tomato coupe

Greg Lemond is a bit overweight these days ... should he not be riding a lightweight carbon bike?

Maelochs

This is a .... well, never mind.

I am extremely overweight, and I own two bikes which are around 17 pounds road-ready (lights pedals, tubes, tools .... ) How much weight do I need to lose before I am allowed to ride them?

Seems like a silly question, but then your post ....

I enjoy riding a range of bikes, but I prefer lighter bikes in general. I know I am not faster, I know I am not cooler (I really couldn't be any cooler ... ) and I know some snobs think i should be riding Huffies and Magnas. Stuff them. I bought the parts, built my bikes, and I like them And it is nobody else's business.

I agree, buying a bike not suited to one's riding style would be a waste. That is why I do not own any beach cruisers, nor any Walmart mountain bikes. Otherwise ... feel free to grab a few clues next time you are out of your bubble.

Fat people are allowed to have nice stuff. Go tit? Even prejudiced, small-minded and hateful people are allowed to have nice stuff ... but who would want to be one of those?

GhostRider62

Biggest wastes for me are bike fits and paying a mechanic to do work incorrectly.

Leinster

If you had started out with those hills, you probably would have thought cycling sucks without the base fitness and bike handling of riding the MUP for a while. Many a non-cyclist's single-experience story starts "I went with my friends up the local hills...." and ends "...and I sold the bike a week later."

livedarklions

Are you under some delusion that the weight of the bike has to be proportional to the weight of the rider?

Maybe think twice before posting next time.

Darth Lefty 

The Executive Chairman of LeMond Carbon?

https://www.wired.com/story/greg-lem...ed-dream-bike/

squirtdad

The biggest waste of money in biking (at least for me ) is to cheap out and try to make do with something cheap or not really what you want, and end up buying what you really needed or wanted,

Darth Lefty 

The tandem bike was not a hit but not sure if I regret it. More like I invested too much emotion in it. That's how they sell the things, really

The Cleary Scout 24 that I got for my oldest kid. He doesn't want it, and it's tweaked right out of the box

rsbob 

Carbon pedals?

jfouellette

I see my post is misunderstood. Some are fast to jump to a conclusion. For starters I m also overweight. The idea is that performance oriented ridders are often focused on reducing the weight of their bikes and spending much money to do this. Many ridders could lose their extra pounds which would be less of a money waste. Now if you already are at optimum weight, reducing the weight of the bike will be useful, if marginal even. The same can be said of car racers would spend large amounts of money to gain a weight advantage. It s about expectations. If your goal is performance buying a carbon light weight wonder is only part of attaining your goal. Buying that 500$ golf driver may help but so would improving your swing.

tomato coupe

But … pedals are rotating weight!!!

Eric F 

Having a light, high-performance bike inspires me to ride, because riding that kind of bike is exciting. Riding more helps me lose weight. Why do I have to wait until I lose weight to ride the kind of bike I like to ride?

terrymorse 

This runs very close to the "light components are wasted on you, lose some weight" unsolicited advice that appears every time someone brings up bike component weight.

It is not helpful.

Darth Lefty 

ohhhh that made my poor engineer head hurt

jfouellette

It looks like some people are sensitive about discussing weight and performance. Given this, I’m going to ride my bike. Goodbye and have a nice day being light and fast. Buy whatever floats your boat.

MoAlpha

I’m pretty thin and I’m still slow on my fancy bike, so I guess that settles that.

tomato coupe

The real dilemma is knowing when you've reached your absolute minimum body weight, so that you are then allowed to spend money on a lighter bike.

terrymorse 

As a lifetime member of the "thin and still slow" club, I feel this.

If it were't for power-to-weight ratio, I'd have no power at all.

livedarklions

You aren't making this any better.

I don't judge how easy or hard it is for someone else to lose weight, but if they can't, they're still entitled to try to cut vehicle weight elsewhere.

livedarklions

You said something dumb. It happens to all of us, don't try to put it on other people being "sensitive". You fell for OP's original troll trap and tried to judge other people's buying preferences.

Maelochs

I am far from sensitive about my weight. I weigh (after a winter of lung disease) just over an eighth of a ton.

I like light bikes. Most of my bikes are not light, but I like a lot of types of bikes.

What I don't like is snobs telling me I cannot have or do not deserve, or I am wasting money building or buying, a light bike because I should just lose weight.

That is what you said, and I find it mean-spirited and also ignorant.

Prove to me that you deserve any of the bikes you own ... I can invent criteria which you cannot meet. Then you can sell all your bikes because owning bikes you could not ride would be wasteful.

I agree with Livedarklions (very rarely .... ) You said something which was offensive, but so what? No real harm, no real foul. We can all move on .... but stop trying to defend or justify what you said. It was just kind of stupid.

As I said in Post #778 ... I know I am not faster on a lighter bike. I track my stats, I can prove it. Some days i want to take out my light endurance-geometry bike .... tons of fun. Some days I ride my race-geometry lightweight .... it is a little harder on the body because of the lower stack and longer reach, but still fun .... more fun when i drop a few pounds and stretch some (couldn't do a lot of exercise this winter .... busy drowning in mucus.)

Some days I like to ride my comfy work/rain bike. It is very similar to my lightweight endurance bike in every way except it weighs ten pounds more ... but I really like it and like to ride it. Some days my steel Raleigh gets the call ... and some days my old Cannondale, which weighs so much I haven't ever weighed it. A touring triple is overkill around here but i still like the bike.

Is that okay with you? Can you understand that "performance" means different things at different times even to a single person?

Or more to the point .... can you understand that your judgmental crap is just that, crap, and that you should maybe be glad that we are not going to condemn you for condemning us for not losing weight before buying bikes you think we don't deserve?

Seriously, you don't even have to apologize ... we all mess up. Just stop trying to justify an error. It is not a strong look for you.

Trakhak

Love it!

Lombard

Looks like an "I'll take my ball and go home" response. Now who is sensitive?

Lombard

Exactly. If a lighter bike motivates you to ride more, you will get into better shape and lose weight. Not a waste.

MoAlpha

Were you born under a bad sign too?