I must say that for me it really does. normally I carry somewhere around 40-50lbs sometimes possibly more on my rack and last night was the first time in ages that I rode with the rack totally unloaded and I flew. Literally what takes me normally around 20-25 min I was able to do in 7. Me only being 120lbs though all that weight makes a huge difference and for me I know I am stonger now since I could never come close to 7 min before. That is averaging about 20mph on my mountain bike with small 100psi road tires. I couldn't believe it at first. I was riding close to traffic speed.