baker675

how does body weight effect you in cycling
and why???

10 Wheels

How much do you weight?

rufvelo

Power to weight is everything in cycling. Also good for summiting Mt.Everest.

rufvelo

Is your avatar a bicycle or a diagram of the female reproductive system?

10 Wheels

It is a Pic of my wife.
Thanks for asking.

jonestr

power to weight ratio is everything for climbing, but power to frontal area ratio is what you care about for riding the flats

Ilectric_toast

lol

Shoalwater

althought often overlooked, below is a scientific review of body weight to equipment / activity, white male.................

lbs. optimum bike weight

<125 consider gymnastics
125 - 150 bike < 17 lbs.
150 - 200 bike 17 - 22 lbs.
>200 consider contact sport such as football or mountain biking

rufvelo

You forgot to include the sampling data in the foot note.

dysFTP

Because muscle has a greater density than fat, the more fat you have the less you will weigh and the faster you will ride.

johnny99

Former World Champion and Tour de France points champion Tom Boonen weighs 180 pounds, so cycling is not just a sport for lightweights. Obviously, lower body fat is good for most athletes.

wanders

The gravitational pull on larger objects prevents them from increasing their distance from the center of the earth as quickly and with less force as smaller objects.

rufvelo

Not completely true. With sufficiently large muscles, if you can climb with a velocity of 17.5Kmph and reach an altitude of at least 62 miles then things get a lot easier from there.

bryroth

Once you reach 0 weight and infinite mass you travel at the speed of light.

umd

Incorrect. It is important, but it is not everything. The flatter the terrain that you ride on, less importance is on power/weight and more is on power/drag. Drag does not increase linearly with weight (although it does increase), so lightweights (like me) have some disadvantage because of lower raw power output.

jasandalb

I will disagree...I weigh 205...coming down the scales and working my way to a goal of 180, but when I started I weighed 220lbs. There is nothing wrong with being a clydesdale and riding.....in fact they have a good thread on here.

tntyz

My body weight generally affects how long I can sit the saddle. The less I weigh, the less the pressure on my *****, the longer I can ride, the further I can go.

baker675

222 pounds is a good weight for cycling???

AlexTaylor

Magnus Backstedt weighs over 200lbs...He seems to manage.

dysFTP

Yes, as long as you are a track sprinter and your body fat is below 7%!

If you want to be a decent road cyclist you'll need to drop 50 lbs or more (assuming you are not 9 feet tall).

seb1041

I inflate my tires with helium to compensate for my beer gut.

baker675

what about weight loss on a indoor trainer do you really lose weight
on them

umd

Why wouldn't you?

baker675

im planning to buy a trainer which is best

rufvelo

OTOH, while power and weight are significant factors at any speed, the effect of drag isn't so much of a factor at lower speeds - so as a generalization power/weight still rules.