Thank you, Major T.J. "King" Kong.

I've seen this happen, but it was with a motorcycle. Lesson was the same, though.

This is my fantasy.

I'm a light sleeper, and as such have vowed to never live underneath another person, ever again. Hopefully someday I'll be able to rent a house that isn't in the ghetto, but in the meantime I find myself living upstairs. And since I can carry a 50 lbs bike upstairs, this has yet to limit how heavy my commuter bike is. Unfortunately, the stairwell in my current apartment building has one really tight 180 degree turn, which has thwarted my desire for a longtail extension to my commuter.

Right on!

Don't lie. You're doing strength training for your legs.

I knew it!!

My commuter bike weighs 26 lbs equipped. It's an '84 Peugeot.

I bring my cellphone, a USB thumbdrive and sometimes an ipod to my software job. I don't carry a laptop or papers. My bike has no rack and no panniers. I do carry a multi-tool, a small wrench, a patch kit, a reflective ankle band, 2 AA cells, and a pen in the seat bag.

My commute is short, one mile. After work I usually go for a 10 mile ride around town because I have my bike. I'm not loaded down with work crap, or any crap at all, and it's fun to ride out to the hill and back or go trainwatching.

I suppose if the balloon goes up while I'm out, I might wish I had carried some canned rations, a shovel, and some KI pills on my bike, but then again...

I'm not sure what my bike weighs as I don't have a scale, but I would estimate it at 30#. It's an old steel Rampar, with fenders and rear rack. Easily manageable, and I could double the weight without being too bogged down.

I brought my laptop home yesterday, so I weighed my saddlebags before I unloaded them, and they're just under 20 pounds with a change of clothes, tools, a jacket, keys/wallet, laptop/power brick, and a half a dozen Clif bars. That would put me fully loaded more in the 60# range. Not that it matters.

I usually carry a towel to work to dry off with after I get in... maybe I should have "Don't Panic" embroidered in large friendly letters on my saddlebags.

If you can pedal it up every hill, it isn't too heavy.

If you can't pedal it up every hill and then pick it up and throw it into the bushes, it is too heavy.

BTW, 6 cliff bars? A wood stove?? Sounds like you guys are going touring instead of to work!

He checked the trunk monkey option.

LOL. The point is, if your bike already weighs 40 pounds with lights, a battery, and fenders, and you have to bring another 10-15 pounds of laptop and clothes, what's another pound or two? At that point, it doesn't really make a difference.

Yessss!

That's how people end up hauling 112 lbs of bike and crap, an extra pound or two at a time. ;-)

Ayuh, that is what happened.

When I'm riding a classic Roadmaster customized to the max there is no such thing as too much weight - 60 pounds with no gear, no tools & no rider!

I agree with OP in that the heavier the better workout. My hard tail mtn bike is 45 pds and my backpack adds another 15. I don't like riding my other bike because it is so much lighter and afraid my conditioning will decline. lol

Ride safe,

Jeff

At its basic level, isn't the point of commuting by bicycle getting to work? The European or Asian model of bicycle commuting appears to be riding in your street clothes and then not having to shower on arrival or changing into a second set of clothing. It's transportation first, exercise incidentally.

If the bicycle is loaded up with unnecessary weight in the name of having a workout, then it's necessary to wear bicycle clothing and shower at work.

If bicycle commuting was perceived as being as simple as substituting the bicycle for the car instead of involving special gear and complex showering rituals, would it be more popular?

This one is ~45lbs with fenders, rack, basket, lights, tools/spares, kickstand, glad I have a garage to store it in. I could shave ~3 lbs off the frame and ~2/3 lbs on the cranks, dump the kickstand (-1lb) then it weighs ~40lbs, what's the point?

I'm not sure I follow the argument. If anyone here was commuting on a dutch bike or Chinese utility bike, they would be in the 50+ pound club.

Commuting is substituting the bicycle for the car, but as opposed to the driving a car it's a physical activity, and that for most of us means excessive sweating.

Even if I was moving at 5mph I would arrive at work sweaty since NYC is usually humid and I don't take humidity too well. My ride is around 8 miles (~13km), there are people whose commutes are even longer than mine too. There are less than 10 days per year here when the weather is cool and dry enough so I don't sweat enough to have to clean up at work. Besides going slow isn't fun most of the time. European countries have drier climate and shorter commute distances. If my ride was 3km in a dry climate I could probably wear a suit an wouldn't break much sweat.

Also, the weather in NYC is pretty unpredictable. It can be nice, warm and dry in the morning and chilly and rainy by the end of the day, or vice versa. So since I like certain amount of comfort and I like to be clean, dry and fresh at work I need to carry some extra clothing in addition to a daily change of clothes (this adds more weight in cold months, of course). I also carry some tools since bike shops don't open until 10am so I want to be able to do most common repairs. Plus lights, batteries, some gadgets like two smartphones, small portable hard drive, etc. It quickly adds up to around 20lbs or more and I don't even carry a laptop most of the time, sometimes a netbook or an iPad.

Every now and then I need to re-supply my toiletries, I bring them from home because buying stuff in Manhattan is ridiculously expensive, I do my shopping at Costco and BJ's in Queens. I bring a fresh towel once a week. Rarely I bring lunch along with me but I usually have some snack bars scattered across the bags.

I sometimes stop by street vendors and pick up some fruit. Sometimes I do some gigs after work so I carry a laptop, some computer parts and tools. In such situations I probably hit 60lbs easily. That's why my commuter has 4 panniers. People often ask me if I'm on a tour

Before I started to commute by bike regularly I used to carry a huge a heavy backpack, very uncomfortable. Now, it's so much easier to carry stuff on a bike, I don't even feel another 10lbs.

My bicycle is (enjoyable) transportation first and foremost. I do ride in my street clothes, the only bike specific clothing (as defined as being worn just because I am on the bike) I own is my helmet and my riding gloves.

Each person's idea of unnecessary is completely subjective. The items I carry, I feel are necessary--for whatever reason(s). It has nothing to do with having a workout, or strengh training. I have no need to train, I don't do any competitive riding (or anything else).

Like Adam DZ says "Commuting is substituting the bicycle for the car." That is why I ride an Xtracycle, so that I can carry damn near anything that I feel a compelling need to carry.

Ok, maybe this is too heavy...

Depends on my commute.

17.5 miles PHX, AZ flat as a pancake - 30 lbs was no problem
15.5 miles PDX, OR hilly - 25 lbs max.
3.8 miles Van, WA flat - I've no problems rolling the 50 lb cruiser some days, but keeping it under 30 would be nice.

I only have one bike outfitted with small panniers, typically just don the backpack.

I have a 23 mile R/T commute. My Big Dummy weighs... 45lbs? With my minimal add ons so far. With typical commuting stuff, say 55-60 lbs. It's not too heavy on a regular day, but the hills at both ends get real old. When I decided to test the cargo abilities, and picked up 65 lbs of product on the way home, and brought it all the way in, ( total 15 miles, ) It wasn't too heavy. ( but getting up that hill used all the gears and my thighs knew about it. )

This week, 2 hour commute on Tuesday morning because of wind blown snow crust and small drifts, hour and half home, ( swept pathways, ) Made it in again Thursday, but grabbed the van Thursday night. Then, it was too heavy. It's not so much that the weight was too high, but if it had been a little lighter to push through/over the drifts, if it had been a little less windy, a little less cold, a little shorter commute... Just Something a little less...

Or if I was a little younger/stronger.

This is about 70# before I add panniers and daughter (and her backpack)



We were going 8 miles a day on this for about half of this past year for her pre-school, but now she's in K just 5 blocks away (thank FSM). (I could leave the t-a-b at the preschool and continue on the next few miles to my office in relative ease)

Bah... It looks like a bunch of empty containers to me. Besides, he's not even riding the bike.

I had this picture...



but then I noticed this guy is also being helped by someone who is walking a bike.

Then there's this guy, who's obviously a slacker:

It definitely depends on the rider and terrain, and what they feel is "necessary." I live where it's totally flat, I can carry a lot more stuff than I would where there's hills, no question. If I lived in the Rockies, "heavy" would be a lot lighter than it is here.

Dang. I still want an Xtracycle. I could literally carry up to the weight limit anywhere in town, no hills.

I'm trying to relate bicycle commuting to the idea of what bicycling meant to me when I was 7 years old. It was both the best available form of transportation and a physical play activity, sometimes independently and at other times simultaneously.

I enjoy cycling, but at the same time I want commuting by bicycle to be as simple as putting on my coat and helmet and rolling away down the street. It would be almost as though I was choosing to use an automobile, different only by method and hopefully nearly as fast.

Millions of people around the world hop on their bikes to go to work and get stuff done without even thinking, "oh joy, I get to do this on a bicycle." In the pics above where people are transporting raw goods and appliances by bicycle the reasoning is, "I have to get from A to B and this is the best tool available to me." They may not be finding joy. Many of them would probably rather have a car or truck (or donkey!) but they can't afford it or it is not available. Every day I see dirty looking guys riding their BMX rides and whatever junk through the city, even in winter. This is not joy of cycling as an activity, it is necessity for them.

Sorry to get existential about the topic. I see the joy of using the Xtracycle. I know I could get some serious grocery shopping done with it powered by human calories instead of using the car which is available to me. Yet someone else on the other side of the world or on the next street over is forced to make this same trip by bicycle and wishes he had a machine to do it.

Am I exploring a different question? What equipment/weight would be reasonable to you if the bicycle was the ONLY transportation available to you? Maybe it's the same answer.