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Not much faster on a cyclocross than a mountain bike

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  • November 23, 2016 at 1:30 pm #26515
    tugglesthegreat

    I’ve been commuting a 13 mile journey to work for nearly two years now on a mountain bike, and I’ve just bought a cyclocross thinking it would be significantly faster.  I record almost all my commutes and rides but I’ve not found the cyclocross to be significantly faster than the MTB. 

    I’ve not ridden a road bike/cyclocross for over 20 years before getting my new bike and I have had to have a period of adjustment, but still I would expect it to be faster. 

     I feel as I’m putting in as much effort.  There is obviously a difference in the MTB being able to accelerate faster and the cyclocross cruising faster, but considering most of the route is on road, the lack of difference between the two is a bit strange. 

     What am a doing wrong? 

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  • November 25, 2016 at 10:12 am #882309
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    ClubSmed
    antigee wrote:
     

    pretty sure kenda small block 8’s have their place but not for riding on the road – rolling resistance is the issue  – one option with a cx is to run two sets of wheels one for road speed, one for dirt – anything else is a compromise 

    http://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/mtb-reviews/kenda-small-block-eight-2015

     

    Actually I don’t believe that the review of the Small Block 8 on that site is fair. I, and the original poster of this, run the Kenda’s at ~90 psi (which is around the manufacturers recomended) and they were tested at a much lower psi on the site. If you take the 45psi rating and compare it against the touring bike tyre charts at the same psi the Small Block 8s actually come up on the top half of the table so I don’t think that rolling resistance is as bad as the site would have you believe.

    The rolling risistance of 27 at 45psi according to the site makes it better than:

    Continental    Top Contact II @ 28.4
    Continental    Contact II @ 28.9
    Schwalbe    Marathon Racer @ 28.9
    Continental    City Ride II @ 29.8
    Schwalbe    Marathon Plus @ 28.9
    Schwalbe    Marathon Mondial Evo @ 38.6
    Vredestein    Perfect-E @ 32
    Vittoria    Randonneur @ 38.9
    Continental    E.Contact @ 39.4

    November 25, 2016 at 10:04 am #882307
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    Chuck
    davel wrote:
     

    In reality, just as others have said, all the fannying about while commuting slows you right down. I have A-frames, dog-walkers, then traffic and lights to contend with. That does interfere with the overall average. If you went out for a proper ‘ride’ I’d expect a greater difference.

    +1

    November 25, 2016 at 9:58 am #882305
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    antigee

     

     

    pretty sure kenda small block 8’s have their place but not for riding on the road – rolling resistance is the issue  – one option with a cx is to run two sets of wheels one for road speed, one for dirt – anything else is a compromise 

    http://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/mtb-reviews/kenda-small-block-eight-2015

     

    November 25, 2016 at 8:13 am #882303
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    davel

    kil0ran wrote:

    kil0ran wrote:

    I think you’ll notice the biggest difference when you’re doing long constant efforts rather than stop/start.

    This. If you’re caught up significantly in town traffic, lights, pedestrians, paths etc, one bike vs another is just noise.

    My commute journey is consistently 5 or 6mph slower than what the equivalent clear road journey would be. No bike or spec in the world is going to make anything like that up between all the obstacles. It would take a different rider altogether.

    November 25, 2016 at 7:59 am #882301
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    kil0ran

    fenix wrote:

    fenix wrote:
    A cx with slick Road tyres is as fast as a road bike. Ditch your cx tyres if you want to and get proper Road tyres. You will be faster again like for like given the same conditions and compared to the mtb.

    Hasn’t made a huge difference to me going from Maxxis Mud Wrestlers (knobbly 33m stock) to 32mm Gatorskins, maybe 0.5mph off my average on a 5 mile commute. Possibly if I dropped to skinnier slicks it would. 

    In the past four years I’ve had 3 commuter bikes; a Triban 3 road bike, a carbon crosser (Dirty Disco) and an alu Merida Cyclocross 500. Both crossers had the same gear ratios (46/36 – 11-28) whereas the Triban was 50/34 11-32 and on 25mm Gatorskins. Out of all those bikes the Triban is consistently the fastest on the commute despite being heavier than the Dirty Disco and less forgiving of the rubbish roads I cycle on.

    For both crossers I feel that I’m putting more effort in compared to the Triban. The only place the Dirty Disco was quicker was on climbs, I assume due to overall weight being lower. 

    I think you’ll notice the biggest difference when you’re doing long constant efforts rather than stop/start.

    November 24, 2016 at 11:13 pm #882299
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    fenix

    A cx with slick Road tyres is
    A cx with slick Road tyres is as fast as a road bike.

    Ditch your cx tyres if you want to and get proper Road tyres. You will be faster again like for like given the same conditions and compared to the mtb.

    November 24, 2016 at 8:59 pm #882297
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    vonhelmet

    The route and traffic could

    The route and traffic could go a long way to dictating how fast you can go. I used to commute into Manchester on a geared bike but the climbs and endless traffic lights meant I averaged under 14mph. I now commute to an out of town science park through small towns and on country roads with a flatter profile and half the number of traffic lights and can average 17mph on a good day on my single speed bike.

    November 24, 2016 at 8:42 pm #882295
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    CXR94Di2

    you’re doing nothing wrong, a

    you’re doing nothing wrong, a CX bike is a road bike which can take wider tyres.  Fit proper road tyres and it will fly.  

    November 24, 2016 at 1:35 pm #882293
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    bendertherobot

    Just for a little perspective

    Just for a little perspective. My absolute best commute into work (18 miles) was an average of 22mph on my Supersix with deep section wheels.

    My best attempt on my SuperX with Schwalbe S-One is 21.5 mph. 

     

    November 24, 2016 at 1:19 pm #882291
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    tugglesthegreat

    For the record, my motivation

    For the record, my motivation for buying the crosser was for a do it all bike.  I wanted to get a bike I could fit with mudguards to make commuting easier, a couple of wet days on the MTB I was back on public transport. If I wanted to reduce my commuting time I would have bought a motorbike.  My commuting time on either bike is quicker than the car and nearly twice as fast as public transport.

    Another big consideration was that most of my mates have crossers and we have done some events together.  I really wanted to try curlywurly bars out again, and do some sportives and maybe some cross races.  It’s another skill set riding a cross bike off road and really enjoying it.

    I could have made my MTB faster for commuting, slammed the stem (new one on me had to look up that term) and put some slick rubber on.  But if anything I want to take my MTB back to being a full on MTB, with shocks and wider rubber.

    I started riding road bikes and then riding road bikes off road, when MTBs came along in the late 80s I was hooked and just rode MTBs since then.  So I feel at home on the MTB.

    It all makes sense to me thinking about it now.  I think a large factor is that I’m not used to the road bike position, and feeling at home on your bike will have a big impact on speed.  I’ll probably keep to a tyre that is reasonably large as I’m certainly not worrying about the seconds but something that rolls smoother than the current tyre.

    Thanks guys

     

     

    November 24, 2016 at 12:55 pm #882289
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    riotgibbon

    have you tried some new legs

    have you tried some new legs as well?  I always expect a new bike to make me faster, but I got a couple of KoM’s on short, sharp climbs (less than 2 minutes) on my old single speed,  and I’ve still not close to them even on a fancy carbon road bike.   Same with my commute, it’s 20 miles, and whilst I’ve done parts of it faster now,  I’ve only done it under an hour once on carbon bike, but numerous times on various older ones

    the difference is I enjoy it more now, so much more comfy and maybe easier. Just roll along and make the most of your time riding, don’t stress about the split-seconds

    definitely have a look at the Schwalbe S-one tyres, they seem to make things easier. If you want to go harder and faster, then that’s up to you, but I’d be suprised if you had a massive leap, never happened to me

    November 23, 2016 at 11:07 pm #882287
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    Shades

    My summer commute takes just

    My summer commute takes just under an hour on the road bike (13 miles).  Went on my aged (heavy) hybrid one day, which covers the winter months (different safer route), and it was 5 min slower.  Kind of feel that I’m working harder on the hybrid, but that may be physchological.  Killed off the thought of replacing the hybrid with a CX bike.

    November 23, 2016 at 8:59 pm #882285
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    Richard1982

     I had the same experience

     I had the same experience when I thought it’d be fun to ride my MTB for a 10 mile TT and see how it compared.  Even with knobbly tyres (albeit inflated to 65PSI) the time wasn’t all that much slower than my personal best.

    November 23, 2016 at 8:55 pm #882283
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    gunswick

    It’s the kenda small block 8
    It’s the kenda small block 8’s holding it back. Try some schwalbe s-one tyres or panaracer gravel kings as mentioned and you will fly in comparison.

    November 23, 2016 at 8:37 pm #882281
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    Bob Wheeler CX

    Just to add, the smooth

    Just to add, the smooth Gravelkings, not the raised bead ones:http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/panaracer-gravel-king-road-bike-tyre/rp-prod149455

     

    You can often smash pure roadies with these this time of year, who are going hesitant into corners on their super slick 23s… as for the MTB guys trailing behind, stick to the pavement, seriously.

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