Originally Posted by
TimothyH
Saying that effort is independent of the weight of the bike is like telling a weight lifter that his effort is independent of the amount of weight being lifted.
Pushing a heavier bike up a hill is no different from pushing a heavier stack of weights in the weight room. It takes more effort to move a heavier weight.
Another way to look at it is work. Moving more mass requires more work. Someone who rode a 30 lb bike up a hill did more work than someone who rode a 20 lb bike up the same hill.
-Tim-
As Muffin suggested I train with power. If I'm going to ride for 3 hrs at 200 w my speed (uphill and flat) will vary by which bike I chose.
But before then it was heart rate, and perceived exertion before that.
The weight lifting analogy doesn't work because bicycles have gears and with sufficiently low gears you can get a huge bike up a hill without too much power - or work / time.