Originally Posted by
JBerman
Just out of curiosity, when thinking of acceleration and not so much turning, is there an equal difference of bike A of 20lbs and me at 175lbs vs bike B at 15lbs and me at 180lbs?
Is all always about bike weight and not so much total weight?
That one doesn't have a straight answer. Your power will almost certainly be different at the two different weights. Your ability to replicate that power over and over again will also differ. I might well have had more power at my best at 150 but on that 20th surge of the race, I could still be there at 145. 150 was above my best best possible racing weight.
But as said above (curse this forum format; that when I answer a post I don't see the thread so I have to take notes in advance or open another tab. I cannot remember who said this (calso???)) light wheel and bikes mean that in a race you might just make it onto that wheel and a little heavier almost make it. The difference between making it and almost can be 10 minutes. I rode the race of my life on very light wheels and tires. The pace was record breaking fast. I was the last to make the cut on the climb 15 miles from the finish. Beat the guy who fell off my wheel by that 10 minutes. Dropped my chain on each of the next two hills, using everything I had to get back on. Finished with that group, same time, under the old course record and in the money. No way that would have happened on heavier wheels. No way. There was no extra reserve to draw from. (And it took me two full days just to come back into my body. Good thing I worked for our club's sponsoring bike shop. I was paid two full days for being useless.(
I saved those really light wheels for the big races. If I had ridden them for say one of my really long solo training rides that summer (up to 175 miles), they might have made that 10 minute difference, maybe, but that would have been almost entirely because they were a lot nicer rolling tires than my training tires. (10 minutes on a 14 hour day. Big deal!)
Ben