> That's just what I'm getting at- as you lose the weight and you're doing the training, you get much better at the riding, and as a result, your speed goes up. It's not just about losing the fat- there's lots of ride time and practice, practice, practice... <

Yep.

> I suspect that really the people who will understand what I am saying are the ones in a situation similar to mine- overweight and losing fat and seeing the difference with an increase in their time. <

I started out around 161 and now am around 145. Losing the weight helped, but it was the muscle and skill development that really made the difference. I can't measure my initial improvement well. My records show my first ride took 143 minutes, but that included all stops. I made lots of stops, not only for the many traffic lights, but also to catch my breath, figure out my route, and sometimes just to let traffic get out of my way.

About a month later I made the ride in 70 minutes, but my computer didn't include stops. I also had found a slightly shorter route to the destination. Since then, I have made it as fast as 37:08 (again, not counting stops). I would really like to do it in 35 minutes just to say I cut the time in half (grin).

> I'm sure I'm not some riding freak- I think the article you are talking about is incorrect in some way, or has other variables factored in that we are unaware of. If you can find the article and can send it over, I'd love to analyze it sometime. <

I have always wondered about the effect of weight and how accurate such measuremests are, but I have found that every report shows much smaller differences than most people would expect.

Anyway, here is the link:

http://w3.iac.net/~curta/bp/BikeSheet.html

I'd be interested in any analysis you have.

Bob