When does the ratio between bike & body weights become critical?
My bike is 30Kg & i'm approx. 62Kg so the bike is roughly half my weight. Does this mean i have to work harder than a 90Kg bloke riding the same bike or is the total, combined weight more important regardless of whether it is bike or bloke?
30 KG? 66 lbs?
I think you probably mean 30lbs so roughly 15kg so 1/4 of your body weight.
power to weight is more important than bike to body .....
although me being mee sees power as your output and weight as your weight + bike weight .....
Oops - yes, 15Kg 😳
(Can't you tell i've never got to grips with switching measurements?)
So, does a 9.5stone/62Kg bloke have to work noticably harder moving a bike at 1/4 of his body weight than a bloke moving one at 1/6th or is it all in my mind?
As a general rule of thumb regarding power to weight ratios, little fellas are not as powerful as big fellas, so you need to get more powerful, whereas a big fella would need to get littler.
...and if you have to work harder, you'll just have to get on with it...
I wonder which is actually easier, the bigger fella losing weight (what happens if that weight is muscle mass rather than flab?) or the little fella getting more efficient - i.e. fitter?
All the bike companies are keen to tell us that bike "X" is the lightest, most responsive in it's class etc. but is it really that important when considered against body weight?
Bikes have certainly got bigger & burlier over the last few yrs as the focus moves from racing to playing silly buggers...
For sprinting speed I think its outright power that counts whereas for climbing its power to weight - and a lighter chap will have a worse power to weight ratio than a bigger chap up to a certain point.
So in broad yes - you will have a harder time that someone who is bigger assuming they have a similar body fat % and fitness.
However on hills the extra weight of the bits of the body you are not using will be more than the penalty of a bike - that is a bigger % of your bodyweight at some point.
We are kind of getting close to the weight vs performance thing again, but I think that losing weight off yourself, or just being light, like what you are you skinny ****er, is better than having a super light bike. There are still performance issues with very light bikes, and spending all the cash in the world to lighten your bike will not make you that much faster....(In my opinion, not shared by various STWers...)
Get faster/fitter/betterer at riding and your light body weight remains an advantage; it is total weight that counts, cos that's what you have to drag around the countryside...
All the beer gut and no idea.
Well, i suppose i'll see when i go out with the six-footers on my new heavy bike! I was wondering 'cos i haven't noticed any real physical drain when climbing and i can still get up stuff in the same gear ratios even though the new bike is some 6lb lighter than the old one.
A big day out in the hills might tell me different though!