Road Cycling - Experment In Terror

As you all know I'm a big old boy and I have often wondered how I would compare to the young, trim and healthy (Amir, are you listening?).

SO, I would like to challenge each of you Y,T & H roadies to fill a back pack so,that you weight what I do 255# (116 kg), ride 30 to 40 miles with at least one fourth of the ride in 7%+ grade hills and post your average rolling speed (off your bike computer).

My average is 13.3 to 14 MPH.

I honestly would like the feedback.

1oldroadie

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Not a fair test at all, 1oldroadie. You are big, but with your bigness comes big legs and big leg muscles to power all that weight around. Little guys have smaller muscles, so it ain't an apples to apples comparison, dude. My legs would like sticks to you. It's amazing to me that they can even get me up a hill at all, no matter what the speed, but then they have only my weight of 135 lbs plus the weight of my bike to push up the hill. If you think that sounds ridiculously light and why should I have a problem, how about YOU trying to pedal uphill using you arms instead of your legs. I suspect your arms muscles are probably the same size as my leg muscles. Then you'd be doing for yourself the test you're asking us to do.

And yes, I've tried lifting weights to build muscle with only a very slight result. I got the body I got, and I gotta do with it what I can. It's that way for all of us, oldroadie. The skinny guys don't necessarily get off easy. We all got our crosses to bear.

Island rider is right. You have extra weight, deal with it. Don't try stroking your ego by reasoning that your extra weight makes you stronger. In the end of the day, the FASTEST rider wins...not the one who put out the most watts.

Keep biking. Pretty soon, you won't be able to claim so much girth and weight:thumbup:

Now children, you don't need to show your maturity here... I sense a "small man" complex coming out.:D

If you can't answer a forum with a mature response, why not ignore it, and leave it to those willing to respond to a valid question. Maybe you kids aren't putting in enough mileage, and feel a bit guilty you have a low AVS.

BTW, my AVS is 15.4 mph, over 20/miles or on my weekly century... always the same. Yes, I weigh 220 lbs.,
and the little guys and I ride side by side... often comparing notes.:D

You are right, "ego" does have something to do with the way you feel... ... ...;)

I didn't mean for this to be an ego thing, or a big/little you thing or a fat thing, etc.

Most people can not even imagine that we are riding 20, 30, 40, 50, 100+ miles in one day on a childs toy, so as far as ego goes we can strut.

I just wonder if its size effects the riding that much or if its the conditioning.

BTW this time of year in Oklahoma we are into 90 to 95F temperatures with winds of min 10 to 25+mph

Originally posted by 1oldRoadie
I didn't mean for this to be an ego thing, or a big/little you thing or a fat thing, etc.

Most people can not even imagine that we are riding 20, 30, 40, 50, 100+ miles in one day on a childs toy, so as far as ego goes we can strut.

I just wonder if its size effects the riding that much or if its the conditioning.

BTW this time of year in Oklahoma we are into 90 to 95F temperatures with winds of min 10 to 25+mph

I have great respect for riders with a large build. I'm 5' 8" and about 150 pounds (142 is my racing weight), so I'm realatively thin. I've heard too many larger people say that they simply cannot bike due to their large frame.

Keep biking and proving them wrong! :D

I think it is the conditioning... If you are big or small, your condition determines, along with some laws of physics, how far and how fast you can consistantly ride. I ride for distance, not for speed, so I don't average a high speed. But, someone who races is training race muscle, and will have a higher AVS on the distances trained for.
If you have ever watched a peloton pass by, you will see big racers (usually the sprinters), and smaller guys than keep the pace (usually pretty high), and the hills will weed out the ones not in top shape (that day).
Yes... conditioning... I think.:rolleyes:

1Old,

go ahead and be proud of expending the most energy on a given hilly ride. Your real enemy is an inability to get that energy back when descending. If you go slow because of pavement and turns too bad. Go fast, and you can blame air-resistance for "cheating" your energy payback.

You gotta get out on a superflat, smooth course on a real,windy, blustery day, crank it up to 25mph, and then watch those weasely 60kilo wimps get knocked around by the wind.

or sumpin' like that....