patentcad

That's how much Lance says his Treks weighed in 1999 and then in 2005 (I'm sure he meant 14.9 lbs or whatever the UCI limit is) in the recent Outside Magazine interview (fascinating read by the way). Bicycle technology really did ramp up between '99 and '05. Interestingly enough, those are the years I was out of cycling completely (2000 through early 2005 actually) and when I returned to rides with the Road Nazis, the Nyack Ride seemed to have gotten faster. Everybody was riding bikes that were 3-5 lbs lighter with light Zipp style CF wheels.

Kind of makes you wonder if they can make that kind of advancement in the art in the next five years, but they would appear to be pushing the envelope a bit.

garysol1 

I have to think with today's economy that a lot of the advancements we have seen in recreational technology is going to hit the proverbial brick wall for a few years.

pdedes

I think we're coming up to materials limitations. Unless there is some relaxation in UCI regulations, we're almost all the way there.

patentcad

Isn't the wall Asian CF?

garysol1 

It's a light wall but a wall all the same.....

BengeBoy 

I was just looking at Jan Heine's new book, "The Competition Bicycle," over the weekend. He tracked down and photographed all the unrestored, famous racing bikes he could get his hands on -- the newest ones were bikes ridden by the likes of Merckx, Andy Hampsten, Greg Lemond.

Actual weights as photographed (with seats, pedals, etc.) were all about 22 to 24 pounds; not much change vs. some of the Tour de France winners in the book from the 40's and 50's. So while components improved a lot, weights didn't go down for many years.

The only bikes that weighed under 20 pounds were purpose-built time trial bikes with drilled out components, etc.

https://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/CompetitionBook.html

invwnut

good info

Lazyrider

Although I agree that lighter bikes may offer some increased speed advantages, if you look at average TDF speeds, you will be surprised how some of those "heavier" bike years had some comparable average speeds over the duration of the whole Tour. Lemond still has the fastest TT I think.

mattm

i wanna get that book, i love some of those old rigs. in another of his books he detailed an aluminum 10kg racer from the 50's.. i so want it!!

well at least now i know my 21lb ciocc is cutting edge, weight-wise (or, it was back in '99)

jonestr

really? Not calling you a liar, but I doubt that his OCLV bike from that era weighed that much. Those were sub 3lb frames with a decently light group in that incarnation of dura ace. I might believe his TT rig weighed that much, but not his road stage bike.

If he was talking about his motorola rides I would believe it as one of the motorolites showed up to Cascade Cycling Classic one year and I picked up his bike and it was a tank. At least 23+ lbs.

waterrockets 

Yeah, the record held up well, but DZ busted it.

patentcad

Gotta get that book. Fascinating.

grolby

Zabriskie now, actually, over about the same distance.

In general, though, you're right. The average speed of modern Tours is higher, but a lot of that must be accounted for by shorter stages.

well biked

I think Lance was exaggerating upwards a bit in saying his '99 bike weighed 21 lbs. I get his point, though.

My lugged steel '97 Pinarello, with 32 spoke wheels (Open Pros laced to Campy Centaur hubs), an '09 Campy Centaur group, Campy Chorus pedals, Cinelli stem/bars, Thomson seatpost and San Marco Concor Lite saddle weighs less than 21 lbs as you see it here:

Nate552

I have this frame built up as my spare / commuter bike (well, the 1998 frame, same thing). Still rides great BTW.

patentcad

I'd agree that Lance overstates the case a bit, but I'd be surprised if that '99 Trek weighed much under 19.5 -20lbs, and you can be sure his '05 bike was right @ the UCI 15lb weight limit.

Walter

I saw that LA quote a few days ago and was surprised his '99 bike was that heavy. It was very possible to set up a bike for a climbing stage that weighed less than that well prior to 1999.

No doubt that weight has taken a dramatic plunge though. When I first started getting interested back in the 70s the "gold standard" was 21-22lbs for a racer and it was hard to get much lighter (scary light and fragile tubulars and sew-ups). It seems nowadays the standard is about 17 and it's relatively easy, if expensive, to drop some pounds from there.

woodduck

there was some nonsense during one of the tdf with lance, as trek had amdde him a climbing bike and presented it to be weighed. The team mechanics had it built under 6.8kg .

the race officials claimed it was fine to race and the ok weight, then the mechanics made them check a few times until it was declared underweight

"hey our bike is so light stock, it's illegal"

thing is they added weight to it, so it then could be race legal and the sclaes still showed it under weight.

dodgy scales and dodgy trek/lance marketing.

patentcad

Given recent advances in high zoot road bike technology, it's quite arguable the UCI weight limit needs to be updated and lowered to 6.4 kg (14.1 lbs) or so.

jonestr

I had some friends who were riding OCLVs of the same vintage and they were all less than 18lbs with Dura Ace and 32hole wheels.

I remember someone posted a frame stiffness test that included and older OCLV and those things were flexy flyers.

Doohickie

WOW. Another Lance thread. How awesome.

rruff

My race bike in 1989 weighed 18 lbs... very solid Klein frame, everything else a collection of fairly cheap random parts. So if Lance's bike weighed 21 lbs ten years later... I have to wonder why.

BengeBoy 

Some examples of road racing bikes (time trial/track bikes not included) weighed for the book mentioned above:

Sean Kelly's 1991 Concorde: 22.8 lb
A. Hampsten's 1988 Huffy (actually a Landshark): 22 lb
Greg Lemond's 1981 Gitane: 22 lb.
E. Merckx's 1974 deRosa: 24.3 lb.
B. Waddell's 1965 Cinelli Supercorsa: 25.3 lb (this was a bike bought retail by a college student who was racing at the time)
1948 Wilier Tristina: 23.1 lb
1910 Labor Tour de France: 29.3 lb

patentcad

Pcad's 2007 Cannondale Six13: 16.2 lbs.

Rutnick

Was Lance's 21lb bike WITH water bottles and water?