Originally Posted by
Stratocaster
Um, it's so hard to understand because it's wrong. No 2 rides are the same. There's ALWAYS a varying amount of speed left on the table, regardless of whether you're on an 18 lb bike or a 20 lb bike. Sometimes you will leave more on the table with a lighter bike. It's just what happens.
In a math problem, when you can say "all things being equal"...then yes, you are correct. The lighter bike is always faster.
In practice, with real humans...the differences can disappear in a hurry.
Heck, while riding the lighter bike you might think to yourself, "I know this bike is lighter than my old bike...I can feel it. I'm just cruising along on this thing!"
Yeah, you might be "cruising along" and so pleased with how you feel about it, that your intensity drops.
There are more components to the discussion than just weight of the bike.
But yes - in a math problem where "all other things being equal" - the lighter bike is always faster.
No you are the one who is wrong. The difference due to bike weight is always there. It is difference due to other factors which may come and go as those conditions change. For any set of instantaneous conditions, any energy level of the rider, any wind velocity and direction, any humidity and temperature, any anything, the lighter bike will be faster than the heavier. All those conditions may hide that fact from you, because their effects are hard to quantify, but physical laws are physical laws. Everything equal doesn't mean the conditions are always the same. It means if they were the same when you were riding either weight bike. Can't make that happen in real life? Doesn't matter. Physical laws don't allow for any doubt. Just like others you are stuck confusing something being true with your being able to observe it. There is no validity to that.