Originally Posted by
sstorkel
Honestly? If you play with the
Kreuzotter equations you'll see that bicycles are very efficient and that a few pounds of weight doesn't make a whole lot of difference in terms of the power you need to get to the top of a hill. For example: if you weighed 250lbs and were climbing a 5-mile long hill with a 5% grade while cranking out 220 watts, the difference between a 17lb bike and a 25lb bike is 0.1mph on average leading to a finishing time that it around 1 minute 20 seconds slower.
Is Ultegra Di2 cool? Oh heck, yeah! Is it going to help you climb better? Absolutely not! If you want to climb better, buy yourself a power meter and a Garmin computer and start asking about hill repeats, intervals, and other power-based training techniques...
Yeah I didnt really feel the weight difference but I did notice the ride quality was different between carbon and alum and some added stiffness which i am assuming transmits the power more efficiently to the rear wheel. I guess that is pretty elemental. About the ultegra it is just sweet... not much else.
As of training I am riding 20 to 25 miles 3 times a week and repeating 0.2 - 0.5 mile hills at about 7-8% grade at least 10 times as well as the "flats" to get there. On saturdays go for a 40 to 60 mile ride. Believe it or not the north side of atlanta is very hilly doesnt matter where you go so every time I end up doing 15 to 20 miles in a ride I end up climbing 1000 to 1500 feet on average which might not be much but definitely helps. In a month and half of my riding history ive done about 500 miles and 30000 ft.