mustang1
Legendary Member
- Location
- London, UK
I've been a road-bike guy since 2006. Before that I had a 1992 Peugeot MTB. Anyway....
I fancied having a whack with MTB again, been no the agenda for a couple of years. I have three bikes right now but doubt I'll buy a 4th, the MTB. So I might just rent. Anyway, in my mtb 'reserach', I found out many things that I didn't know MTBs had these days and a few things I did know but still find interesting:
1. Tubeless tires are more common on MTB. In the road world there's still a shall we/shan't we approach.
2. MTB has option of (IDK what you call it) double chainrings with guards that stop the chain from coming off. I've also seen a deraileur-like device near the chainrings for keeping the chain on the ring. Not that you need that in road-bike world, but still...
3. Road bikes are lighter.
4. There's this thing call Shimano ghost (something) fitted to the rear derailluer. It has an on/off switch. When off, it's like it's not there, but when on, it increases the tension on the pivot of the rd to increase tension in the chain and thus stop chain slap against the chainstays. Nice trick.
5. I heard of telescopic seatposts, and even remotely controlled (from the cockpit) models. But I didn't realize the telescopic seatpost can also go back up and there are two varieties, either hydro or air, the air being faster at rising.
6. Disk brakes are mechanical or hydro. Fine, I knew that. But with the hyrdo, you need to change oil and there are two types, either DOT standard, or mineral oil. I dont know from experience so I'm only going by theory, but I believe MO is more suitable for my way of doingthings because it requires less maintenance and the liquid is non-corrosive. There are other advantages too such as no use-by date for the MO because water doesn't mix with it (it only mixes with DOT fluid)..
7. Auto lock-out suspension fork. When the system decides you're not on the rough stuff, it'll go into suspension mode from lock-out mode.
So as well as informing potential MTB'ers, it made me wonder why road bikes are more expensive than MTB and the only rason I can think of is that the market will bear the higher prices, maybe road bikes are considered more gentlemanly like than MTB. As an example, take a Giant MTB (cant recall name), it's about £5.5k. A Giant Propel Advanced SL is £8k. It's not the prices I'm thinking about, it's "what does the road bike have that's £2.5k dearer?'
I fancied having a whack with MTB again, been no the agenda for a couple of years. I have three bikes right now but doubt I'll buy a 4th, the MTB. So I might just rent. Anyway, in my mtb 'reserach', I found out many things that I didn't know MTBs had these days and a few things I did know but still find interesting:
1. Tubeless tires are more common on MTB. In the road world there's still a shall we/shan't we approach.
2. MTB has option of (IDK what you call it) double chainrings with guards that stop the chain from coming off. I've also seen a deraileur-like device near the chainrings for keeping the chain on the ring. Not that you need that in road-bike world, but still...
3. Road bikes are lighter.
4. There's this thing call Shimano ghost (something) fitted to the rear derailluer. It has an on/off switch. When off, it's like it's not there, but when on, it increases the tension on the pivot of the rd to increase tension in the chain and thus stop chain slap against the chainstays. Nice trick.
5. I heard of telescopic seatposts, and even remotely controlled (from the cockpit) models. But I didn't realize the telescopic seatpost can also go back up and there are two varieties, either hydro or air, the air being faster at rising.
6. Disk brakes are mechanical or hydro. Fine, I knew that. But with the hyrdo, you need to change oil and there are two types, either DOT standard, or mineral oil. I dont know from experience so I'm only going by theory, but I believe MO is more suitable for my way of doingthings because it requires less maintenance and the liquid is non-corrosive. There are other advantages too such as no use-by date for the MO because water doesn't mix with it (it only mixes with DOT fluid)..
7. Auto lock-out suspension fork. When the system decides you're not on the rough stuff, it'll go into suspension mode from lock-out mode.
So as well as informing potential MTB'ers, it made me wonder why road bikes are more expensive than MTB and the only rason I can think of is that the market will bear the higher prices, maybe road bikes are considered more gentlemanly like than MTB. As an example, take a Giant MTB (cant recall name), it's about £5.5k. A Giant Propel Advanced SL is £8k. It's not the prices I'm thinking about, it's "what does the road bike have that's £2.5k dearer?'
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is being challenged by a new single ring up front, the Raceface narrow/wide, which meshes with the chain better thus stopping the chain flying off on rough stuff. Combined with a Shimano Zee short cage rear clutched derailleur, you get a silent running, much lighter way to run a 1x10 gear set up.
