Parting the waters on a 24 pound bike.
My bike weighs about 6 kilos. It is no waify little thing either, with it having a 61cm frame and and three stories of seatpost. It has beefy tubes, a stiff bottom bracket and steerer, and deep section wheels which are laced 3x in the back and 2x in front. This bike has never made me go faster; only going faster has made me go faster.
Gianni rode Haleakala in the 80’s on a heavy steel frame with a 42T chainring and a 23T cog in the back. He rode it wearing a cuttoff sleeveless t-shirt; an offense which, had I known when we started this site, I would have put him on probation for. Then he did it again several years later on a titanium, campa-equipped steed with a compact and wearing proper kit. He rode it in about the same time, also proving that you go as fast as you want, not as fast as your bike is.
Gianni Bugno (different Gianni but possibly the source of inspiration for Keeper Gianni’s name), won back-to-back l’Alpe d’Huez stages on a 24-pound steel Moser, beating lighter carbon TVT’s to the punch both times.
Riding light bikes is fun, but they won’t make you go any faster. Pushing harder on the pedals does.
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...you go as fast as you want, not as fast as your bike is.
Beautiful.
We are with one accord -- pushing harder -- greater momentum -- amazing moment!
Last year I was 2nd fastest in a very hilly sportive on a bike weighing about 14 kilos, at a time when I weighed at least 96 k.
However, I'm doing it again this year (albeit a longer version) with a 9kg bike and weighing more like 96 kilos. I'm expecting to push harder on the pedals indeed, but my bike will be travelling a lot faster.
Riding a light bike might not make one faster, but riding a heavy bike absolutely will, provided of course that one measures speed only on the lighter bike.
To wit: the commuter is somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 kg before anything goes in the panniers. Number 1 is around 8 kg. I know from experience and that putting in miles on the heavier bike makes me faster on the lighter. It's just constant leg presses to get anywhere.
@Owen
I'll second that. Riding my steel bikes definitely has made me faster on the carbon #1. However, there is another factor, there are two flat stretches of rough tarmac in my regular rides where my PR is still set on the steel bikes. The compliance of steel wins out even over a top end carbon with inbuilt compliance which #1 most definitely is.
@Teocalli
I have definitely crushed at least one Strava segment in the area on the commuter simply because it's so godawful rough that no one wants to risk their carbon steeds by hitting the stretch hard. I certainly don't since if I break my bike I'm just out of luck. Aluminum is definitely more jarring but the giant tires make up for it.
Train heavy, race light. Simple.
Do you have a source that Gianni Bugno's TdF-ridden steel Moser weighed 10.8 kgs?
@RVester
@frank's source for all his 'facts' is being Dutch.
The guy who owns my LBS has a great line "I can make it lighter but I can't make it any faster".
It's fun to have a light bike but I hope none of you are rocking silly lightweight skewers or brakes.