Originally Posted by
rpenmanparker
That's exactly right. Your body weight has nothing to do with your bike. Body weight is body weight. Bike weight is bike weight. You shouldn't conflate the two. Both will affect acceleration and speed, but bike weight reduction provides benefits in the feel of the ride that losing body weight simply cannot. When we are talking about bike weight, then the subject has nothing to do with body weight.
I hear you. If a lighter bike gives you a great ride/feel, then by all means get a lighter bike.
My point about body weight - and admittedly it's been 20 years since my last physics class - but for instance on a long challenging climb, your performance is largely going to be a function of the power you produce versus the total weight (bike+rider) you're lifting to the top of the hill. If I'm really serious about improving my performance, I'm going to get a lot more out of a 20 pound body weight loss than a 1.1 pound weight savings on the bike.
I guess what I'm getting at is that for most middle aged weekend warrior types like me, we'd be a lot better advised to buy based on fit, ride quality, etc., than making weight the primary consideration when buying a bike.