Nothing wrong with having a nice bike. Just toys at the end of the day. It’s funny how much people buy into the weight thing though. Bumped into a guy a while back, freezing cold, waiting to be picked up because he didn’t have a spare tube. His reasoning for not having one, was that he needed all the help he could get given his extra body weight.

Now, to be fair, I think he was referring to lugging an entire saddle bag about, which I can understand. It’s nice to not have it. But it really is not going to make any difference to anyone even slightly overweight. It’s something that’s only going to be noticed by a bona fide racing snake.

The last thing you need to lose weight on is the bike. Because to an already heavy rider the returns are massively diminished. It’s a drop in the ocean. And a light rider will be fast on a heavy bike.

I ride a lot of hilly terrain. It’s up and down as far as the eye can see. And I go between 8kg road bike, and 12kg road bike (probably closer to 14kg when laden with bags, bottles, lights, etc). Do I notice the difference? Yes. There’s very much a perceived difference on steep climbs, 12% and above. Actual times are not massively different. And in relatively tame rolling terrain, it’s barely noticeable. In a 100 mile sportive, you might be talking a difference of 5 minutes. I still choose to ride the heavy bike for some sportives, even if I plan on going flat out. It’s only a game change if you plan on taking it very seriously!

I also dropped about 3 stone from my bodyweight. Went from a fit fatty who could keep up on the flat, only to get dropped on every climb, to right on the line on my BMI, and the difference is night and day. Massive. I was beating PRs on Strava well under my threshold. And smashing them while on it. It’s only now that I feel small fluctuations in weight. A few years back I could’ve towed a trailer full of bricks and not noticed it.

+1 to that butcher, my summer and winter bikes are similar weights to the two you mention. The 13Kg winter bike is definitely slower but that’s probably as much to do with the heavier wheel/tyre combination as the complete weight. I reckon it’s about 10% slower than the 8Kg summer bike.

A couple of years ago I lost just under 20Kg in bodyweight, a huge difference in how climbs felt before and after that loss. Once you are close to your ideal weight then an extra Kg feels a lot.

No. I don’t consider myself a road cyclist, I just knock out road miles to keep fit. Switch off, look at the view, avoid getting hit by cars. I look at the current roadie MTB scene and it has no interest for me. Golftastic.

FTFY

That’s true scotroutes, but repeating a 25% hillclimb just for the sake of it is as pointless as a 50km ride with coffee and cake at the end. The sort of ride he was mocking.

You think there is a point to any of this? Unless your getting paid then surely its all pointless. Do the rides you enjoy end of story. I accept that training for an event might be more specific. But in end the event and its training are without purpose other than you own enjoyment.

Unless your getting paid then surely its all pointless.

This. It amazes me how snotty people get about other folk being on the wrong bike.
Too fat, thin, expensive, cheap, 29ery, slack, racy, rigid. Especially the genuine vitriol dished out to fatbikes from some ‘I’m moar enduro than you’ types I know 🙄

We’re all riding round in circles for fun, it shouldn’t cause you stress to see someone doing it a bit different to you.

ampthill – Member
That’s true scotroutes, but repeating a 25% hillclimb just for the sake of it is as pointless as a 50km ride with coffee and cake at the end. The sort of ride he was mocking.
You think there is a point to any of this? Unless your getting paid then surely its all pointless. Do the rides you enjoy end of story. I accept that training for an event might be more specific. But in end the event and its training are without purpose other than you own enjoyment

Yeah, you’ve repeated my point using different words. 😆

Yeah, you’ve repeated my point using different words.

But I was to dim to realise that was what I was doing