Mountain biking is fun..... Even when it sucks..... Dirt, roots, rock, water, the elements.... Other than fitness, what do you like about road biking?  I'm toying with the idea again....I do recall liking early morning misty rides.....

From a mountain bikers perspective

Do you like to suffer? 

I find it to be fun,  but like Enoch said it is a different kind of fun.  But I also just like to ride bikes. Your results may vary.

I like both road and MTB. I took up road-riding a couple of years back when it seemed the trails were always closed due to rain. I find road-riding really helps my MTB rides, particularly with endurance, and maintaining a sustained cadence. 

I also find I like small-group rides, which seems to help with the drivers around here - they're not as likely or willing to make a tight pass if it's 5 or 10 riding in a pace-line. Plus the small groups bring out the competitive spirit, so you really get a good workout.

Like MTB, it's great when you get out of the city an into the foothills and mountains. Scenery is great & traffic is light.

Lastly, I think you can deal with the heat better when road-riding in the summer. You're going fast-enough to generate your own wind-chill, plus being in the open, you get whatever breeze is available. Even when riding MTB in the AM hours in summer, I still get much hotter and sweat a lot more vs. roadie.

I like cruising around the neighborhood on my old Trek 4300 hardtail with the kids on their wally world bikes in tow. I don't dare venture out onto any of the surface streets around Charlotte though - the few times I did I almost got squished by drivers who just don't care and don't recognize a bicyclist's right to the share the road. 

Life is cheap to some people. Most of those people happen to drive in Charlotte. 

Road riding is fun, period.  It's a different type of riding, so it's a different kind of fun than trail riding.  You'll still get off your bike with a smile on your face.  If not, try picking a different route and if that still doesn't work, take up scrap booking, I hear it's a lot of fun.

Logistics aside... is road bike fun?  Absolutely.  If you're a driven person and like to push yourself I find road biking very enjoyable.  I enjoy the reward I feel of pushing myself hard up "that" hill or reaching a goal of "this" many miles, etc.  

Whats really fun for me on the road bike especially this time of year is to get up early in the morning right after day break when its nice and cool out and put in a good long ride.  I plan out a long ride the evening before with a few hills that I want to push myself on, but for the most part my goal is to just get out and enjoy the morning "adventuring".  You can cover SO much distance on a road bike and depending on where you ride the scenery can change drastically.  I love to mtn bike too, but have come to the conclusion of the last year that instead of being a mtn biker that dabbles in road I'm more of a roadie that dabbles in mtn biking. lol

Now for the logistics side....  Your enjoyment level has to do GREATLY with your location and availability of streets to ride that are low traffic.  I intentionally stay away from the busy streets in our area here in Salisbury, but luckily I have A LOT of miles of back roads at my disposal to get away from the high traffic streets.  If I lived in the Charlotte or Mecklinburg area where high auto traffic is just a fact of life I may not be as eager to ride the road bike.  

If your surroundings allow the luxury of low traffic roads I strongly recommend you pick road biking back up.  If your in an area w/ high traffic you may want to access your situation and question strongly if its really the right part of cycling for you.

I enjoyed road biking.  It really improved upon my conditioning for mountain bike riding.

However,  I stopped road biking a year ago after a few close calls with cars.  One that really made me throw in the towel was a car with a fancy mountain bike on the back that passed me on a double yellow as I was making a left hand turn onto Presbyterian church rd.  just north of Fisher Farm (I was signaling my turn).  Came within inches of splattering me. 

Had to ditch my road bike once after another driver turned left in front of me at a stop light.  broke my derailleur and shifters.  almost hit several times on the booty loop.. 

Bottles and cans thrown at me, honking horns, middle fingers,  a beat up old ford followed me for a few miles honking it's horn and yelling curse words etc..  So yea it's pretty fun i guess.   

PainkillerSPE wrote on 07/08/15 at 2:35pm:



Sounds like trying to ride around the nut house.

My exact reasons for not riding the road. 

Like bikermedic pointed out. When it's not fun, it's just not fun. And it's never been fun for me on Charlotte area roads. I used to road ride in Hawaii all the time. But there are bike lanes and biking just isn't seen in the same negative way by the local population.

1. I personally enjoy it.
2. No, it's not the safest way to get exercise.
3. Do all you can to make it safe for you.
4. Find a good group to ride with.
5. Enjoy yourself and don't worry about being KOM on Strava. 
6. If you are ever in Statesville. Come ride with the guys and girls at First Flight bikes. Best group around to ride with.

HEADSUP wrote on 07/09/15 at 3:52pm:


This can make all the difference.  I found myself pushing much harder on group rides vs. solo.  It's also a plus to have the benefit of other riders around you when competing with cars.  That's not to say there isn't car vs. bike bs on group rides, however you do have a bit more protection compared to being solo deep on a Union county road when a driver decides to make a point.

The other benefit of group rides is learning new roads