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If I was doing 30 mph in a 48X19 (that's around 150rpm?) I wouldn't have anything left for a hill either. I agree, 10 lbs should make a difference.
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Originally Posted by f4rrest
(Post 20485443)
In my experience, each 10lb is worth an extra tooth in the back.
Don't dismiss the physics, though. 10 lb is about 5%, and each tooth is about 6%. Not a coincidence. |
Originally Posted by TimothyH
(Post 20485698)
[MENTION=488210]bergerkjh[/MENTION]
I ride fixed gear on the road in hilly North Georgia. I've also lived and worked in NYC for 44 years (N and R from Queens Center) and know the terrain. I've also lost 32 lb this year which is 16% of my body weight. 5' 10" and went from 198 to 166. Weight loss was the number one thing I've ever done to increase performance. There is no question. Contrary to what others here say, you will definitely feel 10 lb. How much you will feel it is unknown but you will feel it, especially on hills. As a matter of fact, apart from the scale and how your clothes fit, hills will be the first place weight loss is evident. I'm saying this from experience as one who has 178,000 feet climbing so far this year. This is not theoretical. -Tim- I also ride fixed gear on Georgia roads, in not so severe hills, and I have dropped about 15 pounds to under 150 this year, same height. My experience concurs - I don't float over hills but no question, there is a difference. |
Originally Posted by Maelochs
(Post 20485139)
Add the weight of the bike to the weight of your body, figure what percentage of that is ten pounds, and that is the percentage lless energy it will take to move the lower mass. Pretty minuscule. if you drop ten pounds of fat ... great. If you drop 15 pounds of fat and ad five in muscle to your legs, better .... but if you ride a lot of high-intensity intervals and hill repeats ... you will actually ride faster and climb hills more easily. Weight loss is never a bad thing .... but it is proportional. Unless you are cutting off your arms ..... not a Huge difference.
Add increased fitness, and ..... well, see what yo see and do what you like .... whatever works for you. |
Originally Posted by bergerkjh
(Post 20485354)
Ok I see what’s going on here. We all hate the fixed gear guy because you nerds love your gears and think you’re so cool shifting and clipping in, and wear spandex with sewed in diapers and let’s also point out choosing the easiest gear possible to ride in, I see you out there. Option B youre too stupid to understand my initial statement. At no point did I request advice on my bike. |
Originally Posted by WhyFi
(Post 20485136)
If Central Park and NYC bridges are a problem, you should get some gears.
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Originally Posted by brianmcg123
(Post 20485151)
Studies have been done indicating 12lbs = 1mph in speed on flat ground. But anything over 20mph the aerodynamics starts having a larger effect.
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If it's true, a typical pro cyclist would be 12 mph faster if they didn't exist.
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Originally Posted by bergerkjh
(Post 20485314)
Amazing. When I said I was going to drop 10 I didn’t plan on losing muscle. I stated same level of fitness. I’m around 14% body fat, maybe I can cut my calf muscle off for 10lbs lol you avoided the question. Tsk tsk On the gears comment. You know who you are. Way to not add anything to the discussion. After a few hours riding the bridges just isn’t fun to get home Now to the intelligent fella who shared the article. Thank you. It’s reasonable to expect with the same effort to go almost 2mph faster and have a much easier time on climbs
Originally Posted by bergerkjh
(Post 20485354)
Ok I see what’s going on here. We all hate the fixed gear guy because you nerds love your gears and think you’re so cool shifting and clipping in, and wear spandex with sewed in diapers and let’s also point out choosing the easiest gear possible to ride in, I see you out there. Option B youre too stupid to understand my initial statement. At no point did I request advice on my bike. I specifically asked what effect losing 10lbs would be. Think physics not biology. Maybe show some inkling of proof, maybe even a graph or calculation. Duh get some gears. Never should of mentioned the climbs, I apologize for misleading you. But I also stated I’m going 30ph so do you really think I’m out of shape and can’t get up the hills? Now......with everyone mentioning 10lbs or 4% lighter not going to help much. Clearly you did not bother reading the article that was so politely shared. I expected some actual inteligent comments here. Clearly the bulk of you spend more time trolling here than riding. “Here’s another one. On a hilly loop course, a 20-pound weight difference in bikes yielded a 13.6-percent drop in speed. Extrapolating that to your 12-pound weight difference, you’d be looking at an eight-percent speed loss. Personally, I would find a six-percent or eight-percent speed loss to be rather unbearable, but if you don’t care about that, then no need to spend the extra money” ― Lennard |
Originally Posted by Seattle Forrest
(Post 20486392)
If it's true, a typical pro cyclist would be 12 mph faster if they didn't exist.
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Originally Posted by kbarch
(Post 20486346)
Nah. Plenty of ordinary folks manage Harlem Hill with a single gear.
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Originally Posted by bergerkjh
(Post 20485003)
Greetings, I have a simple question that may get answered in complicated way, or in basic terms. Any help would be appreciated Im a fixed gear rider in nyc, rides are for fitness and fun ranging from 10-30 miles. Bridges and some parts of Central Park are the extent of my hills and occasionally defeat me. I’m 6 foot 215 and fit, not super cycling fit. I ride a 48x19 gear ratio and some point would like to get a 17 so I’m not spinning like a lunatic at 30mph, but yes I realize I’ll be walking the bike up more bridges when I’m tired. Heres the big question though. How much effect would it be if I was able to drop 10lbs of my body and get to 205 assuming I maintain relatively same overall fitness level. There must be a calculator out there in terms of watts/speed and weight maybe even with gear ratios and I just can’t find it. If folks are trying to lose grams of their bike I imagine dropping 10lbs has to be significant right? |
Reducing weight makes you faster, but only if it comes from the bike. Crabon is your friend.
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Probably too late to the party, but from my personal experience: I used to lift weights regularly and ride, my body fat at the time was between 10-12%. When I dropped from 180 to 170lbs (was going through a stressful patch and lost some muscles), I started "flying" up the hills. The difference was unbelievable - wherever I was struggling before became super easy.
My biggest problem at the time was balancing between maintaining/gaining muscle mass while logging longer miles on a bike. |
Interesting, I'm 6' and was 180lbs at my heaviest, always athletic and fit. I'm currently 147 and have noticed a lot when I dropped weight. Every 5lbs is a very noticeable difference, both performance wise on the bike and appearance wise in the face and body.
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Even 10 lbs is an enormous difference, in my experience. Weight has a significant impact on accelerations, too, and when you're doing that repeatedly, it really adds up.
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Originally Posted by bergerkjh
(Post 20485003)
Greetings, I have a simple question that may get answered in complicated way, or in basic terms. Any help would be appreciated Im a fixed gear rider in nyc, rides are for fitness and fun ranging from 10-30 miles. Bridges and some parts of Central Park are the extent of my hills and occasionally defeat me. I’m 6 foot 215 and fit, not super cycling fit. I ride a 48x19 gear ratio and some point would like to get a 17 so I’m not spinning like a lunatic at 30mph, but yes I realize I’ll be walking the bike up more bridges when I’m tired. Heres the big question though. How much effect would it be if I was able to drop 10lbs of my body and get to 205 assuming I maintain relatively same overall fitness level. There must be a calculator out there in terms of watts/speed and weight maybe even with gear ratios and I just can’t find it. If folks are trying to lose grams of their bike I imagine dropping 10lbs has to be significant right? Thanks Apart from comparing my actual power numbers, I don't know of any calculator. Real world results are more important anyway. I'd suggest you lose the weight and find out what happens! :p |
Originally Posted by Abe_Froman
(Post 20486406)
The physics of this is sexist.
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If you want to ride a fixie where there are any amount of hills being a reasonably light rider is critical.
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Lots of people posting real world experience that 5 lb is noticeable and 10 lb has made a big difference. Most concur that it makes the biggest difference on hills, which is exactly what the OP is asking about.
[MENTION=392125]79pmooney[/MENTION] has the best reason to loose weight - fun. I'm not sure 10 lb will get the OP from 48x19 to 48x17 but combined with some training it should help. I lived on Long Island which is flat. Coming from the flatlands, riding over the 59th street bridge was a memorable climb and looking up at the Verrazano Bridge from the BQE on the 5 Borough Bike Tour was frightening. I wish the OP luck and hopes he lets us know how he does. -Tim- |
Losing weight makes a significant difference. After a long year with no riding, and living in an area with some of the world's best restaurants, all the sudden (not really), I found I had gained a pretty good amount of weight.
I did two things to lose weight. First, I stopped eating and drinking sugar, and I got on my bike for at least an hour every morning. The weight came off quickly, and I could feel the difference in everything I did. Walking was easier, stairs were easier, getting in and out of the car was easier, climbing the hill on my favorite cycling route became easier, and I could do it in a steeper gear. |
If you’re asking about losing weight, you probably should. Your riding will improve. How much, quantitatively, is difficult to say. But qualitatively, every thing will be better: climbing, acceleration, turning. Maybe you’ll lose a few watts on the top end, but hardly anyone on this board is maximizing his or her potential, which means you could grab those watts back (and more) through training. |
Really, the OP just needs to lose the weight and report back.
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Originally Posted by Maelochs
(Post 20487947)
Really, the OP just needs to lose the weight and report back.
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Originally Posted by Abe_Froman
(Post 20488044)
Really though, gaining weight and then reporting back would be just as informative. Easier for him, probably more fun for everyone else.
Eighty pounds ago I could climb any hill anywhere at any time with a fully loaded touring bike----I might not have always been fast, but I used to be able to spin 120-130 rpm all day long, and my touring bikes had triples and endless gearing it seemed. Now I can barely haul myself up Any hill, no matter the gearing. I have gained about what my full touring load used to weigh ... but in losing fitness in order to gain weight more quickly, I gave up lung capacity, cardio capacity (to almost a terminal level) and strength. I probably couldn't climb a mile-long five-percent hill in 22x36 right now .... i'd pass out half way up from oxygen debt, or insufficient blood to the brain and lungs, or I would just fall over because of no more strength in the muscles. Sorry I didn't keep a log of what I lost with ever ten pounds gained. In the interest of science, I guess you should repeat my experiment to see if my results are valid ... but get good health insurance first. |
[MENTION=423651]Maelochs[/MENTION]
Forgive me because you didn't ask. But MFP is a really great tool that makes weight loss as easy as it can be. There's a phone app and a web site, you log the food you eat, it has a database with calories and nutrients. It's kind of a hassle at first but gets easier quickly. It builds or refreshes a sense of how much satisfaction per calorie you get from different foods and that knowledge can help you find a way of eating that works for you. I've lost plenty of weight this way myself. |
[MENTION=116887]seattle[/MENTION] Forest---Thanks .... It can't hurt for me to check it out.
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Originally Posted by Seattle Forrest
(Post 20490307)
[MENTION=423651]Maelochs[/MENTION]
Forgive me because you didn't ask. But MFP is a really great tool that makes weight loss as easy as it can be. There's a phone app and a web site, you log the food you eat, it has a database with calories and nutrients. It's kind of a hassle at first but gets easier quickly. It builds or refreshes a sense of how much satisfaction per calorie you get from different foods and that knowledge can help you find a way of eating that works for you. I've lost plenty of weight this way myself. I know what kind of eating works for me, and generally stick to it...but I think I have a habit of losing track of how much I cheat...intentionally or otherwise. |
[MENTION=423651]Maelochs[/MENTION] & [MENTION=445996]Abe_Froman[/MENTION]
I'm NorthCascades over there. You can send me a friend thing if you want kudos on your weigh ins or whatever. Honestly I don't use the social part of the app, I just use it refresh my sense of food-as-a-budget occasionally when things get out of hand. But we're all in this together, and I like you guys. |
Hey Berger, I got my first fixie in 1999. I've had at least 6 of them over the years. Road and mountain.
Outside of a flat city situation or commuting, they suck. What's your longest ride on one? Mine was a century. There is a reason all cars also have gears. |
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