scales
 

i have been kicking around the idea of getting a scale for a while and i was wondering which ones you guys recommend. i have mainly been looking at the ultimate or the park. but then i got to thinking since i am not sure how much it will get used why not find a cheaper one. a quick google search came up with this.

Is it really that important to know how much your bike weighs? or am I missing something...are you going to use this type of scale for something else on a regular basis?

Once you know how much your bike weighs it aint gonna change unless you change something on the bike. You should be able to estimate the weight increase or decrease. Unless you get some sick/stupid boost to your ego by bragging to your riding buddies about how light your bike is, down to the last gram, then you can avoid spending any of your hard earned cash on this issue.

Take your bike to a shop and have them weigh it and be done with the matter.

Seems like it could be handy for comparing items you're considering buying - say when you are looking at tire choices in a shop. People are usually pretty good at identifying which item is heavier but not good at estimating by how much. It would also be handy for deciding which things to take along on a tour.

Can't someone ask a question without some hostile amateur psychoanalysis? What's your problem, no dog to kick or child to beat?

I actually think the inquiry, about your reasoning, was pretty fair and pretty harmlessly phrased.

Your reply, on the other hand, sucked. Bravo.

WeightWeenies.com (if I remember correctly) does a REALLY good job of keeping a current list of the actual (AND the "claimed") weight of nearly every commonly found bike component.

[EDIT: THIS should be the link....]

i usually have 8-10 bikes at any given time. 4 of those bikes are ones that i will end up keeping for quite a while. i always have one project going and i flip most of those after a month or two so in general i will be using the fairly often for a home mechanic.

@ Redden

Whatever Gever.

@ fiatjeepdriver

In your original post you mentioned you didn't know how much this thing would be used. In your subsequent post you mention you work on any where from 4-10 bikes at a time. I am still unsure of why you need a scale...but that really doesn't matter to me, it only matters to you.

Since you asked for a recommendation: Buy the scale that best fits your budget that you think will do the best job for you. If I were in the market for a scale, that $8 one looks like it would do the trick just fine.

Cheers,
-j

Man, what's with the people questioning his motivation? If he wants to weigh his bikes, that's his prerogative. If it wasn't for people wanting lighter bikes, we'd all be riding 40lb monsters, and even the "steel is real" crowd doesn't spend that much time on Schwinn Varsities these days.

That $8 scale should be fine.

If you're going to be flipping bikes though, it might be cool to spend a little extra and get a "legal for trade" scale, but that might be out of your budget.

@Bigvegan

Dude, whats with questioning people questioning his motivation. This f***ing public domain, if you ask a question or post info you will probably get info in return...sometimes that info is in the form of questions, sometimes that info is in the form of response, sometimes that response is positive, sometimes that response is negative, sometimes that info is useful, sometimes that info is totally not useful. ETC. etc. etc. He wanted a recommendation...sometimes part of formulating a recommendation is understanding what the person is asking, and sometimes to understand what the person is asking you need to understand the motivation for what they are asking about. The question you should ask yourself is why are you so incensed by someone questioning his motives about what he is doing? Not to be inflamatory towards the original poster of this thread, but to ask a recommendation between an $8 scale and a $50+ one, along with a statement along the lines of "ya know, I am not sure how much I will really use this item" smacks towards wanting justification to spend money on a relatively unnecessary item...by questioning the motive behind the purchase perhaps the person can save money and invest in something more useful. And just like I did, you are certainly more than welcome to swoop in and save the day with any and all your comments, and tell the guy which in your opinion is a better buy. And you have that freedom because...This is f***ing public domain.

-j

To answer your question, I have the Ultimate scale. I ordered it from one of the catalog companies and the first one sent did not work at all. I sent it back and the replacement has worked perfectly for 4 years. But I don't use it often, just to satisfy my curiosity mostly.
It doubles as a good fish scale.

Al

Well then F*** *** in the public domain

For what it's worth, this one is cheaper and has free shipping.

I had to chuckle when I read the response about using it as a fish scale -- that's exactly what I intend to do, not that I need to know the fish weight down the the nearest gram either, but it's inconvenient taking the still struggling fish into the master bath ...

One of the things that I use the scale for is to work on the totality of the bike. I have a bike that I use for casual rides and one that I use for Brevets. I've added frame rack, lights etc. to the Brevet bike and am trying to work the weight down in totality as well as down in the sense of center of gravity. I choose to do that ... just because. The 10 pound difference between the two bikes is discouraging sometimes ... especially when there's a hill in front of me ...