Not myself on new bike

After riding my mountain bike on the road for years, I finally sprung for a new used bike. It's cute, it's a Terry, it's the right size... I love it. Yet, when I went on my first ride (unfitted, 30 miles -- farther than I usually go), my mentor observed I wasn't "myself." And she was right -- I was sluggish, distracted with my gearing, off. I was faster initially, but didn't have my usual power.

Two days later, I took it on a 17-mile round trip ride to get it fitted, and have had some knee tendon pain since. Overdoing, it know. (I have never done more than 30 in an entire week!) BLEH. I have a race in 8 days... not sure what I'm going to ride.

I really expected to be faster on a road bike, but it seems like there's going to be a bit of a "getting to know you" period before I'm entirely comfortable. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

It sounds like you are not used to road bike gearing yet. I too ride a mountain bike (with slicks) on group rides sometimes and I always feel really strong on it. Something with the smaller gears makes you have higher cadence so you have more torque most of the time. You can respond faster to surges etc. On the road bike the gears are bigger so you may find you want to shift to easier gears for a while, and judging from what you are saying about the knee pain it sounds like you are trying to push too big of a gear. It's a lot better for your body to do a higher cadence with a smaller gear than 'mash' out a big gear. I'm sure it's going to take a while to get used to the roadbike. You two are still strangers at this point, it's going to take at least a hundred miles or so to get a true feel for it. Congratulations for venturing to the 'dark side' (i.e. the roadie world):D

Thanks -- your response is so helpful. One of my reasons for switching to a road bike was because I kept maxing out the gearing on my mountain bike. I think I am so thrilled to have another gear that I probably am **mashing.** I am surprised how much I like being on the road!

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Originally Posted by zia

After riding my mountain bike on the road for years, I finally sprung for a new used bike. It's cute, it's a Terry, it's the right size... I love it. Yet, when I went on my first ride (unfitted, 30 miles -- farther than I usually go), my mentor observed I wasn't "myself." And she was right -- I was sluggish, distracted with my gearing, off. I was faster initially, but didn't have my usual power.

Two days later, I took it on a 17-mile round trip ride to get it fitted, and have had some knee tendon pain since. Overdoing, it know. (I have never done more than 30 in an entire week!) BLEH. I have a race in 8 days... not sure what I'm going to ride.

I really expected to be faster on a road bike, but it seems like there's going to be a bit of a "getting to know you" period before I'm entirely comfortable. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

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It does sound like you're probably geared too high if you're having knee pain.

your road bike probably has shorter cranks than you're used to on your mountain bike.

This is very interesting. I'm coming off a 170 mm crankset with 24/34/42 teeth (mountain bike), to a 165 mm crank with 30/39/50 teeth (road bike). I was on the biggest ring on the road bike most of the time -- which is effectively bigger than my middle ring on my mountain bike -- is that right?! (I am still learning about all this.) Ahhhh... no wonder I hurt.

Would it also stand to reason that peddling with a higher cadence on a smaller ring would require a slightly different muscle group than peddling on a slower cadence on a bigger ring -- hence my perceived "sluggishness," which, since it started around 12 miles of my 30 miler, could have actually been simple muscle exhaustion?

I have so much to learn about road biking! I have a 10 mile ride tomorrow and am still a tiny bit sore. I will ice tonight, not ride up any big hills, and stay on my middle ring the! entire! time!

Zia, when i first started riding my road bike, I was not strong enough to USE that big ring. That should be used for going REALLY fast.
hang out in your middle ring as you get to know your bike and use the little one for hills... Eventually you may find yourself in the bottom ring only for really tough hills.

Your position on your bike will use a slightly different set of muscles than your mountain bike probably does... You're probably fairly upright on your mountain bike and more leaned over on your road bike... The more leaned over position is probably using different aspects of your butt/thigh muscles than your mountain bike does... I'm guessing your probably using your butt muscles more with the road bike, but someone who knows the names of muscles could actually tell you what I mean ;) But you probably are using a different muscle group than you're used to.

The road bike crank being shorter should be easier on your knees, and it should want to spin-- you're going to feel like you're getting more power on the longer cranks of the mountain bike, that you can hammer a bit more.

The big chain ring on the road bike is definitely a bigger gear than you had on your mountain bike crank.... The mountain bike has bigger gears in the back than your road bike does...

The road bike middle gear (39) is more like the 42 teeth on the big chain ring of your mountain bike and probably more similar to what you're used to riding.

Ahhh. This could also explain why the bruised bone in my ankle -- which I thought had healed a month ago -- has been unhappy since the ride, too. I feel so enlightened! You all are not only helpful, but brilliant!

I also made the shift from riding a mountain bike on roads, to a road bike. It was a very rough transition! I expected to be off like a shot - but I wore out sooner, I was sore in all kinds of new places, and like you = not myself.

Hang in there, it gets easier. Soon you willl love your new bike.

zia, 2.5 years ago I bought my first roadbike - a LeMond Reno. It was perfect for me.

1 year ago, I got a Trek Madone. Same size, but radically different geometry. I was much faster at first, but it took about 6 months (and one professional fitting) before I felt as comfortable as on my Reno.

Cases in point: I could get "in the drops" to accelerate on the Reno, but the Madone requires a much more upright posture to accelerate. On a hill, standing was preferable on the Reno, but I'm much better off sitting on Madone.

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I figured all this out...but now that I have, all is well.;)

Update: this morning, our training group did reconnaissance on a course we're racing in three weeks. It's similar to my 30 mile, but 1/3 of the length: pretty, nice roads, gentle hills.

The gearing suggestion made a huge difference. I only went up to the big ring once, very briefly. Even tried the little front ring! Focused on cadence, rather than raw (mashing) power. Soooo much better. Far less tired, cruised up hills, still a weenie on downhills, didn't want the ride to be over. And the professional fitting seems to have paid off, too: not a tweak of discomfort anywhere!

I think I need a couple of more rides before I completely adapt, but I feel much happier and more confident after today.

Glad to hear you had a nice ride! Out of curiousity, which terry did you buy?

I bought a used 2007 Terry Symmetry with 105 components. I really wanted a steel frame, but a new Terry costs more than I want to spend at this point in my biking career! This bike just felt *right* the moment I hopped on it. I love the bike -- I feel like I am skipping up hills!