permanentjaun

Hello,

Future noob road rider here. I just finished a long tour on a steel frame bike which weighed over 100 lbs when loaded. After the tour I realize I still want to ride, but I want to go fast instead of riding a 100 lbs bike. What is more beneficial to increasing speed , spinning faster or adding weights to your bike when training to make riding a 15-20 lbs bike easier sort of like how baseball hitters use donuts to warm up and train with? Hypothetically presume I know how to spin correctly, would I be better off working on my fast twitch muscles to spin faster or the muscles that give me the umph? Am I right in believing that on a TT it's more about spinning and adding weights to a bike in training would be more for climbers? Matt

waterrockets 

No benefit at all to adding weight. If you want more resistance, just ride faster.

Pros often train on slightly heavier wheels so they have a mental edge when they are on the full race setup (along with the minor performance gains).

permanentjaun

Thanks. I feel relieved that I dont have to sacrafice some days ride quality for better training.

waterrockets 

Yeah, I certainly count the training time when I've got two kids and groceries in the trailer, but I think the quality is actually a lot lower then on my own on the race bike.

LostBoizdown

I don't know of any baseball players that take batting practice with donuts on their bats.

permanentjaun

I know they don't. I was giving it more as example of how they use them to warm up and also make the bat lighter in their hands when actually at the plate. I'm sure they use heavier bats of some sort when in practice to increase their power, or resistance training like trying to swing a bat under water. I guess I was wrong in that this would transfer over to cycling.

ridethecliche

I was contemplating buying ankle weights for cycling and running to increase resistance and build up strength/muscle/endurance faster.
Has anyone tried this?

permanentjaun

That sounds like something more reasonable workout than what I suggested of just adding weight to the bike. I think it would work if you're mentally strong enough. If you know when you're in a certain gear you should be cruising at 25 mph, but you're only doing then you'll want to push for that 25 mph. I think mentally it might work, but physically it might not do much. As others mentioned, if you want a work out then just push to go faster.

One thing to worry about is the weights altering your stroke. With the weights you may adjust yourself to put more power into the downstroke since it's easier to go down with the weights on rather than having an even upstroke. Just something to consider. I'm not a professional though, so take it all with a grain of salt. Matt

bbp

Just push harder and longer, no need for weights.

thomson

I can see a value to using weights for hill training. You would probably get the similar results by just climbing the hill faster but by adding weights and going slower, you "extend" the hill. This can help if there are no long climbs nearby.

chevy42083

If you added ankle weights, one would always be countering the other when on the bike... funny how two cranks being connected does that.
Adding weight to the bike would help train... but only while accelerating... once you are at speed (assuming no hill) the weight does nothing.

Maybe a parachute

Hocam

Intervals are a much more effective use of training time than adding weight. By adding weight you just increase your HR to get to the same speed on a hill, which you could do by pushing yourself to go faster.

permanentjaun

Would you mind explaining intervals? Does that mean sprinting for half a mile, pace for half, sprint for half, pace for half, etc.?

Hocam

A search on these forums will tell you a lot more, but basically yes.

You can go all out for 1, 5, 10 or 20 minutes then rest to some degree of recovery and repeat as many times as possible. The idea is to get your HR into 80-90% of maximum and tear down muscle fibers in your legs to increase strength.

LostBoizdown

As far as I know, baseball players would not even consider practicing with a heavier bat; if anything it would do damage to their finely-tuned swings rather than help them swing faster. Remember that in baseball it isn't always about how fast you can swing the bat.

From personal experience, I could see how training with, say, rusty hubs and then racing with sweet ones would help, but again for the same reason that baseball players don't practice with heavier bats: it would mess up the feel of the bike. You get used to the bike accelerating a certain way, cornering, certain speeds feel a certain way, etc.

You mention that ball players warm up with donuts - this is true, for warming up and for that slightly faster feel, but like those tricks that everyone learns in second grade that make you feel like you're lifting something up or pushing outwards, the effect only lasts for a certain period of time. Training with a significantly heavier frame/bike might make you over-ride your race bike, going too hard because it feels faster.