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Why We Should STOP Our Obsession With Bike Weight

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Why We Should STOP Our Obsession With Bike Weight

Old 06-28-21, 09:58 AM
  #26  
KJ43
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A lighter bike is more fun to ride everything else being equal and over longer distances will take less energy to ride.

I don't obsess about weight, but it is part of the equation and helps make my riding more enjoyable even if it's just minor percentage of everything that goes into making riding run.
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Old 06-28-21, 10:07 AM
  #27  
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I think the video has missed the point.
I tinker with the weight of the bike because its fun.

How DO you save 2 pounds on the weight on your bike.
Spoiler
 





And that's why the thru-axle 6mm allen on my road bike is titanium.
It makes me smile, and it's fun.

Barry
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Old 06-28-21, 11:03 AM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by KJ43
A lighter bike is more fun to ride everything else being equal and over longer distances will take less energy to ride.
Only as long as the color is right!
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Old 06-28-21, 04:13 PM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by Barry2
I think the video has missed the point.
I tinker with the weight of the bike because its fun.

How DO you save 2 pounds on the weight on your bike.
Spoiler
 







And that's why the thru-axle 6mm allen on my road bike is titanium.
It makes me smile, and it's fun.

Barry
I don't think it's a matter of missing the point, it's just not what the video was about. A lot of people are weight shaving because they think it's going to make them substantially faster, which it almost certainly won't. You're doing it because you're a mad sci who enjoys the challenge. That's a perfectly good reason for you to do that, but that's a zen thing many of us wouldn't be into.

I've decided that a titanium thru axle is your secret bling. Nothing wrong with that, it makes you happy to know it's there.

Last edited by livedarklions; 06-28-21 at 04:21 PM.
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Old 06-28-21, 04:21 PM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by livedarklions
You're doing it because you're a mad sci who enjoys the challenge.
Thanks for the kind words.
I think....

Maybe

Barry
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Old 06-28-21, 04:23 PM
  #31  
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The post was the point. Content irrelevant.
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Old 06-28-21, 04:23 PM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by livedarklions
Ask me about my 90 mile ride on a Walmart Huffy beach cruiser.
Tell me about your 90 mile ride on a Huffy beach cruiser.
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Old 06-28-21, 04:36 PM
  #33  
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There is a photo from Saturday's huge Tour de France crash that could be used to illustrate the OP's point. In it you can see perhaps a dozen broken frames; many at top and down tubes. So, what, an easy $60 grand of ruined bikes? By contrast, there is the famous footage from "Water Carriers and Kings" (title from memory and wrong, but close) of a rider bending his 1970 steel fork straight enough to ride and finish by hand after a multi-rider crash. Most of the rest had already mounted their bikes and gone.
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Old 06-28-21, 04:40 PM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by 79pmooney
a rider bending his 1970 steel fork straight enough to ride and finish by hand after a multi-rider crash.
that rider could likely afford to drop a few lbs if they had that amount of upper body muscle.
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Old 06-28-21, 04:44 PM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by bikemig
I ride old bikes. 21-23 lbs for an old racing bike isn't bad and that's heavy by today's standards.
I dunno.. a current $3K Trek Domane hits the scales at about 22lbs.
I think the bike company mktg depts have shifted their focus to what amazing things they can do if they start adding weight to their bikes.
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Old 06-28-21, 04:48 PM
  #36  
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I think the stupidest thing I ever did for weight was when I cut about an inch off of an aluminum seat post. It was around 1987 and I’m not sure what I was thinking, or not thinking, at the time.

I’m still using that post in the bike today. Fortunately I’m not getting any taller. But every now and then I look at it and say, “What an idiot.”

John
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Old 06-28-21, 04:49 PM
  #37  
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#aeroiseverything




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Old 06-28-21, 04:55 PM
  #38  
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I really should get a new all-up weight of my '86 Miyata 710 now that I've put a lighter wheelset on it. I'm sure that it is still pretty close to factory weight though, adding a small frame-mounted mini pump,heavier platform pedals, and SunTour classic barcons. IIRC, it was 23.3 pounds before the wheel swap.

I'M carrying 60 extra pounds. It'd be far easier for ME to take off a couple of pounds!!!
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Old 06-28-21, 05:01 PM
  #39  
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Originally Posted by Koyote
Tell me about your 90 mile ride on a Huffy beach cruiser.
Rode that clanky clunker round trip Nashua to Worcester. It was pretty good for the potholes, but I otherwise don't recommend it. I dragged that thing up some pretty big hills and it didn't stop me. I looked it up later and the Walmart website says the bike weighs more than 50 pounds and it is, of course, a single speed.

That ride convinced me that I was really into bicycling again after about a decade of not doing it. I just impulsively did it one day after doing a bunch of 25-30 mile rides.
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Old 06-28-21, 05:15 PM
  #40  
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Originally Posted by Troul
Bicycle Weight Matters
Heavy bikes give you a better workout.
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Old 06-28-21, 05:16 PM
  #41  
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Originally Posted by Barry2
Thanks for the kind words.
I think....

Maybe

Barry
Definitely.
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Old 06-28-21, 05:17 PM
  #42  
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Originally Posted by AlmostTrick
Heavy bikes give you a better workout.
heavy bicycles lessens the ability to escape a vicious dog.
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Old 06-28-21, 05:27 PM
  #43  
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If not weight, what else should we obsess with on our bike?
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Old 06-28-21, 05:28 PM
  #44  
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Originally Posted by Eric F
If not weight, what else should we obsess with on our bike?
bolt length?
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Old 06-28-21, 05:29 PM
  #45  
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Originally Posted by AlmostTrick
Heavy bikes give you a better workout.
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Old 06-28-21, 05:30 PM
  #46  
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Originally Posted by Troul
bolt length?
Yes! As short as possible to save...oh, damn...
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Old 06-28-21, 06:09 PM
  #47  
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Originally Posted by Sy Reene
I dunno.. a current $3K Trek Domane hits the scales at about 22lbs.
I think the bike company mktg depts have shifted their focus to what amazing things they can do if they start adding weight to their bikes.
22 was light back in the day. 23ish was not bad for a racing bike at least if it had clinchers. The cheapest Trek Domaine, the AL 2, weighs in at 21.09 lbs. That would have been a very light weight racing bike back when folks raced steel bikes.

I've been riding lately a 1982 Peugeot PXN 10 which was a standard racing bike back in the day. Nothing that fancy but it's a full Reynolds 531 frame with decent top and upper end french running gear. It weighs 22.7 pounds per the catalog. The other bike I've been riding is a 1970s Fuji Finest with a full chrome moly frame and very decent Japanese components. With a leather saddle, it weighs 25 lbs.
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Old 06-28-21, 06:22 PM
  #48  
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Originally Posted by Eric F
If not weight, what else should we obsess with on our bike?
Bottle cage material
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Old 06-28-21, 06:49 PM
  #49  
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Originally Posted by kahn
How do your bikes feel about you?
They think I should lose a few pounds.
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Old 06-28-21, 07:00 PM
  #50  
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Originally Posted by Eric F
If not weight, what else should we obsess with on our bike?
Color of bar tape.
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