Does it make sense to train on a clunker?
 

As long as it fits well and doesn't injure you would it make sense to train on a cheap, heavy bike and race on a $$$ lightweight? Kind of like... get your body used to riding a 30 pounder then switch to an 18 pounder for a race?

I'd tend to agree. By training you're refining your skills and trying to make yourself faster, etc. so I'd think you'd want something less efficient than what you use on race day. But I guess once could argue that you want to know your race bike inside and out because it handles differently than a heavier bike, all other things being equal.

When you're racing, every ride over , say, five miles, is training of sorts. And there are places where you don't want to take and possibly leave your race bike. Add to this the folly of commuting on your best wheels, the discomfort of carrying stuff on your uncompromising TT steed, the aggravation of cleaning city rubbish off your DA transmission.....yeah, I'd say it makes sense;-)

Best to have a great comfort level with your race bike, mind. Don't want to be discovering the idiosyncracies of your new pride and joy the hard way, at the bottom of a Crit stack you caused...........

It worked great for me. Trained on a Specialized CroMoly Hybrid w/ fat tires. Kept up with the group. Rode a century on an old Trek 1500 (but new to me) with smooth tires. It was a dream even though I am infamously bad on hills and it was hilly. Did work out the kinks on the Trek first though.
Maggie

i train/commute ona bit of a beast of a bike. not hugely heavier than my race bike but with a tool bag and a bag on my bike etc. it definitely is heavier by about 5 pounds all up and it doe smake a difference when I hit the race bike, even if only mentally. It's almost like doing weights, train yourelf to push a heavier bike up a hill and your race bike will seem like less effort and you've trained the muscles for it.

yah I would think so, just as you said make sure it fits as good as your $$$ lightweight (assuming the lightweight bike fits like a glove) and make sure before the event that you are training for you you transition to the $$$ light weight bike to get used to it.

yah I would think so, just as you said make sure it fits as good as your $$$ lightweight (assuming the lightweight bike fits like a glove) and make sure before the event that you are training for you you transition to the $$$ light weight bike to get used to it.

Woh double post!!!!

Yup! that's what I do too. Today for example rode my Volpe with panniers loaded and everything at around 32 lbs, after my commute (12 miles each way) took a detour to this nasty hill which starts at 5-6% for 100 ft then kicks up to 9% for about 360 ft., I did 6 intervals, resting about a minute in between, 3 seated, 3 standing, boy I sweated like a pig. Thsi is 3rd time I do this in a month, and everytime I'm back to this hill I feel stronger, I've noticed this particularly on club rides when I'm pushing my other 20 lb Bianchi up the hills, has improved my wattage too, some hills which used to feel tough they're not so tough anymore. I'm proud of my little accomlishment.
Corsaire :)

Sometimes it is more important to train on the bike you race... i.e. tt's. For others you can ride a heavier bike as long as you get some time in on the lighter bike to get used to its handling.

Would you sleep on the floor 5 nights a week in order to feel more pleasure from your bed on the other 2 nights? Why not enjoy the pleasure of a nice bike on every ride?
Get some training wheels and use your good bike.

A lot of serious riders have a training bike, usually on older steel race bike fitted out with retired components. They are usually of reasonable quality, not heavy clunkers, but not ultra-light either.

You can get Taiwanese, tig welded cromoly training frames designed for this purpose. They often have a little more tyre clearance and fender eyelets.

I think this is a great idea, as long as both trainer and race bikes have a substantially similar, good fit (identical in an ideal world). Though I don't race (yet) it's always a good plan to have more than one bike if it is a piece of equipment that you rely on. I commute (though I like to call it training :)) in addition to weekend rides and have two Sora-equipped Road bikes just for this purpose. My third "posh" bike has yet to leave the hangar on her maiden voyage in case she gets dirty in the rain.... Plus it is fun to have more bikes.

Cheers,

Ed

For all the reasons previously eluded to in this thread.

I guess I don't see the point to a heavier bike. If you rode a clunker up a hill at say 10 mph with a heart rate of 160, wouldn't you get the same workout if you rode the race bike up the hill at the same heart rate, but went 12mph instead since the bike was lighter?