No one complains about the weight of water because it's fixed (though racers will dump extra water before a major climb or sprint finish so that they don't carry the extra weight). You can't make it any lighter and you need to carry enough to meet your need so you have to accept it for what it is. So, I don't find that the water bottle arguement convinces me that bike weight is not important. There are better ways to make that case IMO.
Bike weight gets attention because it can be controlled. If I have the choice between two components of equal function, light weight is one criterion I would pay attention to (others include cost, appearance and longevity). But, yeah, spending hundreds to chase grams makes little sense and reasonably light is generally light enough. The rider to bike weight ratio for my Riv is about 8.5:1. My commuter is more like 5:1 (and I can feel the difference!), really light bikes can get to 10:1. Bill On Mar 24, 9:51 pm, Tim McNamara <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mar 24, 2009, at 10:52 PM, Bill M. wrote: > > > The 'less than a full water bottle' arguement always seems specious to > > me. I don't carry less water to make up for a heavier bike. > > That's not the point of that argument. The point is that- at least > IME- no one complains that the weight of their water bottles (about > 2.5 pounds for 2 20-oz bottles) slows them down or that they can even > feel the difference between full and empty bottles on their bike. > Yet people will get all lathered up over a bike component that weighs > 100 g more than another. > > Grant's attitude to this, as part of the guiding philosophy of RBW, > seems to be "meh." Adding a few ounces of steel to the frame with > slightly thicker tubes means a bike that might very well outlive its > 40 year old purchaser. > > Back in my racing days I chased those 100 grams, generally at much > expense and never for any measurable improvement in performance. Now > I ride my bike for fun and I don't sweat it. I've got bikes ranging > from 21 lbs to 27 lbs and I don't to have any less fun on any of > them. I prefer to measure my rides in smiles per hour these days... --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
