haphaeu

Hei! This is my first thread here, hope it's on the right place.

I'm commuting to work every day, using a mountain bike. It's a 8km path, 60% asphalt, 30% good compact sand path and 10% irregular sand path - but not too irregular, a road bike would still work on it.

I'm considering changing to a road bike for commuting, basically to go faster with less effort. It's only 8km, so you can go really fast pretty much all the way. At work, I have a shower, so I don't care if I get wet.

But my main concern is regarding the wear out of the bike since there's some sand paths on my way...

I don't have much experience with bikes and very limited experience with road bikes. But given their more "fragile" look, I tend to think that it will wear out quickly with all that dirty accumulated - my mnt bike is always really dirty. It rains quite a lot here.

So, even if I put more effort in cleaning the bike more often, would a road bike last as long as a mnt bike if used every day?

Thanks!

Burton

Bearings need to be cleaned - regardless of what kind of bike they're on.
Sealed bearings will go longer without maintenaince than open bearings - regardless of what kind of bike they're on.
Skinny tires tend to wear out faster than wider tires - regardless of what kind of bike they're on.

The commute should be fun - regardless of what kind of bike you're on.


Just my opinion of course - and it would probably help a bit if the bike was red anyway

ThermionicScott 

I think the tires are the only part that should wear out sooner.

modernjess

No, that's too much of a generalization, Any bike you do not maintain with some regularity will wear out parts faster than one that is cared for. There are bikes that might be better suited to your commute and conditions and desire for low maintnence. A single speed or internally geared cyclo cross bike with fenders would be my recommendation. And BTW that's what I commute on.

haphaeu

Thanks guys. Already helpful. I guess my fear of a road bike being more susceptible to wear was wrong after all. Tires wearing out sooner, that's fine. Maybe the thinner rims also require more care. But that's fine. Personal opinion, I guess it'll be more fun to commute in a road bike. My main objective is to minimize the extra weight which I carry every day... maybe next step will be a fixie. But not now.

rhm

As a generalization, I would suggest "new bikes wear out faster than old ones." Once upon a time bikes were made to be repaired, rather than replaced. And it is still easier to repair old bikes than new ones. Aside from that, steel frames basically don't wear out. They can get damaged, of course, but they don't weaken over time. I have had aluminum frames fail after a few years of use; it appears the metal fatigued eventually. I don't know about carbon.

DiabloScott

Other parts too - shifters and derailleurs on road bikes are a little more delicate and more prone to getting clogged up with crud tha MTB components. Brakes too to a lesser extent. But not the frames.

bud16415

If 40% of your travel is on some kind of sand I would say a road bike is not what you want for ride and wear. 60% of the time your mountain bike is not correct but won’t show wear riding on hard surfaces except maybe tires. The perfect bike for you may be your mountain bike but with slicks inflated to a higher pressure. You will get good life out of the bike and lessen your effort or increase your speed.

acidfast7

two quick things (my bike is not a trailer queen and gets used/abused):

1. road parts and slightly more delicate (crud/wear/inadvertent abuse) at indicated above ... that's why i like MTB parts for european urban duty (banged in the bike rack/on the street/on the subway/on the train/on the ferry)

2. road parts are much more expensive than similar MTB parts.

go with an MTB and add drops, if you must.

just my €.02

acidfast7

personally, I think a good German trekking bike would be perfect ...

VSF Fahrardmanufaktur

https://www.fahrradmanufaktur.de/bikes/trekking/

Commodus

Erm?

Road bike components and mountain bike components are identical in terms of wear. Nor are they more expensive, unless you're referring to integrated shifters. I invite anyone on this board to explain why they are 'slightly more delicate' as many seem to believe.

There are some differences in terms of crash-resistance.

acidfast7

I jam my bike in/out of a crowded bike rack a few times a day. I think that road equipment is less durable with respect to lateral/side-loading pressure than similar level MTB stuff. Also, silly drops get caught on everything.

Places like this with a high-density of bike parking are more suited for IGH bikes then MTB then road bikes.

cyccommute 

I don't think your fears are reasonable. I have all kinds of bikes from road to mountain. The commuter I have the most miles on it (10000) is a road bike and isn't showing many signs of wear. My next highest mileage bike is my touring bike (9500 miles) and it's not worn either. Even my mountain bikes show little sign of wear after years of off-road abuse. The parts on my mountain bikes are usually newer, however, because of equipment upgrades.

I don't agree that it is easier to repair old bikes. I volunteer to do it all the time and don't find it particularly easy nor the equipment more durable than modern equipment. Hub cones aren't meant to be repaired if they pit which is a common occurrence. Loose bearing adjustable cup bottom brackets are easily contaminated and both the spindle and cups can be pitted. The only 'repair' for those is replacement. Headsets suffer from the same issues.

Modern equipment with cartridge bearings are much better sealed and undergo a much longer duty life. Back in the bad old days, I would replace a headset or a bottom bracket on nearly a yearly basis. One that lasted 2 years was amazing and if it lasted for 5 years, it was probably because I didn't use the bike all that much. I have yet to replace a sealed unit bottom bracket or a sealed bearing headset due to wear, and I've been using both for nearly 20 years. I've replaced them due to upgraditis but not due to wear.

As for frames, I've owned 16 steel frames and 13 aluminum frames. I've broken two of each. One of the aluminum frames I broke because of my own stupidity and the other was broken because of a weakness of the materials (a Specialized M2 frame). The steel ones broke because they broke. I'm certain that the Miyata Ridge Runner that broke at the steer tube, at the chainstay bridge and, finally, at the rear dropout was partly because of poor design but mostly through "wearing out". My two oldest bikes in the fleet...a 2003 Specialized Stumpjumper Pro and a 2003 Cannondale T800...show no signs of any kind of frame fatigue. Nor does the aluminum road bike...a Salsa Las Cruses...that has 10000 miles on it. It's just not an issue.

I agree. Neither a mountain bike shifter nor a Shimano STI shifter are particularly delicate. I've crashed both. I even ground the very ends off my Shimano 105 shifters when I did an endo on them. They still work. I've only had on shifter fail on me and it was a mountain bike shifter.

droy45

The road bike will not wear out any quicker although they are more fragile. If used within reason for their intended purpose you should be fine. You may find though that if you want to mix it up a little and do some off road and on road that the mountain bike will be better suited for that all around. A MTB will be somewhat slower but on a 1 hour commute for example, it would only be about 10 mins.

cyccommute 

Assuming an STI shifter for a road bike, the levers are meant to move laterally. A mountain bike shift lever aren't meant to take any kind of side load. So a road bike shifter would stand up to that kind of abuse better.

A road handlebar is also narrower (around 44 cm) vs a mountain bike (around 64 cm) so if you have a problem with the shifter getting banged in a rack, a road bike would be less likely to have problems.

droy45

This is so true. I spent the better part of a year trying to build mine up to be similar to that one and all this time they were available in Germany. We need to get on board here in US. LOL

sauerwald

It depends upon the particular bikes - the problem is that most road bikes are designed to be racing bikes, or racing wannabe bikes, where the weight is considered one of the biggest attributes - as a result reliability goes out the window.

I commute on a road bike, which was designed from the ground up to be a commute bike, some examples of the components:

tires are Schwalbe Marathon Plus - I get over 10K miles on a tire, I'm sure that there are mountain bike tires that do better than this, but surely a lot are worse.

Rear hub is a Phil Wood hub maintenance (other than cleaning) every 10-20 years, whether it needs it or not.

Front hub is a Schmidt Dynohub - also has a stupid long maintenance schedule.

Shifter (only one, 1x8 drivetrain) is a bar-end shifter which should never need maintenance.

Chain is a wipperman chain which I lube (with wax) every 500 miles, and they last ~5000 miles each.

Headset - Chris King, never worry.

The frame is a custom, steel frame - which should last forever.

The advantage that this bike has over a mountain bike is that since my commute is all on paved roads, the bike is more efficient and gets me to work faster, and with less effort than I would have on a bike with suspension and a more upright posture, but I have all the reliability that one could expect.

Commodus

I thought we were talking about 'wear'.

DiabloScott

Or if you want more designer label appeal:

acidfast7

that is standard wear for a european commuter bike. note that the op, is in europe. not sure where in NOR?

i hope (s)he has a REMA 1000 close by though

acidfast7

crap.

rear rack isn't even flat.

Commodus

I'm pretty sure we're talking about wear as opposed to 'impact resistance'.

acidfast7

word games.

normal "wear" and tear.

Dwayne

If the sand part of the path is hardpack and not loose sand, I would just get some nice slicks for your MTB, that will make a nice difference. You can go with something small like a 1.25" slick and run 60-80 psi in it, or go with a higher volume tire like the Schwalbe Big Apple 2.15" and run 35psi in it. I've done both, and the BAs are 95% as fast as the narrower slicks, but way more comfortable. That will get you 90% of the speed that a road bike would, at a fraction of the cost.

Commodus

uh...except they're two completely different concepts, that require two completely different answers...yea. Word games.