Originally Posted by LuckySailor

I'd wait and try out the lighter bike. IMO, yes the weight makes a difference. I have a Trek 520. When I cycled across Canada, I had the heaviest bike of our group of 13. I turned 50 on the tour. I was slower than almost everyone. I'm in pretty good physical health I should add. But guys that were 68, 66, 59, kicked my ass every day. And they all had (much) lighter bikes. After the tour, I changed out my wheels on the bike to single wall, 24 flat spoke wheels with 25's and whoa nellie what a difference! Not exactly "tour" wheels, but the experiment was what would happen if I made the load lighter. I went from double wall 36 spoke wheels with Marathon Tour Plus 32's, and dropped 6 pounds off the bike if memory serves me. HUGE difference. And, depending on your weight, and the roads where you are day tripping to, the lighter wheels may just serve you fine. They did for some of the people that toured across Canada with me in 2015. Supported tour, Cycle Canada. Good luck!