Originally Posted by Trev Doyle
I am going to race road this next season after many years of riding/racing XC MTB. One of my road bikes is well under 15 lbs. I will not be pro, obviously, but I am wondering with the UCI weight limit set at 15 lbs, how closely do they enforce that rule. Would I ever be in jeopardy of any kind of discipline. For instance say I won a race, or came in top 3, could I have that stripped from me? Or does anybody even care in the amatuer ranks?
I don't know about Canadian officials, but here in the States we are integrating our Rule Book with the UCI. We have not heard, yet, from on High how we are going to enforce the weight limit. Up until now we have not worried much about bike weights. As a racer, I also officiate, I like to keep my bike as light as possible. But there is light, and then there is stupid light. Light to me is approach the 7kg +/- that the UCI set, you can go lower than that (as you have proven to yourself) but you may be getting into materials that have a low fatigue life. But at the same time, see Gilberto Simoni's bike from last year's Giro, you can safely go under that limit.
From what I understand the UCI set the limit, not so much for safety, but for monetary reasons. They wanted to keep bike racing as affordable to the 'people' as possible. Since getting lighter, generally, means getting more exotic and therefore more expensive, they concluded that there needed to be a limit on the amount of mass into a complete bike.
So, what this boils down to, if you race in Canada, you may need to ask a Canadian race official. If you race in the States (you may need an international license though, but as a Cat V they'll probably let it slide) we haven't heard yet and can't give a good answer.
Good luck with your racing, and sorry about the long winded answer to your short question. To answer your unasked question, yes, I am a USCF official here in the States.