It proves if you have the legs you don't need the latest and greatest

[Ridgeway]

Happily grinding away at a decent rhythm yesterday on a long climb when i was passed by a young guy on an old 27" hardtail, shopping basket and all, he quite literally flew past me and i have to say that i was really shocked at his pace especially on a bike which was probably 7kgs heavier than an average road bike. Off he went up the hill and for a few seconds i ignorantly thought it was an adapted (discreet DIY) e-bike as there was a blanket wrapped up in the front basket, all a bit weird. A few KM up the climb i bumped into the same guy who was actually lost and so i gave him the directions he needed and as we road together for a few hundred metres, he added that he was a keen road cyclist but had borrowed the bike from the campsite he was staying on, i now realised that it was a pretty old Trek and probably even heavier than i''d anticipated and that the cyclist himself was nothing less than a racing snake. Off he shot again and even at +300w for the next 5mins there was no way i could follow, really this guy was fast and for all the carbon in the world i was never going to keep up. I met him at the top and we chatted for a few mins, seems he'd arrived about 15mins before me. And that blanket was just something to sit down on at the top i also noticed that he didn't even have a bottle on his bike or any drink at all.

So whilst i'm chasing a few grams here and an isotonic drink supplement there, it proves that if you have the legs and lungs then non of it really matters in the end Just a pleasure to see someone doing something so hard (to me) that is just a walk/ride in the park to them

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Weight of a bike is over rated unless you are really light with not a lot of power.

 

[Colin Grigson]

Weight of a bike is over rated unless you are really light with not a lot of power.

That’s me …. except the ‘really light’ bit

 

[Dogtrousers]

There's always someone faster. And someone slower.

 

[HLaB]

Weight of a bike is over rated unless you are really light with not a lot of power.

I tick both boxes 😂

 

[Smokin Joe]

But if the rider mentioned in the OP had a bike that was seven kilos lighter he would have gone considerably faster for the same power output.

Unless the laws of physics have recently been rewritten.

 

[Seevio]

Did he "literally" fly past. Be honest now.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

There's always someone faster. And someone slower.

Found plenty of the former. As to the latter, still waitin'

 

[Ridgeway]

Did he "literally" fly past. Be honest now.

By my standards yes, but maybe i was crawling

 

[Ming the Merciless]

But if the rider mentioned in the OP had a bike that was seven kilos lighter he would have gone considerably faster for the same power output.

Unless the laws of physics have recently been rewritten.

Not really as that’s likely less than 7-10% difference in weight. So not considerably faster

 

[gavroche]

Correct me if I am wrong but I was watching a Youtube video on weight versus speed last night and I seem to remember that the guy said, over a distance of 100kms, 5Kgs extra weight makes a difference of less than 2 minutes on time, so nothing to worry about then.

 

[Drago]

I got my KoM* on a distinctly lower mid range alu framed bike, punted along by a (then) 51 year old, 18.5 stone rider with the aerodynamics of a small skip. The next 11 riders in the rankings were all either competitve riders or coaches, all on the latest plastic d***.

You either have the lungs and legs, or you don't, and if you don't then even the most svelte machine won't bestow you with them.





*this was the incident that prompted me to cease using Strava. Without trying too hard I had some dedent rankings on a few segments, and on one occasion got into the top 20 on this particular stretch. Spurred on I had a few dry runs over successive days and then went for it. I had the lines for the corners perfected, and went at it like Stormy Daniels at a presidential reunion. I got the segment, but the moment I had gone past the end and eased off the power I almost fainted, came genuinely close to blacking out while still riding. That frit me bad, so I stopped using Strava so I wouldn't ever be tempted to take it too far.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Correct me if I am wrong but I was watching a Youtube video on weight versus speed last night and I seem to remember that the guy said, over a distance of 100kms, 5Kgs extra weight makes a difference of less than 2 minutes on time, so nothing to worry about then.

I wouldn't say you're wrong, but you're probably not right.

Depends entirely which 100kms he was referring to. Was it hilly or flat? That would make a massive difference. The speed the rider was going would also make a difference to the absolute time difference. So "2 minutes" could be right, but it could also be wildly wrong. Depends.

For the same rider on the same route over 100km undulating I'd guess the time difference between a heavy and light bike would be "not all that much" plus or minus a bit.

If you're really interested, go and have a play on BikeCalculator http://www.bikecalculator.com/ Hours of fun to be had!

 

[Ridgeway]

I guess in the end it's a watts p/kg discussion, i still measure myself in kgs p/watt though.....

 

[T4tomo]

Too many other factors to take into account to besides weight in real life.

For example.,.. I noticed I'd beat my PB time up one of the UK 100 climbs hill at the weekend, knocking 20odd seconds of a 9 minute effort.. The faster time was done on a 1980 steel frames bike (in 30*C heat) vs my lightweight CF bike of the slower effort, which must weigh 2-3kg less.

I genuinely think I went faster because I had to, as in my lowest gear was much higher on the steel bike so to ride at a sustainable cadence I had to keep the speed up on the steep bits, out of the saddle honking, vs sitting a spinning a lower gear of the CF bike.