Categories: The BikesThe RidesTraditionUnforgettable Rides

Weight Weenies

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.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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pistard says:

Jun 26 2015 at 8:47 pm

@Ryan

Bicycle Quarterly has done some interesting research and testing on weight and stiffness with results that counter current trends. Far from conclusive, largely subjective and with an admitted bias (steel/constructeur/randonneur), but they were right about wider tires.
Eric says:

Jun 26 2015 at 11:08 pm

@DeKerr

Had the interesting experience of pushing on the pedals hard enough to blow the 16 tooth off my rear cassette (Dura-Ace 11 Speed).

While it’s most likely an Mfr defect I still enjoy the idea that I was transferring so much Rule #10 through the Gun Platforms that I managed to fuck up my bike.

I have had no such troubles, as my weak legs do not enable such events to occur. Be careful @DeKerr, or the next thing you know, your mighty guns will be snapping the spokes off your rear hub!
HigherGround says:

Jun 27 2015 at 12:08 am

@frank

@michel02

gert jan theunisse had a training wheel filled with lead, for training purposes needless to say…it worked! (-:

Fucking GJT was such a legend!

Why was his saddle taped up like that? Some sort of modification for saddle sores?
SteelCamp says:

Jun 27 2015 at 2:06 am

Here's a thought. We tend to ride with a given effort, whatever we feel we can do that day. Having a heavier bike will make us go slower for that effort but it's the effort that gives us the conditioning. Increasing weight will only improve conditioning if you force yourself to go the same speed you would go with a lighter bike. And what are we talking about anyway, .05 km/hour?
SteelCamp says:

Jun 27 2015 at 2:22 am

That being said, my bike will always be on a diet, the weight inching lower over time because I love light weight stuff. The love is sufficient reason for me.
ErikdR says:

Jun 27 2015 at 6:14 am

@frank

@ErikdR

I’ll probably spend the rest of the day wondering what it means to misunderestimate someone…

If you had spent time living in the US during the Bush Era, you’d know exactly what it means.

Cheers Frank - a lot of that stuff had me in stitches. My favorite would be, I guess: "... Our enemies never stop thinking of new ways to harm our country and our people... and neither do we" That's political poetry right there... Priceless! But hey, at least the guy was being honest and straightforward about it.
ErikdR says:

Jun 27 2015 at 6:27 am

@SteelCamp

Here’s a thought. We tend to ride with a given effort, whatever we feel we can do that day. Having a heavier bike will make us go slower for that effort but it’s the effort that gives us the conditioning. Increasing weight will only improve conditioning if you force yourself to go the same speed you would go with a lighter bike. And what are we talking about anyway, .05 km/hour?

Aha! Very well put. But conversely, perhaps, don't we often make our minds up, prior to the ride, about how far we'd like to go? So the next time I decide to go for a 30 km training spin, the choice between my 8 kg carbon stealth missile and the much heavier steel Moser should be an easy one. I'll grab the Moser and put in the same amount of effort - but for a (much) longer time. Win! (If I strap a sufficient number of bags of cement to my frame, I might spend all day covering the 30 km... Oh, wait...)
ChrisO says:

Jun 27 2015 at 11:17 am

@SteelCamp

Here’s a thought. We tend to ride with a given effort, whatever we feel we can do that day. Having a heavier bike will make us go slower for that effort but it’s the effort that gives us the conditioning. Increasing weight will only improve conditioning if you force yourself to go the same speed you would go with a lighter bike. And what are we talking about anyway, .05 km/hour?

Easy enough to work out.

At a power of 300 watts a 75kg rider plus 7kg bike has a power to weight ratio of 3.61w/kg.

On a 12kg bike it is 3.45w/kg.

That's about a 4.7% reduction in power to weight, or close to 1km/h going up a hill at 20km/h.
frank says:

Jun 27 2015 at 2:16 pm

@unversio

Gert-Jan Theunisse certainly defends Frank’s choice to mount his control levers — level.

Those blue Banesto shorts blew my mind when they came out. I loved them; I bought some blue Santini's shortly after and wore a red santini jersey with it and felt like I looked like a massive stud; I loved watching my legs moving in something other than black.

Oh, youth.
Nate says:

Jun 27 2015 at 2:31 pm

@unversio

Gert-Jan Theunisse certainly defends Frank’s choice to mount his control levers — level.

Awesome cap luft as usual from indurain.

I never get tired of pix of Gert.

Too bad Gunderson is in the frame, befouling the rainbow jersey.