How fragile is a road bike?

Fremen

I just bought my first road bike and I'm still getting a feel for it. I commuted to college for years on a cheap mountain bike. I had a good idea of how much punishment a mountain bike could take - for example, you could mount a kerb by pulling up on the handlebars to lift the front wheel off the ground and letting the back wheel hit the kerb once your front wheel was on the pavement. That's not something I'd ever do with a road bike, but I'm really not sure how much it will take to damage the bike. For example, if I accidentally go over a pothole, is there a chance I'll buckle a wheel?

If anyone has some suggestions for do's and don'ts, I'd appreciate it.

kona

They are made of egg shells! honestly, you cannot use them unless the road is silky smooth....


Honestly.


Really? They are not fragile.

dayshah

Fremen wrote: »

If anyone has some suggestions for do's and don'ts, I'd appreciate it.

How much do you weigh? That will impact on what you can do.

Cabaal

Although not a road bike and more of a hybrid I managed to put a nice big hole through my back wheel tyre & tube on my old Trek FX 7.1 by trying to hop up on a footpath, was some pain becaise I was on my way to work and had no spare :pac:

There was no glass but the wheel happened to catch the edge of the path nicely,

Never did it again after that, although I used to do it all the time with my MTB

Lumen

If you cycle it on the road and maintain proper tyre pressures you're unlikely to damage the wheels unless they're badly built in the first place.

Potholes are best avoided for reasons of safety and comfort.

hardCopy

I often hop onto kerbs, never had a snakebite yet (touch wood).

It's particularly easy if you're clipped in, then you can actually lift the rear wheel, but if your tires are well inflated and you don't it too fast you should be fine.

Also, slime filled tires are fantastic, I can't remember the last time I had to fix a puncture.

doozerie

Road bikes, and wheels, are not fragile. If they were, the for one thing the manufacturers would have to put weight limits on them for fear that heavier riders would just flatten them (at the top end of the range you do find some bike parts that do specify a weight limit for the rider but at that stage you are knowingly sacrificing strength of parts for lighter weight of them, and paying a lot for the privilege, but for the mostpart bike parts fall on the strength side of that balance).

That is not to say that you can't break a wheel/frame/etc. on a road bike, you certainly can but you have to be either very unlucky or very careless to do so, or both. And of course that applies to MTB's too. Letting your back wheel hit the edge of a kerb is asking for trouble on either a road bike or an MTB. Sometimes you'll get away with it, sometimes you'll puncture, and the odd time you are likely to dent the rim. I've irreparably damaged a rear MTB rim that way, by making a pig's ear of mounting a kerb at speed, and I am a light rider and my tyres were well inflated so the odds of me getting away with it were in my favour - my stupidity/carelessness swung the odds the other way though.

-Chris-

If it's uncomfortable for you, it's uncomfortable for the bike.

seamus

Road bikes have less "cushion" than MTBs. They're not inherently weaker (in fact I would argue the wheels in particular are often constructed to last longer) but the narrow tyre profile and higher pressures means that when they hit a bump, more of then energy from the collision is transferred to the bike instead of being dissipated by the tyre.

Avoid allowing your back wheel to collide with a kerb when mounting them. Practice lifting your back wheel while the bike is moving, and then apply that to the process of going up a kerb - front wheel lift, then back wheel lift. This will allow you to mount kerbs in a road bike without hurting yourself.

Though you shouldn't be mounting kerbs anyway unless you're pulling into a house/business

cython

As was pointed out, they are not necessarily any weaker, as long as you don't outright abuse them, and put a bit of proper care/maintenance into them. In fact the video below might surprise you as to what can be done with one (it certainly surprised me when I first saw it!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z1fSpZNXhU

happytramp

I usually find I have more problems coming down kerbs since there's not the inherent need to slow down to hop off one. I've had two snakebites recently from what I considered quite minor impacts.

Lush

As already mentioned, correct tyre pressures help, also ensure your spokes are tight as you will buckle a 700c rim really easy with loose spokes... But as the vid above shows, they can take some abuse if handled correctly!!
:cool:

Joxer_S

Myself and a friend were touring through France last summer, after some dodgy directions we ended up on a pretty rutted fire road through a forest in Vendée. I was on a Trek and he was on a BeOne, both with 23 tyres fully loaded on the back with panniers, tent etc. And it was fine, it was only about 5 or 6km but we were expecting at best a few broken spokes, we didn't get so much as a puncture.

Twin-go

I recently got my first road bike and have only managed about 30km so far. But in the 30km I have all ready had 2 punctures. Pain in the arse when the temp. is so cold.

Is there anything that can be done to reduce the chance of punctures? Tyres are checked and inflated to 90 psi before each ride. Removed glass from tyre on first puncture, no evidence of what punctured the tyre for the second one.

ednwireland

noticed on a friends giant that the rim tape was terrible quality (after several punctures, basically a bit of thin plastic sheet which barely covered the spoke holes (and moved too easily.
worth checking for anyway

also how hard are your tyres pumped , do you have a track pump ?

Lumen

Twin-go wrote: »

I recently got my first road bike and have only managed about 30km so far. But in the 30km I have all ready had 2 punctures. Pain in the arse when the temp. is so cold.

Is there anything that can be done to reduce the chance of punctures? Tyres are checked and inflated to 90 psi before each ride. Removed glass from tyre on first puncture, no evidence of what punctured the tyre for the second one.

90psi is on the low side, depends on your weight and the tyre size.

Might be crap tyres, or bad luck, or bad fitting, or bad rim tape, or not removing all debris after the first puncture.

I've had only one puncture in many thousands of km, and that was probably caused by poor fitting or riding on an off-road cycle path.

snollup

Twin-go wrote: »

I recently got my first road bike and have only managed about 30km so far. But in the 30km I have all ready had 2 punctures. Pain in the arse when the temp. is so cold.

Is there anything that can be done to reduce the chance of punctures? Tyres are checked and inflated to 90 psi before each ride. Removed glass from tyre on first puncture, no evidence of what punctured the tyre for the second one.

I've found that some new bikes comp with fairly crappy tyres. Last new bike I had came with Kenda tyres. Got a puncture most times I took it out. Very frustrating. Changed tyres (to armadillos I think) and dont think I've had one since (he says touching wood).

Twin-go

ednwireland wrote: »

noticed on a friends giant that the rim tape was terrible quality (after several punctures, basically a bit of thin plastic sheet which barely covered the spoke holes (and moved too easily.
worth checking for anyway

also how hard are your tyres pumped , do you have a track pump ?

Thanks, I'll check the rim tape.

I have a track pump with a psi guage.

Find it hard to inflate the tyres on the road with the mini pump I have. Is a CO2 pump worth getting?

Lumen

Twin-go wrote: »

Is a CO2 pump worth getting?

Yes. Keep the mini pump as a last resort. Or get an integrated CO2-mini pump. Or get a frame pump and no CO2.

Twin-go

Lumen wrote: »

90psi is on the low side, depends on your weight and the tyre size.

Might be crap tyres, or bad luck, or bad fitting, or bad rim tape, or not removing all debris after the first puncture.

I've had only one puncture in many thousands of km, and that was probably caused by poor fitting or riding on an off-road cycle path.

More weight = More PSI?
I'm 97kg down from 112kgs (thanks to cycling last year, all done on a hybrid)

niceonetom

Twin-go wrote: »

More weight = More PSI?
I'm 97kg down from 112kgs (thanks to cycling last year, all done on a hybrid)

90psi and 97kgs? On 23mm tyres? I'd go higher than that. 90psi is just about acceptable for the featherweights but for you I'd say 100 front and 110 rear would save you some tubes.

Also, what tyres are you running? Some bike manufacturers scrimp a bit and put cheap tyres on even quite nice bikes.

EDIT: yes, just to be clear. More weight -> more psi.

Chips Lovell

I'd go for 120psi

Lumen

FWIW, if you're 97kg and not racing I'd choose 28mm tyres and lower PSI the next time you buy tyres. Assuming you have the frame clearance to fit them - most road frames do.

They'll allow you to run lower PSI and provide better comfort.

I've been running 28mm tyres (fancy lightweight ones, admittedly) for a while, and don't miss 23s.

Tyres are probably the single easiest thing to get wrong on a bike, and therefore a good thing to obsess over.

Chips Lovell

I thought 28's would be a bit more hit and miss than that. I know some people had problems fitting them.

niceonetom

My Planet-X wouldn't accept 28 contis. 25s are ok though.

Lumen

el tonto wrote: »

I thought 28's would be a bit more hit and miss than that. I know some people had problems fitting them.

niceonetom wrote: »

My Planet-X wouldn't accept 28 contis. 25s are ok though.

Planet-X are known for small tyre clearances.

My 28 Ultremos are actually 26.4mm wide @ 85psi, IIRC.

redmaxi

See Busted Carbon .com for fragility of some lovely carbon machines although most of the incidents are not the fault of the bicycle.

ashleey

Buy some schwalbe durano s. They are hard wearing and unlike conti skater skins you actually get to stay upright

Twin-go

snollup wrote: »

I've found that some new bikes comp with fairly crappy tyres. Last new bike I had came with Kenda tyres. Got a puncture most times I took it out. Very frustrating. Changed tyres (to armadillos I think) and dont think I've had one since (he says touching wood).

There are Specialized branded tyres and tubes on mine. I changed the tubes to Michelin and upped the presure to 110. I'll be on the road on Saturday and hopefully puncture free!!

doozerie

There are various graphs which suggest a tyre pressure based on your weight and the tyre dimensions, but some of them differ a lot in what they recommend. I've found the Michelin one works well for me. Here is the graph from that page:

dave.obrien

Joxer_S wrote: »

Myself and a friend were touring through France last summer, after some dodgy directions we ended up on a pretty rutted fire road through a forest in Vendée. I was on a Trek and he was on a BeOne, both with 23 tyres fully loaded on the back with panniers, tent etc. And it was fine, it was only about 5 or 6km but we were expecting at best a few broken spokes, we didn't get so much as a puncture.

It was actually a lot of fun, but maybe not something I'd recommend as a normal course of action! Also, that part of France is lovely.