Road Riding Good Training For MTB Rider?

[leaboy]

I'm a mountain biker by heart, love it to bits.

However I've heard from a couple of fellow mountain bikers that riding on the road is really good training too, apparently it's really beneficial.

Are they talking sense?

 

Cheers

[Bianchi]

I think other way round is more true.

One big advantage that MTB has over Road, is proper utilization of the pedal stroke. You try mashing the pedals on a technical climb?

 

Maybe if you go putting in some nice mileage it could help you, or biting the bit hard on a hard ride, but that goes both ways.

[amoryns]

with mtbiking you loose a lot of speed work in the legs

[RocknRolla]

For me the soul destroying monotony of ,moving your legs on a long stretch of tarmac, worrying about some vehicle potentially doing something idiotic and taking you out is not what cycling is about.

 

The only good thing i can say about road riding for mountainbike is that it will probably help with endurance.

 

But I would only attempt to do it if you are planning to do endurance events with 70km plus days. and even then, I would rather do longer rides on dirt than venture on road...

[HDW]

I think other way round is more true.

One big advantage that MTB has over Road, is proper utilization of the pedal stroke. You try mashing the pedals on a technical climb?

 

Maybe if you go putting in some nice mileage it could help you, or biting the bit hard on a hard ride, but that goes both ways.

+1. MTB'ers have got far superior pedal techniques. But road riding can make you faster, and build very good endurance.

 

At the end of the day I think that whatever bike your on (road bike, MTB, SS, etc), doing whatever kind of training (endurance, technical, climbing, intervals, etc) you will benefit from riding that bike, one way or another.

[jcza]

I don't like riding on the road, I don't feel safe but I try and do a road race once a month. Doing 100km definitely helps build your legs.

[Tubehunter]

Yes road cycling can help. To get the best results try and find a group of chaps who are stronger than you are on the road and your first few rides will be survival hanging on but you will quickly have a rapid increase in speed. This will usually translate in being able to ride more comfortably at a higher pace on the fat wheel bike too. It obviously wont help with any technical bits. The strange thing I noticed is that the skinny wheel bike feels really direct and almost fragile in comparison to the MTB, but going back to riding the trials meant I felt a lot more comfortable in the technical bits just because of the way the bike soaked up the hits and me naturally trying to ride smoother lines. My experience at least.

[babse]

+1. MTB'ers have got far superior pedal techniques. But road riding can make you faster, and build very good endurance.

 

At the end of the day I think that whatever bike your on (road bike, MTB, SS, etc), doing whatever kind of training (endurance, technical, climbing, intervals, etc) you will benefit from riding that bike, one way or another.

spot on HDW

[SwissVan]

Road riding on your own or in small groups where you get to ride on the front or put in a good effort is fine

 

Mtbking is kind of like a time trail type effort where you and only you do the work, so riding hidden in a bunch is counter productive.

[NotSoBigBen]

Google is your friend .....

 

http://www.grouseland.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7:road-biking-vs-mountain-biking&catid=5:murrays-blog&Itemid=124

[Alien Racer]

I only use to ride mtb for training, and my results were not so good.

Since I started training with roadbike results has improved in leaps and bounds.

With a road bike you can do intervals long endurance rides and it's less maintenance.

Also cheapeer on the wallet.

I can definately recomend training wirth road bike, just try and do at least two mountainbike rides before a mtb race to get use to the bike before the race.

[428 others]

+1. MTB'ers have got far superior pedal techniques. But road riding can make you faster, and build very good endurance.

 

At the end of the day I think that whatever bike your on (road bike, MTB, SS, etc), doing whatever kind of training (endurance, technical, climbing, intervals, etc) you will benefit from riding that bike, one way or another.

 

Please elaborate

[HDW]

Please elaborate

Basically the same as what Bianchi said above. If your going up a steep and technical climb on your MTB, and you try and mash the pedals, your not gonna win. MTB'ers tend to focus more on the complete, full, round pedal stroke than most road riders do. I know I do. If I ride my road bike, and we hit a climb while I'm feeling strong, I'll just mash my way up to the top. But if there's no place for mashing, and I'm sitting in a very easy gear on my MTB, I have to make sure I pedal very smoothly.

 

Just my 2c

Edited October 3, 2012 by HDW

[428 others]

Basically the same as what Bianchi said above. If your going up a steep and technical climb on your MTB, and you try and mash the pedals, your not gonna win. MTB'ers tend to focus more on the complete, full, round pedal stroke than most road riders do. I know I do. If I ride my road bike, and we hit a climb while I'm feeling strong, I'll just mash my way up to the top. But if there's no place for mashing, and I'm sitting in a very easy gear on my MTB, I have to make sure I pedal very smoothly.

 

Just my 2c

 

I disagree, I think road cyclists have a "smoother" more consistent pedal stroke. See the link BigBen posted.

[Tubehunter]

Basically the same as what Bianchi said above. If your going up a steep and technical climb on your MTB, and you try and mash the pedals, your not gonna win. MTB'ers tend to focus more on the complete, full, round pedal stroke than most road riders do. I know I do. If I ride my road bike, and we hit a climb while I'm feeling strong, I'll just mash my way up to the top. But if there's no place for mashing, and I'm sitting in a very easy gear on my MTB, I have to make sure I pedal very smoothly.

 

Just my 2c

 

I think this depends on individual cyclists rather than being a general trend. Some people actually focus on their pedalling technique and others just ride. You generally can see the difference when in the pack on both the road or the mountain.

[andydude]

I don't know how serious you are, but let me state the following: most professional and otherwise good MTBers spend 80%+ time doing training on the road.