jade408

I see so many threads where people are looking to shed a few grams or ounces from a bike's weight. For an average rider how much difference does this really make. Let's say cutting a bike's weight by 2-3 pounds on a ride. (Not talking about carrying it up the stairs)

When I got my current bike I was warned it would be "heavy" but it is about 5-7 pounds lighter than the old one. And my purse weighs 5 pounds anyway. A full water bottle adds another pound.

Why is lighter better in the real world for non-professionals or racers.

wphamilton

you can go up the hill at 10.3 mph instead of 10 mph, and that's objectively about it.

People will also say that it "feels" faster, and that they "feel like" they accelerate faster, but that's mostly an illusion. You can accelerate faster by about the same percentage as you can go up the hill faster.

It's mainly just a part of the hobby. wanting to get the best equipment. If you're focused more on the riding, or more about getting from point A to point B, and you're not that enthused about all aspects of the sport, the weight isn't important.

Marcus_Ti

Damn. There went the main one.

fietsbob

Seems the 1st question every one asks is 'What does it weigh?'

SpeshulEd 

Because its cool to have a light bike.

In a perfect world where we're all pro tour bike racers, shaving a few grams means saving a few watts.
In the Bike Forums world, about 90% of the people shaving grams could gain a lot more by losing 5lbs, but its fun to buy light bike parts so you can brag to your buddies on the club ride that you just shaved 20 grams with your new stem.

catgita

The folly of youth, and the desire for free speed. It is an easy sell because it is the only objective measure of one thing being "better" than another. A product that is lighter may be weaker, disfunctional, energy sapping, biomechanically wrong, ugly, but if it is lighter it imeasures better.

Lighter also tends to be a baby with the bath water situation, where very expensive bikes tend to be faster and lighter, so a heavier bike tends to be dismissed even where it may be otherwise an excellent high performance machine.

As with many things bike related, there are hugely diminishing returns, especially for the non-racer. As I get older, my bikes seem to get heavier, yet somehow the smile factor keeps increasing.

bikemig 

Even when I raced, my racing bikes were not that light. The bike I mainly raced on was a team miyata that weight right around 23 pounds. Today I mainly ride a soma doublecross with 700 x 32c tires, a triple, and a rack. It weighs a bit over 26 pounds.

I don't think there is much of a reason to pursue "light weight" with bikes but there are reasons to pursue high quality and that, everything else being equal, will lower the weight. When it comes to bikes, I figure if you build it right, the weight is where it needs to be.

plumberroy

Exactly !!!!! I weigh 300 lbs I ain't worried about a bike weighing 2lb less than it does now The couple of weight weenie bikes I have been on I did not like, so I would not ride them. A 50 lb bike that I will ride is better than a 18 lb bike setting in the garage. Yes I have a bike close to 50 lbs

JonathanGennick 

Lighter weight in mountain biking can be helpful in terms of lofting the front end and otherwise moving the bike around as you ride. 20 grams won't matter, but a pound off the front end is huge.

steve_cay

If you enjoy your bike and are comfortable on it, you will bike more! If you bike more, you will loose more weight! If you loose weight, your combined mass will be less and you will be able to accelerate faster and climb easier!

A lighter unused bike in the garage, may result in higher combined mass

VegasTriker

You are right, except for the weight weenies among us, shedding a few grams off the weight of a bike doesn't make much difference. We get a lot of questions in this sub-forum about buying used bikes from people who don't know much about bikes and similar requests to judge "which bike should I buy?". My first suggestion to a used bike buyer once they get beyond the question of frame size is bike weight. Pick it up and actually weigh the bike. If it weighs more than 29 pounds I wouldn't buy it. I have never come across a light bike with crappy components but I sure have seen a lot of heavy ones that are garbage. It is just easier to ride a light bike. Less effort means a more pleasurable ride. There are a lot of spiffy looking bikes sold today that could do with a diet - mainly eliminating the nearly useless suspensions and odd looking frames that come on the lowest priced bikes. Give me the basic bike with a conventional diamond frame.

The one that really surprised me is the Cannondale SM800 MTB that I found in a local second hand store. It has large diameter tubing and from a distance looked heavy. It was dusty, the tires were flat, and it just looked like it hadn't been ridden in quite a while. It was only when I picked it up and realized that it was very light that it was a high quality bike. I think I recalled paying $20 for it. Everything worked on it even though it was more than 15 years old at the time I bought it.

Deontologist

I didn't get it either when I first got into cycling. I come from a running background. The lightest shoe I owned was probably 3-4 ounces (can't remember, but I do remember it was the Wave Universe). Your above-average running sneaker is about 10-11 ounces around sizes 9-10.

So imagine my surprise when I get into biking and people start talking about grams ... an ounce is about 30 grams. In the running world we never got into gram-counting. 4-5 ounces and that's an exceptionally light shoe in basically any adult size. 10-11 ounces that's a good training shoe. 12, 13, 14 ounces and that's getting heavier.

That's why I couldn't believe at first people debating over the weight of bottle cages that differ by maybe tens of grams.

PS: I still think runners are more hardcore than cyclists. I will be getting back into running sometime in this life ...

plumberroy

Only problem I have with weight weenies is when they try to force what they like on to others . See the best frame material thread. Someone was Arguing carbon is best for everything and every one else that thought differently was wrong. That gets old . There are many of us riding a bike that have no interest in going as fast as we can . I hate aluminum framed bikes. I had a vintage mtn bike with aluminum frame that a wanted to like I kept it for over a year . Just couldn't find any love for it I have road a carbon framed bike around the block so I haven't giving it a fair trail but didn't like the way it rode. I love to get on my L.H.T. or steamroller and go .
It is like SpesshulEd said losing a few pounds would help me way more than spending money to shave a pound off my bike.

cyclist2000

I have always thought the gram counting lead to a cumulative affect to lower the weight of the entire bike. A few grams here and there could lead to pounds.

CliffordK

I think weight is one factor that should be considered in the comparison between two bikes.

I haven't gone sub 20 lbs yet. Someday.

However, I do think that about 5 lbs does actually make a difference. Perhaps even a little less. Whether it is that fraction of a MPH slower, or working just a little more to maintain the same pace. Of course, there are other factors such as tires, wheels, hubs, etc.

Anyway, you make a lightweight bike one component at a time.
Light Frame
Light Wheels
Light Tires & Tubes.

Add or subtract a half pound here or there, and the differences add up.

Also, light components and quality components often go hand in hand.

Blue Belly

i think it's pretty great to feel what the pros experience in a bike. However, I'll pocket the difference & ride a 19lb bike with a great set of wheels.

Marcus_Ti

Usually it isn't half-a-pound in one go though...it is 10s of grams here or there. Frameset and wheels are about the only place you'll see 100 (or more) grams of difference between parts.

Ditto. I'll feel better dropping 5lbs than I'll ever feel losing 30 grams from changing bottle cages. Being done with the days of climbing 12 flights of stairs to an apartment, bike weight is even less important to me now.

Retro Grouch 

BUT every single ride starts at 0 MPH and accelerates from there. A lighter bike that accelerates a even tiny bit faster is immediately felt. Once you get up to speed it doesn't matter but by then the impression has already been made.

CliffordK

The thing is once you knock off the big items... Shave 10 pounds off of the frame. A couple more pounds off of the wheels and tires.

One quickly gets down to the point where every gram counts to make it lighter.

Save 45 grams on 10 items on the bike, and one has lost an additional pound.

And, I've watched some videos of pro riders doing hill climbs. They almost always have empty water bottle cages (someone must resupply water on demand). They also aren't carrying spare tubes, tires, patch kits, and etc.

Bandera

In this AM's dash to the Farmer's Mkt only the most prompt get the finest selection of produce.
By installing the lightest mudguards, baskets and bells one shaves grams and arrives first to get the best-of-the-best leaving the over-burdened to pick over the dross.

My primary competition in the 1 1/2 mile time trial to the FM is a wily retried school teacher running her superbly equipped and maintained Raleigh Dawn Tourist.



Only by building an ultra light machine stripped of even a kickstand, generator light or a wicker basket and employing lightweight aluminum rims, bar, stem, brakes, AW hub shell, seatpost and plastic mudguards am I able to arrive 1st at the Crazy-Talks-to-Plants Ladies' stand for the vital 1st pick of produce. A triumph of technology over cycling talent.


Shopping for local organic produce is serious business and requires serious state of the art town bike hardware to get the heirloom tomatoes at their un-blemished peak.

-Bandera

wphamilton

Right, but 1% less total weight only gets you 1% faster acceleration. I don't know about you, but I couldn't possibly feel the 1% difference in acceleration. What I could feel with 2 pound lighter bike, is the bike moving more easily underneath me. But an instant later the body has to come along so that's not actually acceleration. That's where the illusion comes from.

12strings

Well I for one, am in the market for a lighter bike...why?

-my current bike weighs 28 lbs.
-I live in a very hilly area by a river, in which a downtown area is separared from a hilltop area with about 400ft elevation, and lots of roads to use, spanning from 5 miles shallow to one mile steep.
-I go on group rides with"serious" riders who have lighter bikes, and while I can keep up, it's a lot of work in hills.
-I'm not overweight, so losing weight isn't a healthy option.
-I'm not going crazy...just want something in the low 20s...

Rowan

I do have to say that this premise here is a furphy. You would be carrying those things on a lighter bike, anyway, so the difference in weight between bikes remains valid.

The thing is, I believe you use your bike(s) for utility purposes. You don't seem to have any interest in performance riding. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The old adage is that if you are riding a bicycle, that's all that counts.

However, take it from me. When you load up a bike with 10 or 12lbs of groceries, I defy anyone here to tell me that the bike will be able to be ridden at the same speed and energy output as when it is unloaded. When we get into the realms of heavyweight bikes, that 10 or 12lbs will count, especially among lighter riders.

How do I know these things -- because I have ridden fixed and geared bikes loaded and unloaded. And I have a touring bike that did everything at one stage, from TTs, to randonnees, to commuting to touring, and general utility riding. I did a lot of centuries on it in all sorts of conditions, but the fastest century was on... my carbon fibre lightweight bike. And one of my lighter bikes is an old lugged steel Shogun 400 that is now a fixed gear -- those gears, derailleurs, and levers sure do add pounds to a bike!

Acceleration does factor in, especially if you are encountering a lot of red traffic lights, or errant pedestrians on MUPs. But in the end, it relates specifically to the energy output that you need to put in to get bike moving and to keep it moving.

As pointed out, however, there are tipping points between weight and reliability or longevity. I often wince when I see a 10 or 12 year old kid trying to get moving on a single-speed bike that weigh 30lbs. But the bike has been designed to account for abuse and longevity, so rather than using lightweight and expensive steel, or aluminium, heavy steel (as in thick-walled drawn tubes) is used instead.

I believe strongly that if you want a bike that you can do almost anything with, a well-designed touring bike is about it. With appropriate gearing, you can ride almost anywhere in the world, from the flatland plains of North America, to the Andes in South America, still go get the morning paper and milk (do people still do that?), and the weekly grocery shopping, and do the odd B or C-grade shop ride, and tootle around the neighbourhood, all without beating yourself to a pulp... and have a bike that will last for decades. My old Fuji Touring is a testament to that.

knobster

It is quite silly sometimes. I knew a guy that weighed somewhere around 240 lbs and was always wanting the extremely light weight stuff. He had some very light wheels that it seemed almost every ride he'd break a spoke and it'd end his ride. He simply wouldn't listen. I go for as light and durable as I can get that will instill confidence that it'll get me there and back.

CliffordK

I can certainly tell the difference between riding my about 50 or 60 pound bike vs riding my about 23 pound bike. Acceleration, flats, hills, just about all riding.