S-Express
Guest
Surely a 65kg bloke carrying 20kg in a backpack weighs the same as a 85kg bloke?
Fatty vs Skinny
- Thread starter grellboy
- Start date
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Surely a 65kg bloke carrying 20kg in a backpack weighs the same as a 85kg bloke?
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I watched that video a few days ago. Those bags weigh about half the weight that I have put on since the start of 2015!
I drag myself up the Cragg Vale climb several times a week and certainly notice the difference. I reckon the blubber is adding at least a couple of minutes to my time.
I usually get overtaken by several riders in the course of one ascent. It was 3 or 4 yesterday evening. It is one thing to get dropped, but another for the overtakers to be going so much faster that they disappear from sight, bearing in mind that in places up there you can see a km or more up the road!
I wonder if you are one of my Cragg Vale tormentors!
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
But the 85 kg bloke might have (say) 20% more power than the skinny bloke with the heavy load so his power to weight ratio would be better in that situation. Without the load, the reverse would probably be true. A high PWR is the secret to fast climbing.
Sure, but the extra 20kg could be made up of some muscle, ie not just dead weight
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Speaking of big guys climbing ... we must get that 'Hawkshead Revisited' ride organised before the end of the summer!
S-Express
Guest
Agreed, and that point was made earlier. I was just pointing out that weight is still weight.
If it is 'excess' muscle, then it is still no more useful than dead weight though.
KneesUp
Guru
I don't know any science about this, but when I were a lad and mountain bikes were quite new, I had some mates who used to race mountain bikes. One was short and squat and full of explosive power - you really would not want to get in a fight with him. The other was long and lean - a 'classic' road cyclist physique. The former had a lot of mechanical failures, and the latter didn't. I have no idea what that adds to the debate.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I agree that a bodybuilder's extra muscle probably isn't going to help.
OTOH, I suffered atrophied leg muscles due to illness and could barely get to my feet. If you had made me wear a 5 kg bag, then I would have collapsed. Once I put a few kgs of muscle back on I was fine.
OTOH, I suffered atrophied leg muscles due to illness and could barely get to my feet. If you had made me wear a 5 kg bag, then I would have collapsed. Once I put a few kgs of muscle back on I was fine.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
rideswithmoobs
Guest
- Location
- North West
Fell off lots and broke bits ?
KneesUp
Guru
I don't know - I was strictly about the road then and had no desire to sit in a muddy field of a weekend. I think the one with the explosive power was just a lot harder on the bike, making it flex more, and more often. I guess that wears things out faster - add in mud and competition, and technology from the dawn of mountian biking, and you got things breaking.
Starchivore
I don't know much about Cinco de Mayo
- Location
- Halifax, West Yorkshire
I wonder if you are one of my Cragg Vale tormentors!
Haha I don’t think I am, no- the other day was actually the first time I’ve been up in 6 months or so, despite living 10 minutes away.
Not sure how fast I would do it now. Probably not very. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve timed it. I do less leisure cycling now and almost no “testing” rides recently, but through commuting I probably do more miles each week than I used to.
I've been up there many times with my Dad, and we also went to cycle in the mountains in France a few times. He was always faster than me on the flat (I think it’s probably close now, although we don’t ride together as often as I’ve moved out), but lagged badly on the hills- just solely because of excess weight. I often wandered how badly he would slay me up the climbs if he lost most of the excess…..
One of my Dad’s favoured rides when I was a bit younger was “the burn up” – Castle Hill school in Todmorden to the turning circle just before Hebden (opposite St James) and back, as fast as you can without a warm up. The race of truth. Awful.
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iggibizzle
Senior Member
- Location
- blackpool
I'm over 13 stone at 5ft 9 but look a lot lighter. Dense (physically!! ) I've recently been doing tt's. Both flat and hilly. Not full hill climbs. Just rolling ones. Strangely I'm closer to the skinny light fast guys mile per mile on the rolling type roads than on the flat. Maybe it's because that's what I'm used to doing of a weekend. No other explanation for it. Should be the opposite.
) I've recently been doing tt's. Both flat and hilly. Not full hill climbs. Just rolling ones. Strangely I'm closer to the skinny light fast guys mile per mile on the rolling type roads than on the flat. Maybe it's because that's what I'm used to doing of a weekend. No other explanation for it. Should be the opposite.
rugby bloke
Veteran
- Location
- Northamptonshire
The body shapes of Sir Chris Hoy and Chris Froome are completely different but both are fast in their own way.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Ha ha ... I have a long-standing ambition to do the Todmorden-Hebden Bridge-Mytholmroyd-Cragg Vale-Blackstone Edge-Littleborough-Walsden-Todmorden loop in an hour. Given that it is almost exactly 32 km (20 miles) with a whacking great hill halfway, I suspect that I will never manage it. I did it in 1 hr 9 mins once though so maybe I could if I got my weight back down to 76 kg (12 stone) and trained hard for it ...
Getting back to the original question ... I am 1.86 m tall (6' 1") and can climb reasonably well at 76 kg and below, and certainly can't at 85 kg and above, but my speed on the flat is not greatly affected by my weight.
