Originally Posted by
littleArnold
I have noticed on the bike trails and bikes that I have ridden that some bikes coast better than other bikes?
Road bikes seem to coast the best. Like for example I will be peddling at a pretty decent cadence going like 12 - 14 miles an hour on my Trek Hybrid and a guy on an expensive road bike will pass me and I will keep tailgaiting behind him, but he will be mostly coasting not moving his legs much. I will have to do a lot peddling to keep up with him on my hybrid, but on his expensive road bike he can go 12-14 miles an hour with very little effort not doing a lot peddling just coasting a lot.
I have noticed my Trek hybrid FX2 can coast a lot better than my wifes hybrid Schwinn. Like she will be peddling the whole time going at around 5-6 miles an hour and on my hybrid I can coast 5 miles in an hour barely putting any peddle strokes in.
I have tried riding my wifes hybrid myself and the bike is a much slower bike than my trek hybrid and I cant coast nearly as good on it. I also cant coast on my schwinn mountain bike like I can on my trek hybrid.
What causes some bikes to coast better than others?
The combination of supple road tires and an aerodynamic riding position on a road bike will make 12-14 mph on a road bike so slow and easy that it will be less comfortable to go that slowly than it would be to go somewhat faster, since you aren’t needing to pedal enough to unweight the saddle appreciably.
But unless something else is really wrong, it’s mostly tires and then aero profile once you get going a bit faster.
Otto