Lightweight bikes.

My bikes, ready to ride, weigh in at between 16.5 lbs. and 22.5 lbs. I can tell very little difference in those and I could barely tell a difference between those and the 24.5 lb. Basso Loto that I sold off other than the Basso in general rode better than these. The steel Lemond rides noticeably better than either Trek.

For the Colnago to ride good you have to be careful of the tire pressure. Perhaps I can get it to fit 28 mm tires and then it would probably ride well.. The Look KG585 on the other hand rides perfectly. No complaints whatsoever. But is noticeably flexes under load. This doesn't reduce the handling that I can notice but it still makes you wonder if that is having any long lasting effects on the material. The bike handles impeccably probably because the flex is entirely in the vertical plane of the frame.

The difference in the ability climb seem more to hinge on the strength of the percentage of total weight gain. The Trek Emonda and the Madone handle very well and they have almost identical weights. But they don't have any vertical compliance so that you're more reliant upon the tire width and pressure.

I suppose in hindsight the only advantage of the newer much higher priced spreads, the gain from the light weight probably isn't worth the price difference between them and a high level steel bike such as an Eddy Merckx Strada OS or a Basso Loto of the later Basso custom tubing models. While the bikes with he SLX tubing on them are pretty stiff, I don't much care for the ride.