How to weigh a bicycle?

[rikki]

Will tap water be OK?
Or should I buy proper bike weighing water (in glass bottles, imported of course)?

 

[rikki]

Is it true that some very expensive Italian bikes are weighed using the balance method but using extra virgin olive oil instead of water, and without applying any conversion to compensate for the specific gravity of the oil (<1), thus exaggerating their lightness?

Touring bikes should be weighed using tea (or beer or wine).

 

[ufkacbln]

How dare you Madam? If you have gone to the trouble of drilling holes in your valve caps and filling your tyres with exotic gases, then the weight of the plastic bag alone will skew your readings.

Weightweenies have a submissions function, so we'll have to weigh a number of commonplace buckets, and submit them for listing.

My old Woolworth one is a sturdy 376g, but it's better now I've got rid of the excess 21g contained in the white plastic tubing that used to form a comfy grip on the wire handle.

As for plastic bags, those filmy ones you put your fruit and veg in at Sainsbury's are pretty light.

Why stop at the valve caps?


Here is a Catrike, with a case of "Drillium"

 

[asterix]

Why stop at the valve caps?


Here is a Catrike, with a case of "Drillium"

Holey Scheisse!

 

[ASC1951]

.... a container of negligible weight, like a watertight plastic bag....

Can you still get such a thing? Round here the HSE Thought Police have impounded every bag that doesn't have perforations.

I did ask them who would really be worse off if some of our local 12 year olds asphyxiated themselves on their way home from the supermarket, rather than making it all the way to school to deal drugs in the playground. But apparently it's nothing to do with that. No, they have heard disturbing rumours of an outbreak of public bicycle weighing and are determined to Send A Message.

 

[Brains]

Will tap water be OK?
Or should I buy proper bike weighing water (in glass bottles, imported of course)?

Don't use heavy water as you bike will be lighter than you thought and will glow like a readybreck kid.
And don't use fizzy water as the bubbles alter the amount of liquid per litre so you bike will be heavier, to be really accurate you need to use water that is from the same country as you bike, so those with Campags need Italian water. And Perrier for your Pergot, British tourers should be measured using tea

 

[RiflemanSmith]

You can buy a work stand and scales.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=2928&gclid=CNbY6sfnybMCFcrItAodpzQANg

 

[Night Train]

And don't forget to take into account your geographical location as gravity varies around the world. You will also need to account for any mountains that can skew gravity to being slightly less then perpendicular to the ground.

NASA (or Russell Grant) can give you information on planetary alignments that may matter.

 

[Arch]

And don't forget to take into account your geographical location as gravity varies around the world. You will also need to account for any mountains that can skew gravity to being slightly less then perpendicular to the ground.

NASA (or Russell Grant) can give you information on planetary alignments that may matter.

You'll need a set of tide tables too.

This is all much more complicated than we thought, eh?

 

[wait4me]

You'll need a set of tide tables too.

This is all much more complicated than we thought, eh?

Yes and don't weigh the bike when playing music---the vibrations often the scales stability---especially if playing heavy metal!! ------------ well someone was bound to say it

 

[Drago]

The weight also changes with temperature and altitude, so to be really accurate it needs doing at sea level when it's 20C.

 

[redcard]

And don't forget to take into account your geographical location as gravity varies around the world. You will also need to account for any mountains that can skew gravity to being slightly less then perpendicular to the ground.

NASA (or Russell Grant) can give you information on planetary alignments that may matter.

On first read I thought you were saying Russell Grant could skew gravity, which is probably true

 

[Archie_tect]

...and you can all stop eating cake right now. It's completely unnecessary and will make you even more fat and spotty.

 

[Spinney]

The weight also changes with temperature and altitude, so to be really accurate it needs doing at sea level when it's 20C.

You're all mixing things up! He really wants to find the MASS of his bike (in kg), in which case variations in gravity etc do not matter if he is using the bucket and broom handle method. Unless he wants to be so accurate that the variation in the graviational field across a couple of metres will mess up his results?

 

[Night Train]

You're all mixing things up! He really wants to find the MASS of his bike (in kg), in which case variations in gravity etc do not matter if he is using the bucket and broom handle method. Unless he wants to be so accurate that the variation in the graviational field across a couple of metres will mess up his results?

Yeah, but the weight will be slightly less in kg so it will go faster.