Originally Posted by
chasm54
I'm sure you've got stronger, but the weight is the thing. The extra power required to haul seventy pounds up a hill is huge. According to my calculator, if I put on 70lbs I'd need an extra 80 watts or so to achieve the same speed up a 6% gradient.
Last time I flew somewhere, my suitcase was about 52 pounds. I imagine hauling that around on my bike and how much it would slow me down. I guess It would be easy to test. Put some panniers on one of my bikes, load up 70 pounds of gear, then see what the effect is.