How much difference does a lightweight bike really make.

[nickyboy]

In my world 48 seconds is a huge saving!

I suspect you haven't got 3.5kg to lose......and you wouldn't be 20mins + up the Snake!

 

[Fab Foodie]

Firstly if your mate keeps mentioning the price of his bike then he's a knob. Get another mate. £1000 is 'entry-level' these days for most brands except Decathlon who manage to do pretty much the same job for a much lower price. I doubt there's any notable difference in weight.
Differences in body power to weight are likely to be more significant as are fitness, practice and gearing that works for you.

Lightweight bikes are nice, they give you some sort of pub bragging rights, they are fun to ride and often feel livelier handling. I wouldn't diss having a lighter bike, it adds to the enjoyment, but for most of us mortals it isn't the be-all and end-all that it's cracked-up to be.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

48 seconds is huge, whats that in terms of training, a few week hill training programme?

 

[Rob3rt]

Watch this video

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DRQwKREgvI

1st one to notice the issues which render the exercise void gets a 'like'!

 

[raleighnut]

The treadmill looked flat to me with resistance coming from drag, not climbing/lifting the weight

 

[nickyboy]

48 seconds is huge, whats that in terms of training, a few week hill training programme?

Not huge really....I take 22 minutes on a good day so 48 seconds off that is 3.6%. I could achieve the same result by improving my watts by the same %, say 250W to 259W.
I read somewhere that a 12 week hill rep program was shown to improve Watts by about 9%...this would be the equivalent of reducing rider/bike weight by 8.8kg in my case. So I'd suggest that most cyclists would see most benefit from improving aerobic fitness, not drilling holes in their saddles and whatnot

 

[Rob3rt]

Not huge really....I take 22 minutes on a good day so 48 seconds off that is 3.6%. I could achieve the same result by improving my watts by the same %, say 250W to 259W.
I read somewhere that a 12 week hill rep program was shown to improve Watts by about 9%...this would be the equivalent of reducing rider/bike weight by 8.8kg in my case. So I'd suggest that most cyclists would see most benefit from improving aerobic fitness, not drilling holes in their saddles and whatnot

What duration is the 9% increase is observed? 1 minute? 3 minutes? 5 minutes? 20 minutes? 60 minutes? These things become quite important when talking about power.

(I am not trying to catch you out here, it genuinely is important in this context)

 

[Rob3rt]

Why not have both if you can?

That is what I eventually come round to, lighter body, lighter bike, best of both worlds!

Or in some cases it might not be so daft as to accept that to put out more power you might be better at a certain weight (really only applies if you are pretty lean IME) and thus lose weight from the bike, therefore reducing overall mass, yet maintaining a higher power by keeping body weight where is optimal.

If you are competitive too, just knowing your bike is light is worth something.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

Not huge really....I take 22 minutes on a good day so 48 seconds off that is 3.6%. I could achieve the same result by improving my watts by the same %, say 250W to 259W.
I read somewhere that a 12 week hill rep program was shown to improve Watts by about 9%...this would be the equivalent of reducing rider/bike weight by 8.8kg in my case. So I'd suggest that most cyclists would see most benefit from improving aerobic fitness, not drilling holes in their saddles and whatnot

So you could save about 4-5 weeks of training by going lighter!

 

[GrumpyGregry]

A kg is 1% of my own body mass. So riding a bike identical in all other respects but 2kg lighter means I'm doing less than 2% less work (roughly). Am I going to notice 2% on a climb. Maybe. Is my willingness to put myself deeper into the hurt locker than my riding mates to beat them to the top of the climb going to make more of a difference? I rather think so.

They think I'm fitter then them. I can guarantee I'm not, I'm just prepared to take more pain than them to 'win' in a silly contest to the top of the hill. And take it with a studied air of insouciance.

 

[MikeG]

But flawed instead of floored is OK?

No, but this is the first time that flawed/ floored has cropped up. Loose/ lose is virtually a daily occurrence.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Also a £1k bike is unlikely to be all that light.

My winter bike weighs 13kg. My summer bike weighs 8kg.
So, the answer is that weight makes a difference, but not as big a difference as one might think, and is certainly far less important than rider fitness.

Both of these statements are true and remarkably interesting. I think its important to understand what the OP means by 'light bike' as this has a different meaning to each of us. I personally consider a 8kg bike to be pretty average and most certainly not light. The reason being that I believe most decent modern carbon bikes are not to far off this from the shop floor. My Tarmac currently tips the scales at 5.89kg including the heavy Di2 groupset and battery. This is without having the need to take drastic action such as drilling holes in the seat or similar.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

When pedants dye (sic) they still end up dead. Just like everybody else.

 

[nickyboy]

What duration is the 9% increase is observed? 1 minute? 3 minutes? 5 minutes? 20 minutes? 60 minutes? These things become quite important when talking about power.

(I am not trying to catch you out here, it genuinely is important in this context)

It was this article:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/fitness/training/interval-training-
the-long-short-121219
I was particularly interested in it because it seems to show that very short intervals are surprisingly effective. Perhaps as someone who obviously takes his training seriously, you could comment on the article?

 

[Peter Armstrong]

A kg is 1% of my own body mass. So riding a bike identical in all other respects but 2kg lighter means I'm doing less than 2% less work (roughly). Am I going to notice 2% on a climb. Maybe. Is my willingness to put my self-deeper into the hurt locker than my riding mates to beat them to the top of the climb going to make more of a difference? I rather think so.

They think I'm fitter then them. I can guarantee I'm not, I'm just prepared to take more pain than them to 'win' in a silly contest to the top of the hill. And take it with a studied air of insouciance.

How do you know they are not going as hard as you, maybe you just show the pain more!