I just realized what a numbskull I am (it may come as no surprise to many of you).
I’ve been trying to think of a way to weigh my bike, since it doesn’t fit on a bathroom scale. I was sort of resigned to eventually getting a spring scale to hang it from.
A friend of mine mentioned that he couldn’t figure out how to weigh his infant daughter, and his dad (a Ph.d in Chemistry and the guy who created Pert shampoo) said, why don’t you just weigh yourself and then weigh yourself carrying the kid. Pure elegance. As he told me this, I realized I could do this myself with the bike. It all has a certain Greek philosopher sort of elegance to it.
Of course, many of you probably already figured this out, and I’m real late to the game, but hey, I thought I’d share.
Your next epiphany may be that, once you weigh your bike and four or five others, you’ll discover that all bikes weigh within a couple pounds of each other, and that it doesn’t make that much difference after all.
My Great Uncle liked to relate a story of a professor from a local college getting a flat tire on his way to teach a class. He put the lug bolts in the hubcap so he wouldn’t lose them, and accidentally kicked the hubcap…sending all but three of the lugnuts into the sewer. Watching the whole affair from behind a tall fence, was an in-patient of the mental health hospital. The professor stood up and shouted…“Now what am I going to do?!” The inpatient told the professor just to evenly space the remaining three lugnuts around the bolts, and he could make it slowly to class just fine. Later, he could buy new lugnuts. The professor remarked, “Here I am, a learned man, and you, a patient in the mental hospital, figured out the solution to this problem before I did.” The mental patient answered, “I may be crazy, but, I’m not stupid.”
You’re absolutely right Tom! My 55cm Tiphoon, Ultegra, Profile Aero-lites, Hed Alps, X-lab flat-wing with 2 Profile Cages, CO2 cartridge, inflator, spare tube, and Look A3.1s weighs in at a mere 22.3 lbs. Put my 190lb. body on it and I average 21 mph for 40k. Take away 3 or 4 pounds of bike weight and I bet I still average 21 mph. It’s all in the fit and the engine. Engine still needs work though.
