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42 votes

Why is a road bike faster than a city bike with the same effort? How much faster it can be?

Having made the change myself, I can confirm that shock absorbers are actually detrimental to city riding. You lose a lot of power, especially when trying to stand on the pedals for acceleration. ...
Dylan Luttrell's user avatar
37 votes
Accepted

Is cycling behind a truck a bad practice?

It is really dangerous to follow a large vehicle closely. It is possible behind a directeur sportif in a passenger car which is smaller: you can see through it, and the driver is a cyclist who knows ...
Vladimir F Героям слава's user avatar
30 votes

Fixie vs Road Bike - the right fixie bike for bunch rides

Disclaimer: I am a fixie hater. I'll try to answer this as if I was impartial. Proper road bikes (Including the Moulton) are the machines for speed, and always have been (unless you're on a velodrome)...
BSO rider's user avatar
  • 5,690
30 votes

What aspects contribute most to me being slow on this bike?

For riding on the flat on a sealed road, bike weight isn't that important. It just takes you longer to get to your steady-state speed. Tyre air pressure - for a MTB on the road I'd aim for 40-50 PSI ...
Criggie's user avatar
  • 121k
29 votes
Accepted

What aspects contribute most to me being slow on this bike?

Since no-one else posted this as an answer (Vladimir touched on it in comments) i'm going to add it. Please don't take this the wrong way, its not designed to be insulting. Simply put, you are slow ...
Andy P's user avatar
  • 18.3k
27 votes
Accepted

How much easier is it to go fast on a road bike and why?

Aerodynamics are very important in cycling, and the faster you go, the bigger a factor aerodynamic drag becomes, because it increases with the square cube of your speed, but other sources of drag (...
Adam Rice's user avatar
  • 29.2k
26 votes
Accepted

Legs are very weak

Always "riding your hardest" is called "junk miles" because it is not possible to always ride your hardest. The biggest performance gains come from more targeted and disciplined riding (as ...
Rider_X's user avatar
  • 30.5k
22 votes

How much easier is it to go fast on a road bike and why?

Try a quick poke of your values into http://bikecalculator.com/ Assuming you're doing 165W, weigh 80 kg, riding a 15 kg bike with knobbly MTB tyres, and using a "bar-tops" position returns ...
Criggie's user avatar
  • 121k
20 votes

How do I make a mountain bike go faster (commuting)

I started commuting the same way about 8 months ago on a 29'er mountain bike, 2 things made the trip faster and more enjoyable. Firstly tyres, I changed from knobblies to slicks and it made a BIG ...
Kilisi's user avatar
  • 1,648
19 votes

How do I make a mountain bike go faster (commuting)

I've been a cycle commuter for 12 years. Here are the things that had the biggest impact on my speed: Smooth high pressure tires (80+ psi for road) Greatly decreases rolling resistance Clipless ...
danielml01's user avatar
19 votes
Accepted

Can you ride a bicycle at 90 km/h on a flat road?

In my younger foolish years I actually did this exact scenario, except at a slightly lower speed 85 kph (speed limit was 80 km/hr), but for a distance of nearly 10 km (between two suburbs). In my ...
Rider_X's user avatar
  • 30.5k
18 votes

More Speed Needed - Hybrid Bike

You can certainly buy more speed with either new components or a new bike, but it wouldn't be my recommended course of action. In terms of buying speed, aerodynamics and rolling resistance are the two ...
Andy P's user avatar
  • 18.3k
17 votes

Fixie vs Road Bike - the right fixie bike for bunch rides

Who rides fixes? Roadies who have got bored with always being out the front? Maybe its someone wanting to make a statement to the "Freds" (look it up) in the group I once did a 160km ride where some ...
mattnz's user avatar
  • 49.1k
17 votes

For fitness's sake, is it better to ride with low cadence in high gear or higher cadence in medium gear?

In terms of losing weight immediately, the obvious answer is to use whatever gear combo allows you to produce the greatest energy output. For most people this will likely be a hair lower than the "...
Daniel R Hicks's user avatar
17 votes

What aspects contribute most to me being slow on this bike?

You are a cyclist if you’re riding a bike and enjoying yourself. Who is averaging 30km/hr ? You can’t hope to compete with road bikes on that bike. 15km/hour is not a bad average for a 26” bike with ...
Warren Burton's user avatar
16 votes

Relationship between speed and cadence?

Speed is determined only by gearing, of which crank, cassette, wheel, and tire are components Any 2 bikes using, say, 42t cranks with a rear 32t cog and 25c tires on 700c wheels at 90rpm will be ...
Lastminutepanic's user avatar
16 votes

Why is a road bike faster than a city bike with the same effort? How much faster it can be?

Some representative values from http://bikecalculator.com/veloUS.html. It's a road-bike calculator, so it's not quite accurate. I simulated a hybrid/city bike by having the rider on a 30-lb road ...
Andrew Henle's user avatar
  • 10.6k
14 votes

How do I make a mountain bike go faster (commuting)

Not necessarily thinner tyres, but ones with less tread will make a difference. If you are commuting by road only, then putting on some 'slick' tyres will cut a lot of the wind resistance, and rid ...
Andy White's user avatar
14 votes
Accepted

How does weight influence your speed when descending?

The heavier person will present more area to the wind, but this is mitigated by two factors: The bicycle presents a fixed area to the wind and the area presented by the heavier person is not ...
Ross Millikan's user avatar
14 votes

Why is a road bike faster than a city bike with the same effort? How much faster it can be?

Let's assume you are talking about speed on a non-inclined surface for a given level of effort. (When we talk about how 'fast' a bicycle is we can also mean how well it accelerates from a standstill ...
Argenti Apparatus's user avatar
14 votes
Accepted

How much faster would I go with a better road bike?

That's really hard to answer. Every year, bike makers come out with claims that this year's model is N% more aerodynamic than last year's, etc. Although they don't always give hard specs on CdA. Also, ...
Adam Rice's user avatar
  • 29.2k
13 votes
Accepted

At what speed does Aerodynamics of a bike come into play?

As long as you are moving through the air, aerodynamic drag will account for some portion of total drag. Here is a plot that shows the relative contribution of aerodynamic drag vs. rolling drag on ...
R. Chung's user avatar
  • 13.8k
13 votes
Accepted

Fastest way to get faster up hill

Unfortunately, there is a fairly straight forward reason why you actually need to ride hills in order to get faster at them: crank inertial load. We have two main types of skeletal muscles. (Skeletal ...
Rider_X's user avatar
  • 30.5k
13 votes

Can you ride a bicycle at 90 km/h on a flat road?

It's all in the air resistance. Flat out is not much more than 50km/h for me on a deserted road. Even 10 metres behind a bus it's much easier (but you still have time to react to braking). I actually ...
Chris H's user avatar
  • 57.3k
13 votes

Biking Target Speeds

I agree with Criggie's answer, but there's another way to look at it. Speed is mostly a function of power output. And you can quantify a cyclist's fitness in terms of their power-to-weight ratio, that ...
Adam Rice's user avatar
  • 29.2k
12 votes

Legs are very weak

I get the impression when you hit the road its full out 110% effort for the length of the ride. I would suggest from the "lungs burning" description that you are over training and exercising above ...
mattnz's user avatar
  • 49.1k
12 votes

Fastest possible drivetrain?

The gearing does not make you faster. It only allows you to pedal at an optimal cadence. Sort of like selecting the right gear in your car. Shifting to the highest gear does not make your car ...
Vladimir F Героям слава's user avatar
12 votes

How much faster would I go with a better road bike?

I maintain the bikes for an elite rider who funds his career by coaching while he finds a team. The main thing holding you back on a bike is aerodynamics. The faster you go, the more true this becomes....
Noise's user avatar
  • 13.6k
11 votes

105 Shimano 10 speed shifters - compatibility with 11 speed rear derailleur

This is to do with the different pull ratios employed by the different systems. In your case 10 vs 11 speed Shimano. http://blog.artscyclery.com/science-behind-the-magic/science-behind-the-magic-...
OraNob's user avatar
  • 3,073
11 votes

Is it worth upgrading to 28mm tyres from 25 for a 250 mile ride?

If you're going to change anything before the big event, change it now and allow time for any problems to arise, then be sorted out before the event. Generally, a 28mm tyre is said to give lower ...
Swifty's user avatar
  • 12.7k

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