How to weigh a bicycle?

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PpPete

Legendary Member
Location
Chandler's Ford
Cheapo digital luggage scales from chinese vendors on ebay are definitely your friend.
You can often pick up a digital caliper from same vendor, that's also a useful tool around a bike workship.
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
Or a simple balance.
A broom handle,
Tied with string to a beam (stairs or tree in the garden will do)
Hang bike on one end (use bungee)
Hang bucket on other end
Fill bucket with water
each litre of water weighs 1kg
Keep filling until bike and bucket balance
 

Cubist

Still wavin'
Location
Ovver 'thill
Or a simple balance.
A broom handle,
Tied with string to a beam (stairs or tree in the garden will do)
Hang bike on one end (use bungee)
Hang bucket on other end
Fill bucket with water
each litre of water weighs 1kg
Keep filling until bike and bucket balance
How much does your bucket weigh, and how will you find out?
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
How much does your bucket weigh, and how will you find out?

Well, durrr, you weigh the bucket first. Hang the bucket on one end of the scales, and on the other hang a buck....

Oh.

(one could tare the bucket by balancing it against a container of negligible weight, like a watertight plastic bag, and putting water in the bag...Assuming a few grammes don't matter.)
 

Cubist

Still wavin'
Location
Ovver 'thill
Well, durrr, you weigh the bucket first. Hang the bucket on one end of the scales, and on the other hang a buck....

Oh.

(one could tare the bucket by balancing it against a container of negligible weight, like a watertight plastic bag, and putting water in the bag...Assuming a few grammes don't matter.)

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.
 

TheDoctor

Noble and true, with a heart of steel
Moderator
Location
The TerrorVortex
Well, durrr, you weigh the bucket first. Hang the bucket on one end of the scales, and on the other hang a buck....

Oh.

(one could tare the bucket by balancing it against a container of negligible weight, like a watertight plastic bag, and putting water in the bag...Assuming a few grammes don't matter.)

There's your answer, TLC. Get a woman to do it :thumbsup:
 
OP
OP
TheLondonCyclist
There's your answer, TLC. Get a woman to do it :thumbsup:
I'd rather just hang it on a luggage scale lol
 
Strip it into component parts, and weigh each piece on kitchen scales. ......

I had to get new scales as the kitchen ones were inaccurate for the chain links!

chain-apart.jpg
 

Cubist

Still wavin'
Location
Ovver 'thill
It's a Balance !
So it does not matter if you use a plastic bag or a steel bucket, as long as the broom handle is level before you add bike or water
What about the water that sticks to the sides of the bucket when you come to measure the water? Or that evaporates as you transfer it to a measuring jug?
 
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