Considering buying a road bike to hopefuly improve my training for XC MTB racing. Can certainly see the advantages, I currently only have one bike so I'm constantly switching tyres over & wearing out components!

Cost is an issue,especially as I've been told that it would be best to buy a road bike with decent components considering the mileage it will get ( min shimano 105 apparently) & also decent wheels (for a new bike this takes me up to say £900 (pounds sterling.)

How many of you out there train on a road bike for XC racing? I could save my money & use it for a better set of race wheels ! Is a road bike an essential tool ?

any advice welcome, thanks,Freddie

Get yourself a set of Conti Grand Prix 1.0 folding tyres and Spec 1.0-1.15 tubes and save yourself over £800. Transform your XC bike into a road bike...!!!

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"Ride it like you've just stolen it!"

Tippster's got a point, but...

In my opinion, the main advantage of a road bike is the ability to do roadie races and roadie group rides. Your XC racing will benefit the most from this kind of training. That is: If you plan them with care within your training schedule. Participating on every group hammer ride in your neighbourhood can wear you out quickly...

You pointed out the second benefit: No more tire changes. Besides that: Your MTB components will last much longer.

Offcourse it is entirely possible to do road training on an MTB with slicks. You could buy a second, cheap wheelset so you only have to switch the cassette. However: Long distance group training with a bunch of roadies would simply be too intense to be effective endurance training.

Just save up, buy the damn skinny thing and enjoy the benefits of the 2 worlds!

I almost exclusively ride and train with my mountain bike during the winter. This includes joining fast road rides. While I do eventually get dropped, especially over hillier terrain, I find myself pacing better and I eventually find myself not too far behind, catching the group's slower riders. I do not switch to slicks, as I will ride some off-road as well. This provides many miles of tempo and subthreshold riding, which is the optimum way to increase functional threshold power, consistent with the current leading edge approach to training that base equals tempo.

Other than wearing out my tires, I see only one problem with this approach: muscle specificity. When I switch back to a road bike, my body takes at least a couple weeks to become reacclimatized to the road bike position. Next winter, I do into to ride my road bike at least once a week to avoid specificity problems.

Given you only own a mountain bike and are training for XC races, I think you will benefit from doing some road riding on this bike. Join a group ride that you can just hang on to and you will see the improvement in your form. In addition, you will avoid specificity problems by riding the same bike all the time.

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John979