What does your bike really weigh?

Triathlon Forum
1

Ok. Got the wife a new bike and she asked how much it weighs. I didn’t know, so out came the bathroom scale (highly scientific, I know).

Weighed me, weighed her bike w/ lights, saddle bag, etc. in at 22lbs.

Grabbed my P3Al as preped for a sprint this Sunday (See photo).
19.1lbs

My question is, and I am not a weight weenie at all, what do our bikes really weigh when we race them and why do we still talk about 100 grams like it makes a difference.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j95/Dount_Gestapo/P3AlumSprint1.jpg?t=1253890628 Sorry for the wheels not being properly aligned, being in the wrong display gearing, not vacuuming the carpet, for the shiny license sticker, and for some of the bricks not being properly colored.

2

With me on it probably about 185lbs.

This is one of the reasons I REFUSE to carry bottles on the back of my bike for an IM. Why spend thousands on a light bike only to make it heavy carrying fuel that is available on the course every 15km? Make no sense to me.

Ken

3

Ok. Got the wife a new bike and she asked how much it weighs. I didn’t know, so out came the bathroom scale (highly scientific, I know).

Weighed me, weighed her bike w/ lights, saddle bag, etc. in at 22lbs.

Grabbed my P3Al as preped for a sprint this Sunday (See photo).
19.1lbs

My question is, and I am not a weight weenie at all, what do our bikes really weigh when we race them and why do we still talk about 100 grams like it makes a difference.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j95/Dount_Gestapo/P3AlumSprint1.jpg?t=1253890628 Sorry for the wheels not being properly aligned, being in the wrong display gearing, not vacuuming the carpet, for the shiny license sticker, and for some of the bricks not being properly colored.

We spend inordinate amounts of time and money on the details of bicycle weight because it is an easily measured parameter. It is also easy to make sense of the concept that light weight equals saved time and effort. Regardless of the validity of that concept, the measurement of such things is pleasurable, so we measure.

It is concrete - change out a component for a lighter component - instantly measured therefore instantly faster and better. .

MUCH easier than weighing your body, which can change from day to day based simply on time of day and food intake. Much more satisfying to lift your newly lightened bike than to stand on your scale and reveal a .5 pound decrease, knowing it can go back up the very next day! That won’t happen on your bike.

Why then, do we not extrapolate this weight weenie argument to our running shoes? Does it not make sense that a shoe weighing only 1 ounce less than other results in a pound of savings in only 16 footsteps? We might be lifting thousands of pounds of unnecessary weight!

BTW, 15.6…

4

I’ll bite. My bike is right at 17 pounds, minus spare and tools (and food). Figure 18 pounds minus food and liquid ready to race an IM.

As far as how much difference weight makes, I go by A: Power and Aero, B: Rolling resistance C: Weight

What I’ve never understood is that even though weight is fare down the list, why ignore it, particularly when there is no trade off on the other, admittedly more important issues?

Styrrell

5

After my build it was 16.25 lbs; but its not a tri bike, its a roady (I’m too poor right now to get a tri bike). so with aero bars, bottles, etc, its probably 19. Weight for a road bike is huge, on a typical weekend I can go on a 5k climb out my back door and going up a 6% grade for 11 miles an extra 3 lbs lost is about a percent of energy saved. For Triathlons, the courses aren’t nearly as punishing so your not going to get that gain but it always helps.

6

You do know that many companies sell lighter running shoes specifically for racing. :wink:

Styrrell

7

You didnt say sorry for your seat being to high
.

8

what do our bikes really weigh when we race them and why do we still talk about 100 grams like it makes a difference.

Makers of bike components can market weight. It is easily verifiable.

Makers of bikes can market aero. It is not so easily verifiable and thus, fairly nebulous in the newbie consumers mind. I can understand why a newbie buys a light bike. If they don’t know where to look to do the research then they don’t know any better. What I don’t understand is why a serious triathlete would spend hundreds of dollars on a lightweight crankset or other item when the performance gain is minimal.

Just FYI, I tested this once on my rolling 10K TT course. First run with five pounds of extra weight. 19:06. Second run without the extra. 19:04. Same wattage and frankly, I would put that 2 second difference very much in the category of “noise” from road surface, varied winds. If five pounds doesn’t matter then 500 grams is surely irrelevant.

BTW, nice setup. You clearly understand how to get the most out of your bike at a reasonable cost.

My bike is like 22 pounds.

Chad

9

Depends on the bike and what I’m doing. MTN bike - 31 lbs, cyclocross bike is 20.5 lbs, TT bike 17.5 lbs, crit/rain bike 16.4 lbs, road racer/climber 14.7 lbs. Those are all riding weights (computer, cages, etc.). Me: 155 - 160 lbs. Don’t care at all about weight on the MTN bike, very little on the cross bike (although it is the one bike I actually have to carry/lift), very little on TT bike. Long, sustained climbs (i.e. 4-10 miles) and I do notice a few lbs on the roadie, otherwise weight is a largely overblown factor and can make a bike more fragile if weight weenism isn’t done right :wink:

10

Why do you assume that the noise from your test is in favor of weight not mattering? If we assume the opposite you get 4 seconds over 10 km and 16 seconds over 40 km. Look over most TT results and that usually matters quite a bit.

Styrrell

11

Sorry for the wheels not being properly aligned, being in the wrong display gearing, not vacuuming the carpet, for the shiny license sticker, and for some of the bricks not being properly colored.
Hey, at least you’re in the big ring…

12

My TT/Tri bike (a P2C) has gotten heavier over the last season or two as I’ve drunk more of the ST kool-aid and swapped out a few items for aero upgrades, and on my budget that has come w/ a minor weight penalty (rear disc being the single biggest). I honestly haven’t even bothered to weigh it since the original build (~19) but I’d be pleasantly surprised if it’s not over 20 now even stripped down for a short TT. For long-distance stuff (w/ frame bottle, aerodrink, and emergency tool/flat kit) it’s probably at least 21, not counting the liquid.

On the other hand, I’m w/ furious where my #1 roadie is concerned… I’ve got a few big climbs (~3000’ net) in my repertoire where I can really feel the weight difference compared to my back-up training bike. Picture a route where your speed is hovering in the single digits for up to 10 miles - it’s like climbing stairs for solid hour or more. When you’ve been grinding for awhile already and suddenly need to stand to ‘jump’ a steeper pitch, even if it’s mostly in your head, I swear it’s a bigger deal than just a basic physics equation like it would be applied to an inanimate machine source of power. The one big trade-off is that you have to be able to account for coming down the other side, braking and cornering tight switchbacks on shitty BLM/USFS access roads, so that rules out the uberlight specialty wheels, otherwise I’d have it below 18lbs (for a size 58).

13

Actually, if you assume it did gain me those 2 seconds then it would be 8 seconds for 40K.

Since the difference in time was so negligible, I didn’t go back and waste a bunch of time repeating it. Based off past testing of items that didn’t make any difference, I suspect I would get a number of runs all within 2-5 seconds of each other without any pattern of one being faster than the other.
I used five pounds to make the result as extreme as I could. Generally, the difference in top end frames and components is going to be much less than five pounds.
I certainly don’t lose any sleep knowing my tri bike is 20-22 pounds.
Chad

14

I did forget that one. Drat!

15

I meant you assume that it didn’t give you the 2 seconds you measured, but you could just as easily assume the error in measuring was the exact opposite and you mis measured by an additional 2 seconds. So in your testing the 5 pounds cost 0-4 seconds.

5 pounds is pretty reasonable , but I bet at most tris you could take all of the “real” tri bikes and get 10 pounds difference.

Styrrell

16

17 lbs exactly with cages but no bottles or spare/co2.
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2653/42/112/1178292074/n1178292074_30409677_1012967.jpg

17

Bike weight (all with pedals, computer, cages, but not liquid, tools, spares): Daily driver, 17.1; crit, 18.1; light bike, 13.7, TT, 18.8. All top tubes are between 56.5 and 57. Sizing is essentially a “58”.

The “rules” that I remember are: a pound is worth about 4 seconds in a 40k TT. On a 10k, 7% hill, a pound is worth 10 seconds. So my light bike is worth less than a minute over my daily driver in our annual hill climb.

There are a few reasons why I think we focus on weight, most have already been mentioned: it’s easily quantified; it’s easier than losing weight, etc.

For me, it’s just plain fun. I like light stuff, as long as it’s strong enough. I can’t have the coolest house. I can’t have the coolest car. I’ve lost interest in the coolest computer gear. But I can have some very cool bike stuff and fairly inexpensively. For an old, fat, and slow geek like me that’s way cool.

But sometimes, I do things that don’t really make sense. I have Hed clip-lites on the TT to save weight, but I use a wheel cover. Go figure.

18

Funny you should ask that as I weighed my for the first time Monday. I took my own weight 3 straight times and then took it a 4th time holding my bike on the digital scale so it only goes in .5 increments. 19.5 lbs. on the first try…19 on the second.

Mine is a bit unfair though b/c I’m a roadie so I would imagine that means a bit less material…no aero bars, just drops…is that right?

58 Madone 5.2

19

Tri-bike 18.5 lbs
Road 14.3

Both on carbon clinchers that weight around 1700g, no spares/bottles. With carbon tubulars, significantly less.

Peace

20

My 2008 Argon 18 Mercury 52cm, w/Fulcrum Racing 5 wheels, wheel cover, small VDO computer, Vision Base bar, Profile QS2 brake levers, Zipp Vuka Clip ons, Dura Ace shifters RD and Crank, Ultegra Brakes and FD, no water, tools, etc, weighs in at 19lbs.