On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 10:51 PM, benzzoy <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Mar 12, 3:17 pm, Aaron Thomas <[email protected]> wrote: > > .... But when it comes to climbing, I cannot > > help but think that the extra 6+ lbs I'm hauling on my 23-ish lb. bike > > (compared to their 16 -17lb bikes) puts me at a distinct disadvantage. > > If one discounts the psychology of having a heavier or lighter bike, > it's all physics! > > Go to http://www.analyticcycling.com/ and run some models. My > fiddling about comparing two otherwise identical riders except one has > a 6 lbs (3 kg) heavier bike shows that for a 8% climb for 5km (1320 ft > total elevation gain), using 200W of power, the difference at the top > is about 1 minute or 176m. > > That seems like a lot until I started playing with the power output of > the riders. Keeping the standard rider at 200W, just increasing the > test rider with the heavier bike to 208W makes the test rider *ahead* > (not by much, but still ahead nevertheless). The power increment to > pull even with extra weight is more at higher outputs, but even at > 300W for the standard rider, it's still "only" 311W for the test rider > to remain even with the extra 6-lbs-heavier bike. > > Now, given that most of us are not world-class fully-optimized elite > cyclists, training to increase output by a meagerly 8 watts shouldn't > be too difficult. In fact, I would wager that my output vary by at > least that much between a good and better day on the saddle.
But the difference might tip you over from a nice, comfortable ride into a "excessively gofast" ride, no? IOW, if part of the reason for your setup is comfort, then it appears that lighter weight, after a point, can make for greater comfort -- especially on a bad day, say when your hill also includes a stiff headwind. Patrick "light weight: it's all about comfort!" Moore --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
