Spoonrobot 

There's no excuse to go on feeling and what's in your head. Get out there with a stopwatch and figure out the difference between the two bikes. A 5 minute hill or section of rollers is enough, ride the bikes back to back or do runs with each bike and then go home and switch to the other bike. 2-3 hours invested will give you all the data you need.

I like a bike that stays at or under 28 pounds unloaded but with all accessories (pedals, cages, racks/bags, lights & fenders).

Anything over this usually points to poor choice in frame quality, wheel quality or tire quality. These are all sources of significant unnecessary weight but the latter two can be economically upgraded, often for a faster rolling and better handling ride.

But really bike weight is as important as you can afford it to be. I can't afford to buy or upgrade a bike that weighs less than around 23-25 pounds so I don't worry about it any further than that. I mean I used to work in a bike shop with riders who would bring me socks to weigh before purchase, same with triathletes and arguing about aero drag. Once you start viewing things like that as variables that are "holding you back" it's easy to lose sight of the big picture.

Good quality bike, with good tires, thoughtfully designed wheels and a good fit - the weight is almost always going to be "a good weight" because quality is never very heavy.

Assuming you're not a very large rider a Soma ES should be fairly cheap and easy to build around 22-23 pounds.

Another way to think about it; do you want to stop and dig a jacket out of a giant seatbag that looks terrible and sways back and forth as you climb? Or pull that jacket out of a front bag and put it on while riding? Stop to change batteries or just switch on a dyno? Get soaked with cold rain and dirt from the road? Stay fairly dry and much warmer? All sorts of stuff happens when you're on the road for 10+ hours.

In my own personal experience going from a fenderless racing bike on 25s and a camelback @22 pounds to a fully-loaded gravel bike on 37s @35 pounds added anywhere from 0-10 minutes per 100km ridden depending on elevation. This is not insignificant but the additional capability that came with the heavier bike expanded the types of roads I can ride and as well as the weather I can easily ride in.

A touring bike is the anti-thesis of a good randonneuse.

Carbonfiberboy 

The Arkel Tailrider bag: https://www.arkel-od.com/en/tailride...-rack-bag.html

Kontact 

How is a long wheelbase with high clearance and rack/fender mounts frameset a good randonneuse vs its antithesis? Aside from frame tubing differences, what's the difference? I'm looking at the Homer Hilson and Atlantis geometry.

rhm

I tend to be in the "bicycle weight doesn't matter that much" school, but I'm not going to try to tell anyone that bike weight doesn't matter. Of course it does! How important it is, well,I think we each have to figure out our priorities for ourselves.
As for me, so far, I've only DNF'ed on one brevet, a 400k a few years ago; but on a couple 200's this year I barely finished at all. My trouble on all of these has been something in the hydration/nutrition balance, coupled with riding too fast on a hot day. I know I'm riding a heavy bike, but I like my bike and I don't think it's holding me back. My priority at this point is keeping myself hydrated and fueled and knowing when I'm pushing too hard.

Before I worry about what my bike weighs, I also have to learn what I need to carry. I always finish rides with food I didn't eat, tools I didn't use, etc; those are the first pounds I should shed.

My point is, sure, bike weight matters; but I have a lot to learn before the weight of my bike reaches top priority.

joewein

The Shutter Precision range of dynamo hubs are also worth a look.

I have the centerlock version (SP PL-8) on both of my bikes. Its performance is very close to the SON products, at less than half the price. Mine have been trouble free and I have not come across a single report of any issues anywhere.

dim

I had a wheelset built, and seriously considered using a Son 28 dynamo hub. However, the new lights on the market that are USB charged was a better option IMHO ....

there is even a Chinese Cree light that costs under £10 and that runs directly from a powerbank ....
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15000LM-S...19.m1438.l2649





get a decent powerbank and you will have several nights of power (I use a RavPower 32000mAh which can charge an Iphone 7 eleven times)

most of the guys that I know who ride Audax, and who are upgrading/buying new bikes, are getting gravel bikes with tubeless tyres, Apidura bags, and hydraulic disc brakes, compact crankset with 11-32 cassettes (or bigger) and their bikes look similar to these setups:

kingston 

I'm pretty cheap, which naturally puts me in the in the "weight doesn't matter" camp so I ride heavy bikes. Out of curiosity I'll weigh my bike next spring when it's loaded up at the start of a brevet. I'm sure it will be at least 40 pounds, probably closer to 45.

I had a discussion with a guy on my last 600k about the benefits of a light randonneuring bike. He had one of those beautiful BQ'esque custom 650b's with lightweight tubing and I was riding my cheap touring bike. My argument was that I was just as fast as him on my heavy bike, and his argument was that the joy of riding a custom bike with lightweight tubing was well worth the cost to him. It was the best argument I've heard yet for spending a lot of money on a lightweight randonneuring bike.

unterhausen

comparing yourself to another rider isn't that interesting. There are a lot of people that are faster than me even when they are riding a 60 pound Oma bike. If I rode a 40 pound bike, I probably wouldn't finish some rides in time, so it's not gonna happen. I am not a weight weenie though, not by a long stretch. But I don't think my bike has weighed much over 30 pounds fully loaded, even on a ride where I expect to take 24+ hours and am packing extra food and clothes. And I hope to go lighter, both my bike and myself.

rhm

I actually bought one of those! It certainly looks like the same thing, fits the description.

It was okay, not great. Seemed to drain the battery pack faster than it should have, but that could be the fault of the battery pack. The amount of light was good (though I don't believe the specifications stated). Light pattern was not great; too much scatter. I relegated it to use on a commuter bike that I use relatively infrequently, and it served well for a year or so. Then the mount broke, and soon after I fixed that the thing gave up its ghost.
I don't regret the purchase, but I won't be buying another one. I may disassemble the thing and try to diagnose the problem, maybe reuse the housing if the electronics are toast.

Bandera

For long rides I'll "wear" the bike that suits weather & road conditions best.
Wet roads & cold hours = Soma Stanyan w/ a bit of storage & full mudguards
Dry roads & challenging terrain= CF Merckx

Horses for courses, as they say.

-Bandera

ThermionicScott 

The guy who won the very first Paris-Brest-Paris did it in 71 hours, on a single-speed that weighed 46 lbs, on roads that had not yet been smoothed out for cars.

So when I embarked on PBP in 2015 with a bike that weighed about 35 lbs with the water bottles full, I knew that if I didn't complete it successfully, it wouldn't be because the bike was too heavy.

dim

yea .... and this is what he looked like:



but if you look like this:




a lighter bike might make the difference of finishing in time.... then your wife won't tell you to rather do gardening as you are wasting your time biking around the place

Houckster

A very good source of information about randonneur bikes can be found a quarterly publication called Bicycle Quarterly. You can use "Bicycle Quarterly" in the URL to look over the site.

Chris Pringle

Which bike do you take on 1,200 Km randonnée that will combine all those variable conditions?

Bandera

Although I've never done a 1,200 Km randonnée, that not being an interest of mine, I've spent some seat-time on the bike in a variety of conditions, distances and terrain over several decades.

I prefer to ride the bike w/ fenders on solo rides if it's likely that hours will be spent of wet roads, especially if rain is inevitable and storage for rain kit is needed. If it's long miles with some dry as well I prefer to not be soaked w/ toxic road spooge and often ride the Soma if in doubt.

In dry or intermittent conditions in warm weather the CF machine gets the nod, especially if a day of long tough climbs is ahead. For pacelines and HIIT it's the Merckx, but I don't do those efforts in the rain anyway.

Having a choice works for me, although guessing wrong on weather is inevitable.

-Bandera

cny-bikeman

No - YOU, the poster, may be faster, but it has little or nothing significant to do with a lighter bike, so cannot be applied to others. It's especially telling that you should claim an advantage with headwinds, as that is exactly the circumstance when wind resistance would pay an even greater role than usual over inertia and rolling resistance, which are the only things affected by weight. Not only is bike weight a small proportion of the total, but weight differences exert a small impact on speed/effort. As for going uphill, what goes up must come down, and the added potential energy of a heavier load will for the most part be made up on the downhill.

dim

start training with a powermeter for a few months ... then switch to a light bike with the same powermeter and go an a 500 mile hilly ride, then come speak again

cny-bikeman

Thank you for the suggestion, but I'll pass. Besides, training would have no effect at all if weight is supposed to be the variable. Go ahead and do what you suggest with a power meter. Two bikes, fitted exactly the same to the rider and with the same tires, but one significantly lighter than the other (5lbs, or even more). Measure total power output over the same course (and several runs each) at approximately the same speed and wind conditions. I doubt that you will show the amount of difference you expect. Physics, not opinion or personal experience, is what determines the effect of weight on performance/efficiency.

Better yet, save yourself time and effort, and put some figures into the calculator at: https://bikecalculator.com/what.html. I did so, and at a steady speed of 20mph on level ground a 5 lb weight difference (30 vs. 25 lbs) with no wind made a difference of .04 mph slower, or about .2%. With a 15mph headwind the difference is only .02mph. I very much doubt that you can detect a difference of less than 10 seconds in a 25 mile ride.

kingston 

@dim, I think you might be talking about something different than everyone else. The OP was asking about a bike for an SR series, which are long rides with generous time allowances, and you're talking about a 500 mile (800k) ride as fast as you can with a power meter. I would take a different bike on a 500 mile race than an ordinary 600k too, but that wasn't the question.

twodownzero

I'm glad you started this thread. I used to care that my bike was 35+ pounds loaded up for a brevet, but on further reflection, it doesn't matter. I still finished with hours to spare and I love the way my bike fits. Weight does not matter.