Weight concerns with super light racing bike?
 

Hey 👋 everyone so question for you all, does anyone here over 250lbs currently ride an older vintage racing bike with very thin tires? Does the bike well the wheels hold you without any damage to the wheels?

I just picked up a Sekai racing bike that has 700 x 28 tires and I’ve never seen tires that thin. I’m still researching the bike and I don’t know yet the weight limits on the wheels. I’m wondering if I will need to wait to attempt to ride this bike until after I have lost some weight.

I’m actually preparing for Bariatric surgery in November and currently am at 266 pounds and I’m 5’8. I know I won’t be riding the bike at all before next Spring since I’m working on fixing up another bike. But I’m still very new to learning about all the bike parts and repair jargon, I’m teaching myself how to completely disassemble and rebuild a bike so I don’t know all the jargon and the terms yet so please excuse my ignorance with much of the terminology as I’m still learning a lot.

I don’t really expect to ride the bike probably until next Spring anyways and by that time I’ll be on the way to my weight loss goals of at least 100 pounds.

I’m kind of afraid to attempt to try out the bike now in fear I may damage the wheels with my current weight.

here are some photos of the bike
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...293737d83.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...48bf807d5.jpeg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9083e2f01.jpeg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...702f04d82.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0b7ccbf58.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...39725709e.jpeg

Those are 36 spoke wheels, although an older set, but I would ride it. If a spoke breaks then it's a chance to get acquainted with your local shop. Enjoy the bike and good luck with your weight loss plans.

+1 to washed-up, 36 spokes is good. Be a careful rider, don’t hit curbs or potholes. 28s aren’t the skinniest, 25s and 23s. Check your inflation every ride, don’t ride on a low tire. 80lb 10 year old can get away with some abuse that you and I can’t.

28's aren't skinny. Those were considered fat comfort road tire before the gravel bike craze kicked in. Put a new set of tires and tubes on it, clean it up and ride.

At my heaviest, I was about 245 lbs. I was riding bikes that had tires with widths of 22 and 23 mm, maybe even thinner but I can't be sure since they would have been replaced by now. I still have a bike that runs 22's and 23's. Most of my bikes run 25's right now, I may try 28's to see if they fit.

Your weight isn't really that high, I would pump the tires and ride it. Just remember to pump it up before EVERY ride, that's to prevent any pinch flats.

I would adjust the angle on the aerobars such that they are about level and put some pad on the arm rests.

That's a nice looking bike, next time turn the bike around so the drive train is visible in the photos.

Thanks so much for all the replies!! So after hearing all this, I pumped up those tires and took it out for a ride, it needs some adjustments, I need new pedals as I do not like those clip on pedals it has now, or whatever they are called, maybe clipless, but i need pedals as my shoes kept hitting the cranks, the rear derailleur is so gunked up with grease, I have to take it off and really soak and clean it, and the brakes need some adjusting, and it needs a basic tune up, but the tires must be replaced, they are actually get threadbare and I might as well change the tubes as well as they just don't seem to hold the air the way I think they should, but I'm glad I got on the bike and tried it out.

Take the beast to the bike shop and get her serviced. You could have won the Tour de Franc e on that bike back in the day, great starter bike. Im your weight and I have 2 carbon bikes and an aluminum off roader, no issues

That's good to know!! And Yes I'm actually taking this racing bike to the bike shop and having them service her. I'm not taking a chance on messing anything up on this, I am knew to trying to fix up and learn how to rehab bikes and I'm currently working now on a 1984 Schwinn World Sport, but I paid $10 for that Schwinn and I've already taken the entire bike apart and I'm going to repaint it and put it back together and if I make mistakes on something the bike shop will help me and I'm not as concerned because the Schwinn really isn't worth anything like this new Sekai racing bike I found. I absolutely LOVE this new racing bike and I don't want to ruin anything on it, so I'll let the experts at the bike shop do the overhaul on it. I just have to buy new tires for it before I take it in to the bike shop, I can put new pedals and bar tape on myself.

You asked this in the other post, I decided to answer it here because your questions were about this Sekai. And I didn't want to hijack the other thread.

You have a quill stem with a threaded fork on the Sekai (this is the older style). When I said not to have them cut the steer tube, this was intended for a threadless fork. Apples and oranges. (I think you know the following, but I typed it out already and decided not to delete it) If you want to raise the handlebars on the Sekai, you need to loosen the bolt at the top of the quill stem (only a few turns, don't unscrew the entire bolt), either it will drop down or you will need to tap it LIGHTLY with a hammer. Then the bolt will drop down and the stem should be loose. You can raise it to the minimum insertion mark. Screw the bolt until slighly snug, align the stem with the front wheel, then tighten the bolt.

If the handlebars are not high enough, you have a few options, 1) there is a stem by Nitto that is extra long Nitto stem, this is about $50, or 2) you can use a quill stem adapter, this will make your steerer threadless compatible so you can use a standard threadless stem (dimension quill stem adapter), now you can use a lot of different threadless stems, I like the dimension because it is longer than other stem adapters. This stem adapter should work in place of the Cinelli stem. I use the threadless adapter on a old Waterford bike, I like the threadless adapter because I can uses stems that have a faceplate which makes it easier to change stems or handlebars.

The aerobars appear to be some version of the profile design airstrykes, just loosen a couple of bolts on the clamps to the handlebars and rotate the aerobars until the bottom of the bars is level with the ground, you can play with it from there. The arm rests for the aerobars don't appear to have pads, you can get replacements from profile design, you can figure out which pads will work best for your arm rests.

I hope this answers your questions. Oh, I never would call your or any of my bikes a racing bike, I call this style road bikes, that's because there are road racing bikes, mountain racing bikes, cyclecross racing bike, bmx racing bikes, etc...

Thank you so much for your help and Yes I will remember that now, :thumb: still learning all the new jargon and terms, thank you for your patience :-)
Unfortunately my Quill stem is already at the minimum insertion and it's still too low down for me. So I have to look into the Quill stem adapter or a new Quill stem. Perhaps after my Bariatric surgery and I am down to an ideal weight then perhaps I might be comfortable riding in the position with the drop bars down a bit lower. It will take me a while to build up endurance for that as aside from the extra weight I have right now I also have a form of Exercise induced Asthma so the extra weight doesn't help that problem at the moment. I will look into the other options that you have given me and I really appreciate the help :)

Would you be able to share some photos of your bike that has the Dimension stem adapter? I'd love to see some photos to get a better idea of how it looks and how how you were able to get your handlebars. I was looking at the link you gave me for the Nitto Stem but I have no idea what size I would need as I don't really understand all the metric sizes yet, the smallest one is 60mm and then they have several more and I just don't understand yet how tall any of them are. :( If you have not figured it out yet I'm a total newb to the bike mechanics and I'm trying to teach myself but alas all the metric stuff is also throwing me off too.

For mm sizing, 1" is about 25mm (it's really 25.4mm), so the Nitto stem has a height of 11 inches. The varying number is the length of the stem, 60 mm is about 2-1/3 inches. Hope that helps. I will get some photos of my stem adapter this morning.

Don't buy any stem yet until you ride the bike for a bit and determine how you need to adjust it. Start with handlebars about the same height as the saddle, then do it feel cramped or do the handlebars feel too far away?

Here is a photo of the stem adapter.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c2c4b750f5.jpg
This is a Dimension Stem adapter.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d0cc323921.jpg
This is the bike with the Dimension Stem adapter

Thank you!!!!

Isn't your Schwinn a road bike?

It is, it is totally stripped down now, that was the cheap 1984 World Sport I got for $10, I am practicing on learning how to refurbish bikes with this old Schwinn. So is the Mystery Purple Vintage bike I picked up in June, that is a repaint and the person took all the stickers off that one so I don't know what frame it is, the bike shop thinks it's a Miyata, T-Mar didn't have any suggestions on the serial number as it was an odd one he has not seen before. For the Schwinn rebuild I am getting rid of the drop handlebars and I bought upright cruiser bars for that one, I'll put fenders on it and I'm actually going to repaint the Schwinn, the Goof Off someone suggested to removed the stuck on adhesive from the frame totally stripped the paint off pretty bad, so that ruined my chances of trying to just touch up tiny spots on the bike.

I am not a fan of the drop handlebars mostly because my back hurts from that position but for this Sekai I picked up it is the top of the line 5000 racing series and I don't really want to alter it much by putting upright bars on it, but I need to get the handlebars higher so I don't have to bend over so much when riding it.

Do you have any idea of how old the tyres are? They look a bit cracked in the last photo and they generally only last about 10 years before deteriorating. It may be worth replacing them if you're not sure as they aren't that expensive.
Weight wise they should be fine (28mm is wide for a road bike) but you may need to run them at a higher pressure (within the limits).

There are plenty of online tyre pressure calculators. I can't share links yet but the first one I found on good thinks that you should be running at 104psi (250lb is 113kg).

not sure how old the tires are but they need to be replaced as they are worn badly and you can see the threads in some spots. I already ordered new tires from Bicycle Warehouse online and they were shipped today so I should have them soon.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1eb64e4bc7.png
These are the tires I just bought

I'm just going to comment on the Technomic here. This may or may not be the case in your bike, but it looks to me like the frame is a 19"? I'm a shade under 5'7", and working on a small 19" frame. Not yet built up but I anticipate it is smaller than the 52cm or 54cm that I prefer. So I stuck a technomic in the fork just to see. It is about a cm over the minimum insert line. Could be something funky with my fork but I did notice the minimum insert line on technomics is, well, about a cm higher than on shorter stems. Also, it's pricey... So if you decide to look at a technomic, check to make sure it goes in up to the minimum.

Ride it! That bike would your weight easily

Get a Nitto Dirt Drop stem from Rivendell and you will be good to go. I just looked and the dirt drop is out of stock, but they have this one.

https://www.rivbike.com/collections/...to-tallux-stem

Thanks, so I don't know how to figure out the selections for the "reach" they have different CM sizes. how would I go about trying to figure that out? And I also don't know the clamp size I need. the bars and quill stem I have are a Cinelli brand. This Nitto quill stem would be a great option for me

You kind of need to know where you want be compared to what is on there now. The reach is measured from the center of the quill to center of the bars. For diameter, I would order the 26mm and a 25.4-26mm shim just to be safe either way if I didn't have a way to measure. The bars on your bike have a very long reach (and look to be set up kind of funky), so that is a consideration on the length. Most people want to be leaned forward about 45 degrees when seated with hands on the hoods. Remember that as you raise the stem it will also shorten the effective reach of the cockpit a little bit. I have been riding long enough that I know what length I am going to need from the back of the saddle to my controls (drop bar or flat bar makes no difference), that makes setting up a new bike pretty straight forward.

OK thank you so much for these suggestions, I want a more upright riding position for now until I lose the weight I want, I'm preparing for Bariatic surgery in November, I expect to lose at least 100 pounds which will and should help considerably with my joint aches and pains and my back hopefully. I'm 52 and I'm no longer interested in riding in a downward position, even though I have this amazing top of the line road bike I have no real future intentions of riding it in a competition or long distance racing format, and want the handlebars still to be drop bars but high enough that I don't get a sore back riding. Hopefully next Spring/Summer once a good amount of weight has come off and I can get back on the roads to ride I hope to be able to comfortably ride several miles at one time. Working myself up to much longer rides will take time as I also have a form of Exercise induced Asthma so I really have a lot of work to do in order to get my body feeling healthy again. I think I'll show the LBS this Quill stem you showed me and ask their opinion on what reach I would need to be comfortable riding it. I don't trust my beginner level repair and fixing up skills to do any major work on the this bike so I'm going to have my LBS do a tune up on the bike and will ask them at this time for some guidance on the right reach for this Quill stem. Thank you again so much for this info. I'm still learning all this bike repair jargon and learning how to do everything, it's a slow process to understand all the mechanics.

Nice bike. Tange Champion #1 tubing is similar to Columbus SL maybe a little lighter. It's good stuff and was used on higher end Japanese bikes of the time. It should ride really well.
If you're worried about the wheels at all I would have your LBS check the spoke tension of both wheels and get them in spec. There's a kind of goldielocks tension that really needs to be measured to get right for the combination of hubs, rims, and spokes. Not to tight, not to loose. Once the spokes are within spec it's really surprising how strong a bicycle wheel is, and how much weight it can handle. Still not a good idea to be jumping curbs or plowing through deep potholes because these wheels are not made for impact.
When you recover from surgery it might be good to get a bike fit. It can help reduce the chance of injury and make you more comfortable on the bike. Comfort is a good way to keep you on the bike which, I think, is really the overall goal. I wouldn't spend the money on a fit now because everything is likely to change after the surgery. So you might want to wait a bit before fiddling too much with a stem and other fit related parts. Things will most likely change again as you loose weight and get used to being on the bike, but by then the small changes to fit will, probably, not need new parts. Although there's always upgrades...
Happy riding!