Originally Posted by
Maelochs
Sorry but you are wrong.
The rider has to move the bike with his/her strength ... and the lighter the bike, the less work it takes to move it ... and the faster s/he can move it. The engine is always the same (the rider, in whatever shape he or she is on any particular day.) The aero is going to be important, particularly at speed over about 18 mph, but if the poster is looking at similar styles of bike, the aero isn't going to change much. The only limiting factors are friction (a function of gravity) and air resistance and since the only variable is gravity, therefore gravity---weight of the bike---is the limiting factor.
In time-trial events on mostly level courses, the larger heavier riders with more muscles usually win because the aerodynamics of their larger size is less disadvantage than their extra power is an advantage, so much for your theory.....
Weight only makes a specific acceleration harder or climbing hills harder, not keeping any speed on level roads or downhill. If a bike is a little heavier, then it does not have to be harder to accelerate to 20mph if you just take a very little extra time to do it, maybe thirty seconds instead of twenty, do you have an extra ten seconds to spare ???
Weight has no effect on the friction of bicycle bearings large enough to measure, that is stated in actual research on the subject.
In the $600 price bracket you are in the low price bracket of any brand-name bicycles line, which means the heavier bikes. Telling a novice cyclist asking to solve a problem by dumping his cash in that price range instead of having him become a better cyclist that knows how to fix his own bikes and save money, is not doing the novice cyclist any favor at all. You are putting the welfare of your bicycle-forum ego ahead of the person asking for help, or you simply don't know any more than they do and have no real advice to give them.