Originally Posted by
scplus5
So I guess from reading here and talking to several people, the general consensus is that weight has little to no effect on speed on flat ground.
I don't really understand how this can be true. Regardless of the terrain, you are applying the same amount of power to move a heavier weight...kinda like the importance of horsepower to weight ratios in fast cars. I see in strava, there's a guy I have known since I was a kid that has the KOM for many segments around here and his speeds are commonly in the upper 30 mph range. He is easily 230 or more. If he weighed 30-50 lbs less, wouldn't he be much faster? If not, how is this possible? I just can't get how weight has NO effect on flat ground speed.
Someone explain it to me.
It's not possible. Any change in the mass or the velocity makes a change in the work done. Period. You can't change that.
People feel things differently. Some riders will feel small changes, some will not. What one feels is not always a good indicator of what has changed.
Some small changes are not never noticed, or are only noticed when climbing.
Different riders will have different priorities about changes too. Many may not care. A racer may care about any small changes, because he knows over a long ride, small difference could be the difference between first place and second. It is also true that other factors may be more important than small weigh changes. Such as air resistance at high speed during a flat-ish TT.
I have different weight priorities for my different bikes. My best road bike I built to be a "weight weenie" bike, no matter the cost.
Some of my beater bikes are built to handle rain, or even flooding with fenders, mud flaps, etc. My best MTB is a mostly "weight weenie" bike, and was built that way.
My studded tire snow and ice bike is built for huge bumps in the ice and deep-ish snow. It takes very wide, slow studded tires. It is probably 32-34 lbs.