preventec47

I'll take those clunker tanks .... I love em.

preventec47

Unless you are a professional or amateur racer..... Ride as heavy a bike as you can ! You will get a better workout, You will save money as they are cheaper and more rugged requiring less repair, and your crashes will occur at slower speeds. You go out and ride for two hours and come home. Do you really care if you went 30 instead of 40 miles ? The idea was to burn 2500 calories either way.. In addition, everyone who passes you will respect you more than they would if you could blast past them on a whim. All the bike manufacturers spend millions of dollars to brainwash you into thinking you aint cool if you dont have the latest lightest bleeding edge technology. Are you going to let yourself fall victim to that ? Me personally- I like to ride my sixty pound tandem solo. It rides much like a limousine and has many other benefits. Twice I have been able to given broken down motorists a ride back to town.

Pop N Wood

I tried that approach when I needed to lose weight, heavy bike with knobby tires. Yep, didn't go as fast and had to work to do that. But what I found is I didn't ride as long either. Put on some smooth tires and ended up with a better workout

livedarklions

No thanks. That might work for you, but having ridden some fairly long distances on a 50 pound Walmart Huffy cruiser (90 miles was my max), I'm not going back to super heavy bikes anytime soon.

For me, there's a happy medium of relatively lightweight bikes well short of the "bleeding edge" and it has nothing to do with marketing--I find it a lot more fun to ride a 20 pound bike than a 50 pound one.

As to the respect thing, I don't think the people passing me on a heavy bike are giving two thoughts about me either way. I do know I annoyed a lot of guys when I passed them on the heavy bike and they couldn't keep up with me. On the flat, weight really isn't that big a factor in speed, it's a much bigger factor in acceleration and hill climbing.

Hey, like what you like, more power to you, but I really don't like being accused of being a "victim". .

pdlamb

Once you're rolling on a flat road, heavy bikes don't take any more energy to pedal than light bikes.

Knobby tires do take more energy, but as Pop notes, they're not as much fun to ride.

Now if you can keep up with a group ride, and ring your bell as you pass the leader going uphill, THAT will give you serious points. Of course, it'll probably piss them off and you'll never see the group again after you get over the hill.

Koyote

Seems like a good rationalization for riding a cheap-ass bike. Knock yourself out.

Milton Keynes

You do you, but I'll stick with a lighter bike. Yes, I do care if I've gone 30 vs. 40 miles. Going further is what I care about. Getting totally winded from riding a heavy bike after 10 miles is not my idea of fun.

Ironfish653

Heavy bikes don’t have to be slow, but it helps.

DorkDisk

Heavy bikes are not bad; but better than a lighter bike? Nope.

Wileyrat

Heavy bikes are better? If you say so.....

I'll stick with my lighter bikes.

highrpm

I've been saying this for years. When we do a family ride and I swap my hybrid for one of my sons' wide-tired mountain bikes with suspensions, I notice immediately how much more pedaling I have to do. I coast more and put in less effort on my lighter hybrid.

Milton Keynes

By that logic I should go back to my old Walmart mountain bike that weighed 40 pounds and was harder than hell to ride. Nope, way too much effort.

rydabent

Remember when the first quasi Mountain Bikes were first ridden and developed out in Calif.. A lot of them were the heavier Schwinn Collegiate frames. Heavy and strong.

cabledawg

My daily commuter is a steel framed longtail cargo bike with e-assist. Doesn't come much heavier than that. I can still bomb down the MUP if I have a light load and tail wind. But then I get on my aluminum mountain bike and it's like there's nothing underneath me!

Hondo Gravel

I ride a heavier gravel bike on the road with 38s ... Though a bit slower I like the durability and capability to then go from the tarmac to gravel. Holds a frame bag for long rides.. but again I’m not racing or care about speed. No a cheap 1000 pound Huffy isn’t in the same bicycling universe but a heavier stouter high end bike has some advantages.

CAT7RDR

My first bike in 25 years was a 37 lbs hardtail 29'er I use as a comfort bike. As long as you have enough gears, battle tanks are fun.

Hondo Gravel

Some gravel roads are too rugged even for a gravel bike so out comes the front suspension 29er. For fun a cruise my fat bike down a gravel road or trail for just the fun of it.

jsigone

I like cheating......the wind

my main bike is Aero framed and deep aero wheels

my body is not aero though

Gary in NJ

I have an 18 pound bike and a 26 pound bike. I can tell you without reservation that the 18 pound bike is a joy to ride. It's carbon frame and seat post smooth out the bumpiest of roads, and it's much easier to climb hills with grades that exceed 12%. In fact, there are hills where I don't think twice about ascending on my 18 pound bike that aren't even considered on the heavier bike (and that bike has a lower 24/32 gear). At the end of a long hard ride, I feel great getting off the lighter bike, and wonder why I keep the heavier bike (it's now converted to a gravel bike...that's why I keep it).

genejockey 

I've been working hard at taking weight off MY frame, so I won't be adding any on to the bike's, thank you. And it DOES matter to me how far I go. Plus, I'm not sure how a heavy bike will handle the descents I ride on. Just the other day, I saw a guy on a cheap bike go into a death wobble at less than 30 mph. Good thing the bike lane at that point is two cars wide!

livedarklions

Agreed that heavier is better for certain purposes, but the premise of the OP is that heavier is cheaper. No way is a good gravel bike cheaper than a somewhat lighter road bike of similar quality.

I think if you take OP at face value, the logical conclusion from the post is that the ideal bike would be the WM clunker as that will be as inefficient a machine as you can get.

icemilkcoffee 

I just chain a log and drag it behind me. Great workout!

livedarklions

I disabled the engine on a Harley and added a pair of pedals to drive the chain. Now I'm Superduperman.

70sSanO

Unfortunately you’re not just years, but decades, late to this party. No offense, but did you actually think this hasn’t been discussed and dismissed many, many times already?

John

AlmostTrick

It's true that extra weight mostly only come into play when you are accelerating or climbing.

But if this were true you'd be able to maintain bike speed while pulling a freight train on the flats. So more weight does take more energy. Always. It's only a matter of how much depending on the situation.

OP: get a trailer and load it up with bricks... better work out!