Much faster and DEFINITELY smoother. The only thing that I've been told about making the transition is the positioning on the road bike. You are lower, but you will get used to it. Another thing is the handling. On top of being faster, they are much quicker. In the right gear, you can just fly around crowds....if you need to.

Full suspension bike are TOTALLY for comfort on the road or, simply put mountain biking and they just eat up your energy.

Answer 3

Get slicks (smooth tires)

Answer 4

Well, there are a couple things here.

You've now found out that full suspension bikes are horribly inefficient... suspension is for keeping the wheels on the ground for better handling OFFROAD, not for comfort, and every time you pedal, instead of the energy going to the rear wheel the suspension flexes eating your energy.

Yes, putting smaller profile tires will help a bit, but it is the suspension and low gearing that is affecting you more than anything.

If you are comfortable on a mountain-type bike, consider a flat bar road bike. They are made for fast commutes and road riding. Much more efficient, much lighter, much faster.

Answer 5

Street tires will make your commute easier. If you also like off-road riding, you can buy cross-over or combination tires.