LarrySellerz

I gave my coworker a nice road bike because I thought it would make her commute to work a lot quicker and it was too small for me. Today she told me that she got a heartrate monitor, and on flat ground her heartrate is a full 20 BPM faster on the commuter bike. She is afraid of going fast, so she is unable to get her heartrate up on flat ground with the road bike. This is an argument for a situation where a heavier slower bike being a better tool for working out than a specialized sports bicycle.

terrymorse 

A drag chute is also a better workout.

SurferRosa

I would suggest fast-paced crawling. Great workout. And all she may need to invest in is some good gloves and knee pads.

jaxgtr

Or, she could grind a heavy gear and drive her HR to explosion range

KerryIrons

Better yet is dragging a cinder block tied to the seat post with a rope. Some practice should allow the woman to ride at a pace that gets her heart rate up.

Steve B.

If she learned to push the road bike to a faster speed, her workout would be just as good.

Reynolds 

Of course, if you want to go at x speed, a heavier/less efficient bike will need more effort. Nothing new.

LarrySellerz

You jest, but runners do this unironically

Trakhak

Road bikes aren't right for everyone. It's easy to forget that BikeForums posters tend to divide into two groups: people who like to ride bikes that are optimized for performance and people who like to complain about the people in the first group.

Not that Larry's friend is in either category. It's also easy to forget that the vast majority of bike riders don't know or care about BikeForums.

shelbyfv

12V truck battery on the rack.

surak

I had a slow commuter bike, actually 2 of them in succession (won the nicer but still slow second bike in a raffle). They were so slow that I never rode them all the way to or from work because it took too long. As soon as I bought a road bike I started doing the 31 mile round trip regularly. This is an argument for the faster road bike being a better workout than a heavier and slower bike.

Reynolds 

e-commuter bike gives still better workout.

genejockey 

If she's on flat ground, and her HR is 20 bpm higher on the commuter bike, either she's riding into a ferocious headwind, or something in the commuter bike is dragging, like brake pads or such. Or her tires are flat.

wheelreason

Gyms should get rid of all the fancy stationary bikes and put in a bunch of beach cruisers on fan trainers...

ofajen

That would likely be her (more upright) body dragging through the air. More frontal surface area and all that jazz.

Costs me at least 50 watts to ride my MTB vs road bike at 18 mph.

Otto

Troul 

a trike converted to a unicycle would give more of a workout. Especially if it's converted using all dumpster found parts.

Maelochs

Not really.

This is one situation where for one person and her specific physical and psychological conditions, a specific sort of workout suited her better than some other sort.

it is an argument for designing a workout to suit each exerciser.

As has been mentioned elsewhere, "better" workout is not a monolithic term. A weightlifter, a ballerina, a football lineman, a sprinter, a marathoner, a triathlete ... each will need a different workout to achieve the desired improvements.

Nothing new here. Just good, old-fashioned, and extremely rare common sense.

bikingshearer 

Along the lines of Maelochs post, she will get the best workouts on the bike she feels most comfortable on such that she rides it more often.

Ironfish653

I'd also posit that the bike that requires the most effort, under the guise of "better workout" is also the least effective at being a bicycle

Garthr

A "better workout" is heavily influenced by a whole host of subjective nonsense I tell myself in order to feel a certain way .... hah hah. I'd rather just love the ride, regardless of any quantification of it. Forget the computers and tracking nonsense, just enjoy the scenery, even on a commute.

MattTheHat 

I used to see a walker dragging a huge truck tire roped to his waist. He was a beast!

JoeyBike

“It never gets easier; you just go faster.” -- Greg LeMond

It's not about the danged equipment, it's about how hard you work.

Troul 

True for fitness. Not always the case with other things.

GamblerGORD53

The closer between my century rides, the stronger I get and less cramps I get. Doesn't matter if I ride my 73 lb Rohloff14 or 50 lb with SA 5w.
Not everyday of course.

PeteHski

Ah, but she would then arrive at work quicker, so less time exercising on the faster bike at the same level of effort.