This is a question about what a bike frame can handle. As an experienced rider aprox 185 pounds, I have been know to pile rocks into a backpack to add weight for training. No manufacturer lists bike weight limits, that I can find. Is adding weight , say up to 235 pounds (backpack, ankle and wrist weights) damaging my frame in an unseen way I don't know about? I do know that when training this way I do go through a lot of spokes and wheels. I should mention I only do this crazy stunt on aluminum bikes...
First bike class I ever took was replacing spokes and re truing a wheel on the side of the road!!!

Adding weight doesn't do anything special. If you want to work harder, pick up the effort. Your body doesn't care about what you do to produce power - watts are watts.

Of course, if you are trolling this one is unique.

As long as you aren't jumping curbs or pounding pot holes I doubt a little extra weight will hurt most frames.

Especially with steel or aluminum frames, routine cleaning and inspection would turn up any fractures early, long before they had a chance to cause failure. With carbon fiber not so much, since damage can be hidden (internal) and go undetected until it's too late.

Good plan... when you dump the extra weight you'll be way faster.

Correct.

I dunno. This gets imagined and repeated a lot, but there's more to being fast than strength. Loading up your bike with useless weight is just as likely to make you better at riding slow.

What benefit would be gained adding rocks/weight when on a trainer or rollers? I could see this perhaps helping build some core strength.

Absolutely ZERO benefits.

Why do eg. Marines do training runs carrying 50lbs of gear..? Should they be instead running in running clothing, carrying nothing, but running a lot faster instead? There must be some reason to train with weight.

That's different. In running, your legs and body are supporting the weight. On a bike, your bike is supporting the weight.

Soldiers need to be able to carry 60++ pounds of gear when going on combat missions, that's the reason why they train like that....I lift weights and do bodyweight exercises with extra weight, but I never carry a barbell or dumbbells with me when riding my bike...Cyclists will benefit from strength training and weight lifting routines... but carrying all that extra weight while riding a bicycle isn't going to improve their performance.

Carrying a lot of extra weight on a bicycle can be duplicated just by selecting a high gear that is hard to pedal.

Having changeable gear ratios on a bike is not like hiking, with no choice of using a higher gear. Hills can help though.

If you want to become fast then you need to train fast. Adding extra weight will slow your movements and you will never be able to reap any benefits from speed training...Maximum speed efforts can only last for about 10 seconds max and after that your speed drops...Long duration efforts with extra weight will build endurance but it will not build speed.

I'd say keep the gym and the track separate. They don't really relate.

I was looking on the canyon bikes website the other day and noticed that their cf road bikes have a 120kg (264lbs) rider weight limit. Other manufacturers have limits but they usually don't publicise them.

Cannondale supersix has a 285lb rider plus luggage limit according to the manual.

If there is a particular bike you are looking at then you should contact the maker and ask them.

If you are still keen on the idea of weights then get some 36 spoke touring wheels. They're slow and heavy but strong as they are designed to support a rider plus a crap load of camping equipment and luggage.

It does, if you're trying to train for and simulate the feel of mountain touring with loaded paniers. When I did my transamerica ride 35 years ago, my local training area at the time, Providence RI and environs, had only some pretty small (albeit steep) hills. My training involved loading up my paniers up with 35-40 lbs of rocks and riding up and down College Hill in Providence for 1-2 hours at a time. I could not have gotten similar training in without adding the weight and riding without it - even if I rode longer, or rode harder gears. I was looking to get comfortable with handling the bike and understanding how the bike, and I, felt with 35 pounds of gear, and what it was like to ride that, both climbing and descending. Adding the extra weight is pretty much the only way to do that.

I doubt it would damage your frame .... but there's a good possibility it could damage you.


Even if you were training for long days of fully loaded touring, you'd be better off putting all those rocks into panniers, not in a backpack.

This is not quite true, is it? If he is wearing a backpack with the weight inside it, his torso is supporting the weight, through his shoulders and back. That's probably the limit of any benefit he is going to gain by doing so. If he stands to pedal a lot, then maybe there could be benefit through the legs because his legs would then have to support the weight of the backpack, as if he were standing on the ground.

If the weight was in panniers attached directly to the bike, you would be correct.

Still seems pointless. I imagine it would take about 30 min or less to get used to climbing with loaded panniers. Training with rocks isn't going to make you stronger or more powerful.

So, playing devil's advocate, if adding weight would be of little benefit, why pay more for a frame that weighs less than 20 lbs when a 40lb frame costs a lot less? All that cutting weight by grams and/or ounces is just BS?

Different topic than what OP is asking.

Right. If you ride a heavier bike (and/or add weight) in a group ride, and keep up, you clearly worked harder than the riders on weenie bikes. I'd like to hear how working harder wouldn't make one stronger. (and therefore faster after dumping the weight)

Your imagination is entirely mis-informed on this issue. And yes, CLIMBING with an extra 35-40 pounds of rocks in your panniers DOES make you stronger. Riding on flats doesn't. Also, learning to control your descent with loaded bags is more than a 30 minute process.

Regardless of how much your bike and panniers weigh, the rider decides how much power to put out. 150 watts, 200 watts, 250 watts.
Varying the weight will change the gearing needed, and the elapsed time for a given distance, but putting out 200 watts with rocks, is the same as 200 watts without rocks.

In extreme cases, adding a lot of weight while climbing, will effectively make the climb "longer" because it takes more time to compete, so if that's the goal, then I guess adding weight would work.

Adding weight to your bike would only make you stronger if you put out more power. Adding weight doesn't cause you to increase your intensity. Riders just change their gears until they reach a comfortable cadence. With extra weight you'll just go slower. You can gain plenty of power by training on the flats, or an indoor trainer for that matter.

I specifically said climbing wouldn't take much of an adjustment. Descending with extra weight might take a little more time but I still don't think I'd need more than 30 min to figure out that you need to brake a little earlier and the handling is different. I haven't ridden with loaded panniers since I was 20 but I don't recall having any difficulty then and I don't expect I'd have any problem now.

In any case if I was going on a long tour I would do a shakeout ride or two with all my equipment to make sure everything works. No need for rocks.

Maximum or near-maximum effort sprints on the flat without any extra weight will make you stronger.