Originally Posted by
OhioBuckeye
I recently purchased a Trek 1.2 bike and it's spec'd at 20lbs I believe. I see bikes that are double in price and they can be down to 16.5 lbs.
How much difference does that make on a ride? If you've make a similar jump of dropping 3-4lbs of bike weight did it make a huge difference increasing you average speeds?
Thanks
OB
Reduced weight has a small effect on average speed. The cost of reducing weight starts to increase very quickly (it's a case of diminishing returns). This small effect is worth a lot to racers.
If you ride on the hoods, when not in a pace line, then riding on the drops will have a much, much larger effect on your speed. And riding in the drops is free!
You can get an idea of actual numbers by playing with something like the following.
http://www.noping.net/english/
(Note that the calculators don't take into account the effort that climbing long/steep hills requires.)