On Mar 5, 4:08 am, Tom Sherman
wrote:
"jim beam" wrote:
Henry wrote:
[...]
the whole weight thing confuses me.
I see plenty of "heavy" riders with expensive bikes and bits and
wonder if it's a case of having deep pockets.
If I weigh 95 kilo's, will I go faster losing 5 kg's of lard or
spending $5k for a 5 kg lighter bike ?

like spending $120k on a porsche when you can only drive 55? dude, some
people /like/ the porsche. and they can afford it. and we're not a
communist nanny state, yet.

A tiny fraction of Porsche owners take their cars to weekend track
events and such where the capabilities of the car can be used. The rest
are just trying to impress women with their potential spending ability.
Hell, I have gained on a Boxster on a long on-ramp while driving my
freaking company work truck.

Just like the fat guy who buys a Trek MadOne and the full Lance-A-Like
outfit to ride down the bike path at 20 kph.

--
Tom Sherman - 42.435731,-83.985007
LOCAL CACTUS EATS CYCLIST - datakoll

being a recent ex FB (was 105 kg, now 80) myself I think I can speak
with some experience here.
I got fit (at 105 kg), and it really did rip my undies when the sprout-
eating "i wonder if they're only _as_ fit as me" types went skipping
past me going up a steep climb. What I also found out is that I go
much faster than most downhill. Flat stuff I was able to stay in a
group at ~40 KPH.
So I'd constantly find when I went and did K2 ( in 7 hours);
http://www.arcevents.co.nz/k2cycle/profile.html
that these 70 kg types ride like little girls down hill, which is kind
of funny as a lot of them were (little girls). Bad for my ego; except
the downhill where I didn't get passed once
So I decided to lose 25 kg, and I've still got the same bike, and I do
go uphill _quite_ a bit quicker; but when I was a FB I think I tried
harder
But on the negative side I get knocked around a lot more in the
wind :O
and I don't have the same "momentum" going downhill either!
I'll have to go back to K2 and see how much faster.

In all seriousness what is the difference between the reduction in
rider weight and reduction in bike weight of the same amount? It's
nice that my knees don't knock into my belly any more
Obviously I couldn't get a 25kg lighter bike, and my cycling fitness
has suffered a bit due to swimming and running training.