Trakhak

As one of the veteran racers here used to say in his Bike Forums sig line, "You can pass me anywhere but in a race."

wolfchild

5 pages and not even one reply from OP. This thread is a success..

aplcr0331

But...what about Cancellara's Law? (for e-Bikes). "Not only will it get Easier....but you'll go even Faster"

friday1970

...which in the end is still how many calories burnt.
But I hear you somewhat on how much fun a sporty bike is compared to a heavy clunker. It is more fun to fly on my aluminum/carbon fork bike than it is my old 80's steel sport touring bike. Then again, there is something fun about cruising on my Trek 620 or my Elance 330. My rides on my older bikes tend to be further and longer, although slower (think randonnuering).
But when I was young, my dad bought me a Schwinn Varsity. As soon as I saved up and bought my first Peugeot, I couldn't ditch that Varsity fast enough. The Peugeot was superior in every way.

tomato coupe

Same with his Walmart / disc brake thread. This guy knows how to leverage his posts.

ClydeClydeson

I took the OP's question to mean heavy and slow POS bikes, like Huffys and Murrays. Reading between the lines the implication is that $89 mountain bikes are good enough because you get a 'better' workout than on any more expensive bike.

A Trek 620 is decidedly NOT a POS. It may be most at home when touring or Randonneuring, but extra power put into the pedals results in extra speed on the road just like a modern road bike. Even a Schwinn Varsity with decent tires will roll down the road fast enough to not count as a 'slow' bike.

guachi

Matching kit? Aero helmet and goggles? I bet you weren't expecting them.

indyfabz

It was a true team. Didn’t really pay attention to the name. It was a hard climb. Interestingly, it was Semana Santa. Holy Thursday.

veganbikes

Will you get more drunk by butt chugging Everclear, sure you probably will. Should you, NO!

livedarklions

Really bad analogy even as a joke.
There's nothing intrinsically unhealthy about riding a heavy bike, and you will get the health benefits of riding using it. How does that compare with the incredibly dangerous act of butt-chugging high proof booze?

fredlord

I always liked the cycling adage, "it doesn't get easier, it just gets faster".

Eric F

I have found that as my fitness improves, my ability to suffer longer and deeper increases. Therefore, I have concluded that cycling actually gets harder as you get better.

shelbyfv

Butt chugging....

Gresp15C

The only way I could see that adding weight would help is if you're already at the maximum possible intensity for the amount of time available, and want even more. Or, if you're training for a tour on a loaded bike.

Soldiers march with full packs because they're training to march with full packs in combat.

Speaking solely for myself, I like cycling because it is actually not high intensity, but spreads out the work over a longer time period that lets me strike a balance between exercise and recreation. Adding weight would not improve this at all. A lighter bike might add to enjoying the recreational aspect of it. My lightest bike is about 22 pounds.

CheGiantForLife

Why are you obsessed with me posting in my own thread?
I don't know the answer, so I am letting the experts speak.

It seems you can get just a good workout with a light bike by keeping the gears lower.
Does anyone intentionally do that? I also liked the idea of adding lead weights to the bike sort of like a gym workout vest.

caloso

You're almost there. Once again, you get a good workout by pedaling harder.

livedarklions

I actually was joking about the lead weights. Adding weight is pretty inefficient because, unlike when walking or running, you don't actually lift the weights with every step. Bicycles are all about smoothing out the load, it's why cargo bikes are plausible things. If you want to increase the human body's ability to move heavy weights, you put them on wheels. .

Eric F

The amount of "work" (amount of effort for a given time) is unrelated to the weight or quality of the bike. How far/fast you travel for that "work" will vary with the weight/quality of the bike. You can ride easy or hard on any bike.

rosefarts

In my racing days, I noticed a lot of guys would lose their winter fluff and get really fast by mid summer.

Being scrawny, I had no fluff to lose. So I used a seatpost I had filled with molten lead. It was about 3.5lbs extra. I'd ride this until May and go back to my other one.

Can't say it did a thing for me. It was a cool conversation piece though.

The heavy cheap bike will still ride like crap. It just isn't fun enough to keep at it. Good often tends to be lightweight but good is the important part.

veganbikes

Maybe so but whatever I was having a laugh. It was a dumb topic and I just decided to have some fun. Obviously yes riding a heavy bike won't always have issues but a Wally-mart special could fall apart and hurt someone if built like a Wally-mart special usually is.

friday1970

No worries, I didn't mean to say it was a POS. I'm very proud of my restoration job on it. But I have to admit, it's not as fast as my aluminum framed/carbon forked bike, and not as fast. It's heavier and thus, slower. But it's so fun to sign up for a 200k brevet on the Trek 620 and just smoothly let the day go by. And the Trek Elance 330 with my 650b conversion job makes that bike almost a go-anywhere bike.
However, the 620 and 330 are both heavier steel bikes. But I always seem to input the same watts into those compared the my aluminum/carbon bike. So to me, the workout is always the same.

Jax Rhapsody

I feel like after riding one of my cruisers, I'm better on a faster bike, even if it's my mtb. My cruisers are always built for speed. My average speed was about, maybe 10/12mph, I think it had a 52t sproket. A free wheel on the back, no coaster.

livedarklions

This is a really good point. It's likely the bike that you enjoy riding that's going to give you the best workout because you're going to want to ride it more. That may be a heavier bike because it depends on your preferences. You like the smooth ride on the heavier bike, so you probably ride it further.

rosefarts

Really, aren't most threads here about butt chugging, when you get to the root of the matter?

AlmostTrick

Up until now, I have never heard of butt chugging. See, if you pay attention you can learn something everyday on BF!