SCRcat6

I'm not sure what was aggressive about my post but I'll own it,so sorry I came off "un-chill". The point I was trying to make was that upgrade-itis comes soon enough, and not to rush it by asking for it here.. I did have a fantastic day and I'm glad that my aggression didn't affect yours!

GeneO 

I can lift my bikes with one 1 finger, but is harder to balance them!

kbarch

You've come to the wrong place.
Knowing that race bikes are supposed to be light, lets look at how light entry-level race bikes are - kind of like: how light does a bike have to be to "qualify?" Turns out it's typically in the 18-19 lb range. So if you aren't planning on racing and your bike is already much under 20 lbs, you're solidly in the "light enough" category. Honestly, my favorite bike weighs around 19 lbs., and I feel like 18-19 lbs is sort of Goldilocks weight - not too heavy, not too light, juuuust right. I've never really raced it because I've always had a lighter bike, but I suppose I could, and it would be OK, depending on the event. Being steel, it would turn a few heads, though.

mcours2006

I've seen an ad on CL using this new standard as well. The bike had 'curved' bars too.

Seattle Forrest

This.

A lot of people spend $$$ to make their bike heavier. Don't believe me? How much lighter would your crank/pedals/hub be without the power meter?

Seattle Forrest

Yep. I've been told about legendary bikes people have seen that you could lift with a finger or two. That's the really impressive stuff right there.

DrIsotope

noodle soup

We were discussing this yesterday while finishing the build of my friend's Speedvagen. One of the guys commented that it was "one-finger" light, and we all snickered and rolled our eyes. He was just joking, but it started a conversation about why people lie about "knowing a guy with a bike that weighs about 5 pounds".

Seattle Forrest

Which PM are you running? I think mine adds about half a pound.

DrIsotope

ptempel

Weight does not matter, grasshopper. Only amount of time to ride does. Seriously, just ride it and be happy that you have a bike that is newer than both of my bikes.

HTupolev

Some of it is probably just people being terrible at estimating weight. Perception of object weight is heavily influenced by visual expectation, and to some degree how the object sits in the hand. A 20lb bike often doesn't "feel heavier" to someone than a jug of milk.

Another thing that people are terrible at guessing is hill steepness...

noodle soup

That's probably true. It's never a cyclist that makes one of those statements.

alexdi

Light is more than it used to be. My hybrid, a converted 1X flat-bar that was originally a mid-2000s Giant endurance road bike, is lighter than my actual 2017 road bike. Disc brakes, aero wheels, aero frames, wide tires, thru-axles... it's death by a thousand cuts. If you're content with rim brakes, you can get into the 15-pound range in the low four-digits. Hitting the same mark with discs gets used-car expensive.

woodcraft

Same here- Quarg spider, 50g.

AlmostTrick

For handlebars, I prefer (and have seen) drop bars described as "curly bars".

noodle soup

@trekmogul

that’s light, but I built a FG bike that light out of spare parts, and the only ridiculously lightweight part was a $20 CF saddle.

I’m sure you can do better than that Trek.

DrIsotope

Is a hammer that is never used to drive a nail a hammer at all? I think one could easily make the philosophical argument that it isn't a bicycle, as a blank canvas sitting beside some tubes of paint and a box of brushes is not a work of art. That isn't a bike. It's a statue. It's a sculpture. It's a simulacrum.

noodle soup

I concur.

kbarch

Oddly, it seems both more and less than a simulacrum. More, because with the addition of some pedals one could get on it and ride it as well as any other bike (presumably). It's more than supplies - the painting has been (mostly) painted, but you might say no one has looked at it and it hasn't communicated anything yet. But at the same time, it's less, because in many ways it is intentionally NOT imitative of a (normal) bike.

By the way, as much as I appreciate a good looking, well-made bike, I don't think I'll ever understand why some people think it's appropriate to display them like fine art. As a trophy, like a stag's head, sure, but as sculpture? Never. They just have their own story, and nothing to say about anything else.

DrIsotope

Every hobby seems to have this, and I've never been able to get my head around it. I've been building, wrenching, and racing R/C cars since I was 15 years old. There is a vast contingent of guys that sink copious quantities of cash into "shelfers," cars that are never intended to even be driven. I build them to drive them. I build bikes to ride. Hell, I built a bike for my son and I've already put 80 miles on it.

puma1552

kbarch

I can imagine a shelf of R/C cars as a curiosity, like any collection, as you suggest of most hobbies. But bikes are kind of big, and putting them on the wall of ones home is usually pretty awkward - but not quite as outlandish as hanging a motorcycle on the wall of ones den (which I've seen - and if I recall correctly, it was a lightweight superbike ).

1500SLR

The problem is that there is no consensus. "Light enough" really comes down to what you are doing with your bike and what your personal expectations are. I will say. The more you go down this pathway, the more you will realise the law of diminishing returns. That says to me that light enough comes down to a bike that meets your maximal performance capability. If the bike is not making you faster, or more comfortable (so as you can spend more hours on your bike) then I have to question why you're continuing to spend money on it.

trekmogul 

Still never opened RC's I thought I may play with about 8 years ago and still in sealed boxes..