Originally Posted by
Drew Eckhardt
Sure. A 160 pound rider would be nearly 8% faster up the steepest hills on a 20 pound bike than a 34 pound one. On hills where he could only manage 10 MPH before he could go 10.8 MPH, and he'd be nearly 4.5 minutes faster to the summit of a hill that used to take an hour to climb.
That's unless the heavier bike "planed" better. Which has happened under pretty convincing testing..
Weight of a Steel BikeGeorgena Terry
In this issue, Jan tested a titanium bike against a steel randonneur bike. It was a real world test: two guys racing each other up the same hill, one on the ti bike, one on the steel. They swapped out the bikes several times. Both were evenly matched in terms of strength, endurance and weight.
The weight of a steel bike is always of interest. This steel bike was 9.6 lbs heavier than the ti bike, but it climbed as well. It sounds implausible, but as Jan explained, when the weight of the riders was taken into account, the steel bike plus rider was only 5% heavier than the ti bike plus rider, but the steel bike “planed”, helping the rider generate the extra power needed to overcome the weight difference.
Fans of Jan’s bike testing will know there is an advantage to a bike that “planes”. This is a bike that is in synch with the rider and flexes in a way that “gives back” some of the rider’s energy to the drivetrain.
..Heine is a NASA Fellow and knows his testing. Indeed, he is **German.**
..What planing is about is the energy from the pedal stroke that torsions the frame. Some frames are especially efficient at returning it; some are especially bad. Confusingly, the ideal frame for one rider may be different to another because of the interactions between pedaling style, bodyweight, etc, and this behaviour.