nicely said. when i discuss the difference in weight of my lightish steel and my still 4 lbs lighter carbon, i am never thinking about my measured performance or speed improvement. for me it is a more subtle appreciation of the overall quality of the ride. the unmeasured feel of getting up to speed faster and easier, standing up on the pedals and going like a rocket, and the seemingly overall ease when climbing something steep. completely unscientific, but i know it's true. On Tuesday, January 15, 2013 8:33:36 AM UTC-8, Patrick in VT wrote: > > On Monday, January 14, 2013 2:58:13 PM UTC-5, Skenry wrote: >> >> >> The only real way to compair weights is to have a frame built up with >> normal duty "heavy" Riv-ish parts and then build it again with lighter >> "racing" parts. Then you'd be able to notice a weight diffence. >> Scott >> > > If that's the case, I'll weigh in. I have two identical steel frame bikes > - same exact fit on both. One has a full-on race build for CX and weighs > about 17lbs. The other has a stouter build for gravel-grinding/rough-stuff > and is around at 20-21lbs - but is still worthy as a pit-bike for CX racing > and/or fast club riding. I absolutely notice a difference between the > bikes, but that difference is irrelevant to 90% of riding I do ... it > doesn't matter and I don't think about it. We're talking seconds (and not > a lot of them) on a long climb or a TT. That's what any "performance" gain > amounts to from dropping a few pounds off a "go-fast" bike, or a rider's > weight for that matter. Seconds. Maybe a couple minutes on a long ride. > > In my experience, step function improvement in performance primarily comes > from improved fitness/power, particularly functional threshold power > (basically the max power one can sustain for an hour). Far bigger gains in > performance can be had there. Would I rather shave 5lbs bike/body or > increase my functional threshold power from 300w to 325w? It's a > no-brainer. Lightweight might feel good, but being strong and fit feels > better - in my case, to the point where I don't sweat a carrying a few > extra pounds on my frame or a bike frame. > > It's not all that different with running. A general rule of thumb that > gets kicked around is 2 seconds per mile per extra pound of body weight. > So if I weigh an extra 5lbs for a local 5k, i can expect to be about 30-45 > seconds slower unless I improved my run fitness along with the weight > gain. in any event, we're still talking seconds or maybe a couple of > minutes on a 10 mile run. doesn't matter unless it matters, like trying to > qualify for the Boston marathon or if somebody is serious about setting > personal records (which a lot of runners are). > > >
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