blazer95

For an average rider how much weight difference is noticeable. My current bike weighs in at 20#, and I'm looking at a 17# bike. Will I notice a significant difference?

alanbikehouston

Suppose a 180 pound cyclist switches from a 24 pound bike to a 20 pound bike. So, now he is pushing 200 pounds down the road instead of 204 pounds. A 2% difference in weight. A couple bottles of water, or one good lock.

If both bikes have wheels of equal weight and quality, and tires of equal weight and quality, the weight difference would have zero effect on effort or speed on a level road.

But, suppose you were racing for an hour up a steep mountain. That 2% would add several seconds to your race time...dump the lock or the water bottles...if you are among the five or ten guys in American who get paid to race a bike up mountains.

availpunk9

It depends where the weight savings comes from. When I upgraded to a lighter wheel set, I did notice the difference in effort. Since it gets dark earlier, I do some evening rides with a light. My battery is pretty heavy ~2lbs NiH. I don't notice a difference in my effort/speed when I strap the sucker on to my frame.

edzo

wheel weight matters the most

otherwise it doesn't mean a lot

mihlbach

My current bike is about 5 pounds lighter than the bike I was riding a year ago. My light bike is much more fun to ride because of all the money and time I've put into it and it "feels" faster, but when it comes down to it, the results on my computer are still similar. Perhaps I am slightly faster, but not enough to notice, so for the "average" rider, whats the difference?
Rotating weight may matter more than other bike weight, but only when accelerating or decelerating. At any rate, adding or subtracting a few hundred grams from your wheels still isn't going to do much more for you than dropping an equivalent amount of non-rotating weight. Just because a person "notices" a difference in effort or whatever, that does not mean that lighter wheels make one significantly faster. There is a strong placebo effect associated with bike upgrades. The percieved difference between two wheelsets may have to do with new tires, better spoke tension, freshly lubed chain, or other factors and may actually have nothing to do with weight differences. At any rate, weight weeniism is a hobby unto its own and if you have the money to spend it can be satisfactory, but don't expect it to make you significantly faster.

Bacciagalupe

Probably not.

In terms of performance, 3 lbs of frame weight is barely noticeable, even on hills. Wheels, you might notice.

3 lbs = 2 full water bottles. Do you notice a difference between your 20 lb bike at the start of the ride, and at the end when the bottles are empty...?

kudude

+1 million. Can't really notice a difference going from an aluminum 105 9-speed bike that weighed ~22lbs to a carbon ultegra sl bike that is in the ballpark of 17lbs. I notice a difference in shifting, maybe bb stiffness and the big f****** grin on my face. weight, no.

carpediemracing 

There's noticeable when picking up the bike and noticeable when riding it.

Picking up the bike - for me, it's about 10-15% weight drop makes the bike feel "a lot lighter". Going from 25 to 22 or so pounds (think a current hard tail mtb) makes the bike "wow" lighter. Or on a road bike, I went from 18 to 16 lbs. Another "wow" level of lighter weight.

When riding it, it all depends.

1 - I've blown up on hills pedaling super light bikes with super light wheels. When I blow up they feel like I'm pedaling a tricycle through wet concrete - it doesn't matter how nice or un-nice the bike is, they all feel heavy and slow. Until then a light bike (10-15% lighter, maybe 2-3 pounds) will have a minor difference in feel to me. Same difference if I eject two full bottles, say in a crit with a steep hill. Takes the edge off but if I'm blown it just buys me a couple minutes.

2 - Light wheels - when I switched wheels at a race to an aero set that weighed about 2 pounds less than my standard non-aero wheels, the bike seemed like it wanted to jump out from under me. There's a noticeable difference in how quickly the bike accelerates when I'm fresh. When I'm tired - see #1.

3 - Light bike - if the bike is lighter overall but not lighter in the wheels (current example - I put the same wheels, bag, light, bottles, and pump I had on my heavier bike onto my lighter bike), then there is virtually no difference in feel at a 10-15% weight loss. The bike feels a little better but it might be because it's stiffer newer etc, i.e. it's in my head.

4 - aero versus light on flatter terrain - if you have a more aero bike that's slightly heavier (i.e. you put on heavier aero wheels instead of your super light box section carbon climbing wheels), the bike will respond differently, but ultimately, at high speeds, the light bike will not feel (or be) as fast. Maybe it'll accelerate quicker. But since aerodynamics counts more than weight, the aero setup feels faster. When I used RevX/440/TriSpokes/original-Vento/CosmicCarbon vs lighter box section 280 gram rimmed wheels, the bikes accelerated slower but went faster at the top end.

Light and aero is where it's at

working on getting light and aero,
cdr

jrennie

Slightly off-topic but has anyone of the "take less water" or "take a duce before a ride" guys ever actually ridden a light bike versus a heavy bike back to back? Have you tried to flick a 15 lb bike back and forth on a twisty downhill and then tried the same thing on a bike that is a couple pounds heavier? Hop a curb, jump a pothole/bottle?

sogood

Typically when you go light, the frame is more high end and is stiffer. That can be noticeable.

mihlbach

Are you seriously suggesting that chucking your bottles will buy you a couple of minutes in a crit? Or am I just misunderstanding what you are saying.

mihlbach

+1. High end stuff is not only lighter, but generally also better in a other ways (stiffer, more aero, etc.) When people upgrade from low/mid range stuff to high end stuff for the first time, they have a tendency to attribute the differences in how the bike "feels" to weight because its such an easily quantifiable variable.

Coyote2

I think (could be wrong) that he's suggesting that it allows him to, e.g., stay with the pack for a few more minutes before getting dropped.

ZXiMan

Yeah, there is a reason Rasmussen never climbs with bottles in his cages... but then he "looks" like he only weighes 100 pounds... heh.

I would imagine on a LONG climb... say, 8-10 miles that the water bottles could make a VERY big difference. Same thing riding a 3-4 pound heavier bike.

Coyote2

Or carrying 3-4 pounds of extra body fat...But I guess you can't buy weight reduction (or fitness increases) as easily as a you can buy lighter bike parts.

ZXiMan

Oh Coyote2, you must have a little "thing" for me. That's so sweet <laughs>.

But don't be mad Just because you look like a little flat chested girl...

Anyways...

Trust me, I know all about "weight reduction"... I lost 57 pounds in 12 months. So what if I have 8-10 more to go? I'm so happy for your concern though!!!

And If you didn't have the reading and comprehension skills of a 5 year old, you'd see the reasoning behind lightening my bike. It has nothing to do with my on bike performance.

What a shmuck!

Coyote2

If it's not about performance, it's about vanity, which is even sadder.

ZXiMan

Well if it's so sad, I sure am a lucky guy to have you, the almighty Coyote2 to cry me a river!

If I were "vain" I would have bought the 12 pound, $9,000 Litespeed my LBS had on display (or any of the other Serotta, Cervelo, Pinerello, De Rosa, Independent Fabrication.. et al that the same LBS sells. To me, buying one of those brands is pure "vanity" yet poseurs and racers alike buy them.

Sorry, but my fascination with weight-weenie-ing my bike has nothing to do with "vanity"... It's actually alot more simple than that. While subtly upgrading my bike (who doesn't?) I was presented with a challenge. That challenge turned into something that I find fun, which has turned into an offseason hobby. It's just another thing that helps keep me motivated in the sport when I can't be outside riding every day. Like I said, what's the harm in that?

Anyways, for thousands of years people said it would be impossible to visit the moon... said it couldn't be done. Well it has been done (and more than once).

Some so called cycling genius's also said I'd lose my sanity trying to build a sub 15 pound bike for under $10K (especially since I started out with a "cheapy" bike with a supposedly "POS" frame and had no weight weenie experience at all). I've set my budget just a little over half of that. I'm not far off either and I've spent less than $3K (including the cost of the bike). That and I'm not doing everything all at once.

My ex-wife told me I'd never weigh 180 pounds again. She was wrong too. I weigh less than that now.

Personally, I like challenges like that.

If that makes me vain then so be it...

Bob Ross

I would never advocate taking less water. Tried that once. Bad idea. But if a "duce" = a steaming fresh bowel movement, I advocate that for every ride, even relaxed casual slow family rides. And I practice what I preach!

Having said that: My two bikes are a modern all-carbon ~17lb Cannondale and a 27 year old lugged steel ~22lb Bridgestone. I've ridden them back to back over the same course a few times. Assuming it's even possible to separate my impressions about how it feels & how it rides from how it operates -- i.e., the difference between brifters & downtube friction shifters has a pronounced affect on how I ride the bikes -- what I notice is that it's much easier to get the lighter bike up to top speed, and to hold it there

...but that top speed isn't any higher than it is on the heavier bike.

Bob Ross

I just want to point out that the OP asked whether he would notice a significant difference, not whether he would be faster.

powerglide

not as much as most people think.

alanbikehouston

Absolutely...if you are chucking your bottles directly into the front wheels of the fastest rider.

There is a story about a rider in the Tour de France who had the opposite theory. He thought adding weight would make him faster coming down a mountain. At the top of the mountain, he threw away his empty water bottles and was handed new bottles by his support staff. The new bottles were filled with lead, making his bike about twenty pounds heavier.

According to the "legend", he hit a pothole, and his "water" bottles fell off his bike and began bouncing down the road, making very loud "BONK, BONK, BONK" noises each time they landed on the pavement.

And so ended the "heavier is better" approach to bike racing.

stapfam

Hit the nail on the head. Not only the lighter bike- better frame and better components.

I ride a 20lb bike and a 15lb one. Both set up to fit the same but The lighter bike climbs better- accelerates better- corners better. So why do I ride the 20lb so much- the lighter components are also more fragile and do wear out quicker- and I still like the ride of my first road bike.

And on the wheels- providing there is not a vast difference in weight- Lighter wheels do not work a great deal better- What makes them work is keeping them in perfect true- bearings run smooth and tyres that roll better.

MrCjolsen

By plugging the numbers in here, I conclude that the it takes 196 watts to push my 205 lb butt down the road at 19mph on a 20 pound bike. It takes 195.4 watts to push the same butt down the road on a 17 pound bike.

The speed difference at the same wattage is .023 mph on flat ground. That translates to about 4 seconds over a distance of 20 miles.

Going up a 6% grade, the differences are a little more profound, but not much. The speed difference is about .09 mph. The difference in wattage to climb at a steady 7 mph is about 3 watts. That would mean about a minute and a half longer to get to the top of Mt. Diablo while cranking a steady 222 watts.

So how much money is that minute and a half worth to you?

kudude

between 1:01:29 and 59:59 it's A LOT. 1:23:00 to 1:21:30, not so much