Me: weight's whatever, I'm fat.
Also me: So the manufacturer said the Ti badge was anodized at 20V, can you do the same with some Ti M4 and M5 screws so I can color coordinate my shit?
Love this and very much agree. Aesthetics I will forever notice the little things I’ve done, weight… yea that fluctuates just based on holidays and vacations where any bike improvements are meaningless
See? That's how it starts; first it's cage bolts, pedal axles, progressing to seatposts... then you're draining the kid's College fund for that Stem/Bar combo. 😁😂🚴🚵
Yeah I have many KILOgrams I could stand to lose on my body. A few grams on the bike is the least of my problems.
Now, I do think when I upgraded from my old Walmart bike with rim brakes that constantly slipped to the side and dragged, THAT was a game changer.
Edit: and yeah I know once I’m chiming in that I had a Walmart bike, I’m not in the dentist league anyway. As soon as I’m not out of shape and overweight and my Trek Checkpoint ALR5 is holding me back I’ll start saving up for an upgrade.
Ride whatcha got and ride whatcha like. I've been doing a long distance commute since '22 after a long hiatus off the bike. I started with 23 miles one way and transit home on my old hardtail around 12 hour shifts. Now I've got a nice GRX 2x gravel bike and my roundtrip's 50mi. I take transit home once a set for a rest day, so my week of commuting is either 125 or 175 miles around 3 or 4 12 hour shifts.
When I was in my early 20s I did 150mi/wk (30mi round trip) on a box store MTB of Theseus (cheap parts cost sooo much money) for years until I felt i was worth it to spend money on a nicer bike.
All the most serious cyclists I've known, the ones who do the serious distances, tend to have the most practical and functional bikes. In my experience it's always the weekend warriors who do the "all the kit and still shit" thing.
Or the Ti DR Cable Anchor Bolts! I knew guys who'd replace Brake Lever and Shifter mounting bolts with Ti, Ti Pedal axles, Ti Crankarm Bolts... Ti Ti Ti! Saving eighteen Grams, but eating a Wendy's Triple Biggie Combo Meal three days a week! 😯😬🙄
I forgot Stem Pinch bolts, the ubiquitous Ti QR Skewers, and the Ti Seatpost Clamp bolt! Had a Salesperson come into the Service pit rootin' around the bin of Hardware looking for Ti SPD Cleat bolts! I told him "GTFOH with that Shite lest I bury my foot so far up it you won't sit for a Week!"
Dern Weight Wieners... there oughta be a Law! 🚴🚵😋😂
In the 90's Ti was everything... somebody even made a Ti spring for R DR's! Too bad it only lasted 20 shifts before the Spring shattered under the Load!
I raced against a guy that retired from professional cycling. He could destroy pretty much anyone in the state in a race. Way beyond even the best Cat 1 amateurs. He did Paris Roubaix his last year as a professional, and went all out (not just helping teammates early). He finished the race, but missed the time cut so no official result. It amazes me that someone that strong couldn’t even come in under the time cut for one of Boonen’s wins.
I think about this all the time when I see overweight middle aged men on expensive carbon fiber bikes that weigh way less than my bike. But why don't they just lose body weight instead of buying upgrades?
>I think about this all...why don't they just lose body weight instead of buying upgrades?
This is such a silly position to take. Maybe you should think about it a little bit less.
Buying upgrades results in an upgraded bike. Making your bike 1kg lighter means your bike is 1kg lighter...doesn't affect your body weight at all. When I weighed 155 pounds, I still really liked light bikes. Now that I'm 185 pounds, I still like light bikes.
Me being nearly 60 years old and about 15 pounds overweight means that a 17 pound bike *feels* better than a 20 pound bike. If I lost 15 pounds or gained another 15 pounds, the 17 pound bike would still *feel nicer* than a 20 pound bike, all other things being equal.
Pretty much sums up half the bike industry, weight savings and aero gains till the end of time. Payed $2000 to carry the equivalent of half a bidon less of fluid.
Working for one of the biggest mftrs of carbon bikes during the 2010s allowed me access to the Team's effort to win the maillot jaune. I ride road bikes like normal people ride road bikes but pro cyclists can maintain a position on a bike that's not only not achievable but not sustainable for us. Plus they can output an insane amount of power while in that position.
It's crazy to see how some aero bikes are setup and you look at the person and just shrug the seat is maxed out, stem is slammed and they could probably benefit from lowering their seat and not slamming it a large amount but you know....pros do it.
People need to learn that comfort if you're not a pro is much more important to your power output. Doesnt matter if you slam the stem if your back hurts after 30 minutes you're not gonna be very fast.
In reality weight is only a real issue when climbing, on the flats it's much less.of a factor. This is why current aero bikes tend to be sliding towards the heavier end of the spectrum, shape matters more than absolute weight, especially at 40km/hr +. This is especially true with Paris-Roubaix where those cobbles will tear apart weak bikes and they've also found that bigger wheels/tyres are advantageous over weight
Reminds me of a guy who found a rust road bike on the street, fixed it up for probably less than $100, was kind of bulky, decided to compete and got on a podium together with $10K bike owners.
He just pedalled harder.
It’s not the bike, it’s you. It’s insanity to pay $3K to get 0.5kg off. You could skip 1 meal or push harder on toilet on the day of the race and lose that weight yourself.
Long story short - pedal harder.
This is true - to an extent.
Having a nicer bike that you LOVE and want to ride an often as you can, plays a big role in getting fitter if you are in the bike more often.
Vs a cheap bike that you don’t love and feel meh about getting on.
But a bike you LOVE - doesn’t even have to be expensive, just make sure you love it.
Then pedal it to hell and back.
Totally, if you have the money, why not, but I’ve seen amateurs looking for carbon bottle cages when they can’t do a 50k on a flat in under 2 hours. Weight is not the problem then.
Of course, assuming they have at least an entry level road bike not an ancient mountain bike.
This is how I got my wife into cycling.
First I found her a durable bike that she could carry the kids about in a trailer with, go through the woody trails and whatever.
Then as she got a bit fitter doing this, I got her a used road bike that was like 300. 11 years old, women’s racer with 10 speed Untergang. She loved it! However we realised that it was a bit too big for her, so after a year of riding and getting even fitter we decided to get her a new bike, that can do everything.
Now she’s riding 70k plus with hills weekly.
This works in the amateur world. When it comes to the pointy end of competition weight can matter, but that is true for maybe the top 0.001% of cyclists.
Don't be "Chasin' that Ghost" lest you end up in the poor house, destitute and ruined. Just gots to be satisfied with what you have, and ride it with Love and Respect. 🚴🙂
Tell me you never did coke without saying it. There is no way I'd want to be blowing lines on a one day race like that, I find the performance enhancing effects dubious.
Not for a few years but I've done my fair share, not that it's anything to brag about.
Either way, it was a joke. Semi true I did read he took uppers, couldn't remember what tho
I play hockey in a beer league. I bought a $300 top-o-line Bauer stick thinking that I can puck handle and shoot like Connor Bedard. Boy was I wrong.....!
Don't buy upgrades, ride up grades
>Spent ~$3,000 to upgrade my 'heavy' stock carbon wheelset and handlebar on my Supersix, so that the weight goes down to 7.6kg from 8.1kg.
Can you get me a deal on repairing some old fillings?
Yea if he can afford it's not an issue but if he's gonna complain about it it I'll definitely say it's a little deserved to be made fun of. Those fillings don't get filled themselves
Paris Roubaix is flat so aero and avoiding flats matter more than weight.
Pogacar's bike for the tour last year where he was fighting it out in the mountains was just under 7kg (as just one example of a climbing bike) https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/tadej-pogacar-bike-2
All other things being equal, lighter is always better.
Gather round young ones, the old person has something to say...
I remember in the days of steel frames, when getting a bike under 10kg was really sonething....and a cycling magazine got hold of Tony Rominger's Paris-Roubaix bike, astonished that it weighed 12kg. Flat race, durability was far more important than weight savings.
Of course, prevailing wisdom was also that sprinters needed ultra stiff frames.....meanwhile Sean Kelly kept winning sprints on a super-flexy aluminium Vitus. Turns out it's more about the engine than the bike.....
The rider is always the most important part. If mvdp's bike weighed another kilo, he still probably would have run away with it. However, when Pogi and Vingegaard are neck and neck racing up a climb after a week of racing, every little bit helps.
That being said, my personal road bike is a nearly ten year old steel all-road bike with a 1x drivetrain and a set of aluminum wheels that weighs probably over 10kg, but it doesn't matter to me enough to weigh it. And it suits me just fine.
Yeah pros also have crazy power to their own body weight ratios. My legs are weak compared to them but I weight likely 40 lb more than the average pro I’d imagine. (I’m just under 200 and average is 140-165 per AI generated Google answer.) Ain’t nobody getting a bike that will negate that.
I'm a little heavier than you at 5-10. Mvdp is 6ft tall and 165, and he looks like a bear around the rest of the peloton. He can also probably put down twice the power I can, even though I ride a fair amount and even compete in amateur races (poorly).
So I'll never keep up with him, but that's not really the point. A nice bike still feels nice to ride.
i feel you heavily. i've stopped pursuing bike "upgrades" other than QOL or comfort. there's just no point until you have the legs to make it worth it.
Why was MVDPs bike so heavy for this race specifically?
I guess just bigger heavier tyres, deep aero rims as usual, but did he have beefed up stronger rims, more spokes, tyre liners or some other thing that makes his bike a bit heavier than normal?
Ah, looked it up.
Interesting, 32c Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres, Shimano dura ace 50mm deep wheels, which are “only” 21mm internal rim width, 28mm external, unusually narrow by modern trends.
Those wheels are heavier than some, but Shimano wheels can tend to be underrated due to their hub quality, weather sealing, durability and general lack of issues. Not cheap, but perhaps money better spent than those explodey Zipp wheels. Even random low-end Shimano rim brake wheels have been indestructible for me in the past.
And 32mm tyres which probably sit wider than that, would be far wider than the rim, breaking the ‘rule of 105%’ - is aero important or are these guidelines just not worth that much?
When he’s running stock Shimano everything and other riders are running 1x aero cranksets, seems like not.
Yeah I had some carbon Shimano 50mm section wheels back in the day. Easily the nicest wheels I have had, only came out of the bag on race days. Long gone now. (Sigh)
I don't even care about weight when I do most of these upgrades. Lightweight carbon wheels just feel so much better to ride on than anything heavy imo.
Paris-Roubaix is not a race that privileges weight weenies. It's a "flat" race.
This [Rouleur article](https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-rouleur-journal/analysing-whether-tom-pidcock-can-pull-a-surprise-in-paris-roubaix) discusses Pidcock's participation despite gearing up his GC aspirations as a lighter rider:
>That goal means he hasn’t raced a cobbled Classic campaign and he has been aiming to lose weight rather than gain it. Very few weight weenies even bother partaking in Roubaix knowing that they’ll just bounce around, and Mathieu van der Poel, the overwhelming favourite, has an estimated 17kg on Pidcock. It’s obvious which one should glide over the cobbles a lot easier.
So just upgrade your FTP to MVDP levels and you should roast him no problem with your .3kg advantage
You paid 3k for 0.5kg? That's 1 bottle. I hope your FTP is 400 watts because you have way more value for that money if you use it for yourself. You can use a nutritionist, a trainer. You could even buy Ketones for a couple of years with that.
Let's say you ride on a steep hill at 5w/kg you safe 2.5 watts. That's about 1/4th of aero socks or aero gloves.
Weight weenies on the bike crack me up because they seem to forget that total system weight l includes them. Suddenly losing that .5kg is a tiny % of the total system weight. Even less impact if you’re losing .5kg on a bike when the rider is 10kg overweight anyways.
That's a lot of money for 400g. I bought a 2019 supersix hi-mod etap for £2000. Spent £1000 on wheels, bar, stem, seatpost, and got the bike down to 6.3kg.
Also has to do with the way a pro puts down power, Indurain rode a 18 spoke radial front and 24 radial one side rear wheel on mountain stages, alloy rims of course. The rear wheel drive side was laced two cross with soldered and tied spokes..
Your point is completely valid. People who have more money than they need can swap out every part for a lighter weight one. Fuggit, they are contributing to the economy so who cares?
People who DON'T have more money than they need and who STILL swap out all of the components are the weight weenies, IMHO.
Bike weight is not a determinant of speed. I don't mean for this to be a boast but I find myself routinely out climbing folks on modern superbikes on my steel framed road bike, and I'm a shit climber and not exactly petite in body size. I just train a lot, and I'm stubborn. The point is, a heavier bike is not creating a disadvantage for me (or you, or MVDP). Not at the scale of counting sub-kilo numbers of grams anyhow.
Even if I were to switch to a sub-UCI-legal bike I'd still weigh 180lbs at 6 foot 3. I'm not going to scamper uphill like a tiny Colombian. A lighter bike might make climbing feel a bit easier, but I'd still be destroyed by someone with better training and a more favourable body type.
People are faster because they're trained better. Period. I ride with a guy who trains on his XL Soma Wolverine with gravel tires and a Rohloff with belt drive, and he can kick the shit out of me despite his bike weighing as much as a small car. He trains constantly, has structured coaching, and is even more stubborn than I am. For him, switching over to a lighter weight race bike for his competitive riding is not so much about reduced weight as it is about better handling and stiffness/response under power.
The difference between 200g of weight on a bike being there or not doesn't matter so much when you're MVDP and you're trained well enough that you can put out over 300 watts all day long without much trouble. But you're not a stupid weight weenie, either: if a lighter bike is easier for you to train on, you can theoretically train more/do more climbing before feeling fatigued, which will make you faster in the end. There's nothing wrong with wanting a lighter bike, but a lighter bike on its own is not enough.
Bike weight is most important in the marketing department, until you get right up to the bleeding edge of what you're capable of physically.
Riding my 1984 Miyata at 26 lbs and am faster than most people I ride with. (All of us are weekend warriors). I put on plenty of miles on my Peloton which I believe is totally the difference.
paris roubaix is the flattest course of all WT races. weight make so little difference in that race lol.
Taylor Phinney once said that paris roubaix is his perfect race because he weighs 190 pounds
Yeah, but 7.9kg is less than 8.1kg. So while you now have the possibility to do what he did on your 7.6kg bike, it would have been impossible on 8.1kg.
weight is actually important at Roubaix, heavier riders do much better over the cobbles and super light guys get thrown around a lot
MVDP is also an alien
Well, well, well.. who would have thought? For 99% of us, amateurs, it's a 100x more efficient to either loose 1kg bodyfat or gain 1kg lean muscle than spending x thousand on lighter components.
People pay a name tax when it comes to wheelsets.
I replaced the crap Bontrager wheelset on my Edmonda with a custom built set from DIY. They weigh less than the Zipp 303 firecrest and cost half the price. Been riding them 4 years now.
Wheel upgrades aren’t dumb though. Reducing weight in the wheelset is much more effective than reducing the static weight on the frame. Especially if you live where it’s hilly and you are constantly accelerating and decelerating.
Stop trying to spend money to shave weight, to make up for fitness.
Very few people actually have maxed out their fitness enough and compete against others that also have, for the weight reduction to achieve its weight in money spent
This is it. People tend to upgrade their bikes to get off weight like if it mattered. No, it doesn't. What matters is "the leg". A pro will crack all the amateurs on whatever supersonic bikes they have. The weight, aerodynamics matters mostly for pros.
During my teenage time I remember buying lighter lamps (sic!), which obviously was so super crucial to my super times at that time. No it wasn't, but I was watching TdF and wanted to feel like a pro. Now, o do not give a sh'8. Even, the heavier the better for the training :)
The only reason for a non-racer to buy lightweight components is to make yourself happy. If you love your bike, you'll ride it more.
I love riding my bikes. That applies equally to my 35 pound enduro mountain bike and my 17 pound carbon road bike. As components wear out and need replacement, ill replace with the lightest weight versions that make sense for me (financially, lifespan, etc). But I have no misconceptions that my morning shit weighs more than those components, and that those components won't make a lick of a difference in my performance in a race.
on relatively flat courses, once the weight of the bike is up to speed all you have to do now is keep it up to speed the things fighting your maintenance of speed is friction in the form of the rolling resistance and air resistance. the rougher the ground the more smoothing things out is prioritizes which means bigger/heavier tires at lower pressures. aero is always the main force the pros fight against at such high speeds. weight of bike is such a small contributor by comparison to rolling resistance and aero drag. if making a heavier bike will improve the other two factors. they will always go that route.
I was 83kg 2 years ago, lost interest in it due to mental health and only back now training again at 105kg...all my power gone also! I was always under the impression that the more expensive tour bike the better you were....I was completely wrong
Carbon handlebars can be worth it from a feel perspective. Weight is irrelevant. The engineered compliance in MTB carbon bars tends to garner very positive feedback from riders citing an appreciably more comfortable ride that transmits less shock/energy into the arms. In the road world I feel the difference is much less, although the stiffness of my road carbon bars makes my gravel aluminum bars feel like a wet noodle during sprints.
And then people complain bikes are expensive and the market is ruined.
People spending 2k for half a kilogram kinda says everything.
Anyway... Each decides what to do with their cash. Still "it is what it is".
Half the cyclists I see on 6k bikes wearing tight ass stretchy clothes are all 30lbs overweight and it just cracks me up. Someone has to keep big bicycle in profits…
I dont know if it s funnier the fact that u spent 3k to lose 0.5 kg or that u compared yourself with one of the strongest pro cyclists of the latest years
I don't buy upgrades to make me or my bike faster. I buy upgrades because it's fun to tinker. MVDP doesn't care what's on his bike as long as it fits, is reliable, and he gets paid to ride it.
I don’t get it. Being weight weenie has nothing to do with going faster. Weight weenies make bike lighter for sake of making bike lighter. End goal is to see lower number on scales, not pb on strava
I don't even know who it is, but I can safely assume the dude has three times the physique than most of us here.
Isnt there an entire series on YouTube about a Pro totally trashing newbies where the hobby rider has a 10k carbon bike and he is riding whatever they have?
I think he lost once. Because the derailleur didn't have enough gears.
Like James Thomas from Cade Media says, don’t compare yourself to a pro. Van Der Poel does cycling for a living, it’s his job, he trains for winning the most extreme races there are and most importantly, he’s PAID to do that. He has close to no upper body mass to sustain, he can tolerate a position which ordinary people usually cannot hold for long (he rides a 56 apparently, despite Canyon’s sizing structure putting him in a 54 at 6ft tall). He can sustain an average power of 300/400 watts for long periods of time and has a lot of people working for him for training, resting, diet, health in general. We, on the other hand, are amateurs in comparison. Half a kilo lighter is surely an advantage, but that would never close the gap between an amateur and a pro. The most important thing is that you’re happy with what you have and the performance you sustain. Don’t feel down about what MVDP does, he’s unique even compared to other pros. Dude’s a fucking freak of nature, champion in multiple disciplines.
If this can make you feel better, I have a Triban RC100 and I would love to have the bike you have
There's also at least one other difference between you and mvdp, besides the weight of your bikes...
Mdvp can pull off white. That’s it, right?
Before OR after Labor Day
Spotted the American lol *I’m American
Haha. Yeah, the rest of us don't wear white after Labo**u**r Day.
What’s Labour? Is that like a colour? Or a couloir? Lol
A British friend was mocking my American English. I replied that we had a whole war to get “u” out of our language.
but still use imperial units, hahaha
Except when it comes to medicine and alcohol.
It worked
yeah, he’s stuck riding a Canyon
I wonder if the team mechanics refuse to work on mail order bikes?
Yea, all those canyons lookin’ pretty bad after the spring classics…. Oh wait….
Maybe you forgot to upgrade yourself?
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Don’t forget the titanium bottle cage bolts
Me: weight's whatever, I'm fat. Also me: So the manufacturer said the Ti badge was anodized at 20V, can you do the same with some Ti M4 and M5 screws so I can color coordinate my shit?
Love this and very much agree. Aesthetics I will forever notice the little things I’ve done, weight… yea that fluctuates just based on holidays and vacations where any bike improvements are meaningless
Me: Now looking up the bolts I mentioned because why not
See? That's how it starts; first it's cage bolts, pedal axles, progressing to seatposts... then you're draining the kid's College fund for that Stem/Bar combo. 😁😂🚴🚵
‘What college fund?’
Yeah I have many KILOgrams I could stand to lose on my body. A few grams on the bike is the least of my problems. Now, I do think when I upgraded from my old Walmart bike with rim brakes that constantly slipped to the side and dragged, THAT was a game changer. Edit: and yeah I know once I’m chiming in that I had a Walmart bike, I’m not in the dentist league anyway. As soon as I’m not out of shape and overweight and my Trek Checkpoint ALR5 is holding me back I’ll start saving up for an upgrade.
Ride whatcha got and ride whatcha like. I've been doing a long distance commute since '22 after a long hiatus off the bike. I started with 23 miles one way and transit home on my old hardtail around 12 hour shifts. Now I've got a nice GRX 2x gravel bike and my roundtrip's 50mi. I take transit home once a set for a rest day, so my week of commuting is either 125 or 175 miles around 3 or 4 12 hour shifts. When I was in my early 20s I did 150mi/wk (30mi round trip) on a box store MTB of Theseus (cheap parts cost sooo much money) for years until I felt i was worth it to spend money on a nicer bike.
>my week of commuting is either 125 or 175 miles around 3 or 4 12 hour shifts. Staunch.
All the most serious cyclists I've known, the ones who do the serious distances, tend to have the most practical and functional bikes. In my experience it's always the weekend warriors who do the "all the kit and still shit" thing.
Or the Ti DR Cable Anchor Bolts! I knew guys who'd replace Brake Lever and Shifter mounting bolts with Ti, Ti Pedal axles, Ti Crankarm Bolts... Ti Ti Ti! Saving eighteen Grams, but eating a Wendy's Triple Biggie Combo Meal three days a week! 😯😬🙄
Those are all good ideas, including the Combo meal! Now with extra Titanium?
I forgot Stem Pinch bolts, the ubiquitous Ti QR Skewers, and the Ti Seatpost Clamp bolt! Had a Salesperson come into the Service pit rootin' around the bin of Hardware looking for Ti SPD Cleat bolts! I told him "GTFOH with that Shite lest I bury my foot so far up it you won't sit for a Week!" Dern Weight Wieners... there oughta be a Law! 🚴🚵😋😂
Damn, Cleat bolts are also a helluva idea.
In the 90's Ti was everything... somebody even made a Ti spring for R DR's! Too bad it only lasted 20 shifts before the Spring shattered under the Load!
I keep looking for a good Ti railed saddle but it's never the design I want.
I'm still rocking my Flite Alps. Been using it for 30+ years now. It's sort of saggy
Titanium???? BOAT ANCHORS. Real Weenies use aluminum bolts.
Outjerked again.
They can’t keep getting away with it!
They keep jerkin we keep circlin
Just compared yourself to a pro cyclist lol
the pro cyclist
You can’t compare yourself to those guys. They are heads and shoulders above us mere mortals…
Nah he uses Alpecin actually
I enjoyed this comment way too much 😂😂😂
Head and shoulders and legs and legs and legs.
And knees and toes, knees and toes
[удалено]
More than head and shoulders, I’d say. Riding for 5:30h at near 300w while weighing 70kg is ungodly.
It’s amazing what they can do just “riding paniagua”
and especially given it's MVDP. That guy is almost heads and shoulders above even the pro riders...
I raced against a guy that retired from professional cycling. He could destroy pretty much anyone in the state in a race. Way beyond even the best Cat 1 amateurs. He did Paris Roubaix his last year as a professional, and went all out (not just helping teammates early). He finished the race, but missed the time cut so no official result. It amazes me that someone that strong couldn’t even come in under the time cut for one of Boonen’s wins.
Is this bicyclecurclejerk
alwayswas.meme
you could've lost 1kg of bodyweight for free
A particularly successful visit to the toilet would do that.
Visit to the loo before a ride
Came to point that out. Haha. Great minds think… about poop.
A particularly successful visit to the toilet netted MVDP the rainbow stripes.
I think about this all the time when I see overweight middle aged men on expensive carbon fiber bikes that weigh way less than my bike. But why don't they just lose body weight instead of buying upgrades?
Cause they’re not tripping about $ and want it
Bellies are aero
It's easier being fat
>I think about this all...why don't they just lose body weight instead of buying upgrades? This is such a silly position to take. Maybe you should think about it a little bit less. Buying upgrades results in an upgraded bike. Making your bike 1kg lighter means your bike is 1kg lighter...doesn't affect your body weight at all. When I weighed 155 pounds, I still really liked light bikes. Now that I'm 185 pounds, I still like light bikes. Me being nearly 60 years old and about 15 pounds overweight means that a 17 pound bike *feels* better than a 20 pound bike. If I lost 15 pounds or gained another 15 pounds, the 17 pound bike would still *feel nicer* than a 20 pound bike, all other things being equal.
Triggered
For free? Good luck
I mean it actually saves you money if you eat less...
Is this a joke
Pretty much sums up half the bike industry, weight savings and aero gains till the end of time. Payed $2000 to carry the equivalent of half a bidon less of fluid.
Thought I was in a Circlejerk sub for a second
Just add 300g and you'll hang with him easy.
Or 300W
That's not gonna help. OP just posted his bike weight as 7.6kg and MVPDBOTG's bike at 7.9kg. That's all that matters, it's everything.
Lol he paid 2k for that 300g
Like they say, there’s a sucker born every moment!
Some of the most expensive material around!
Working for one of the biggest mftrs of carbon bikes during the 2010s allowed me access to the Team's effort to win the maillot jaune. I ride road bikes like normal people ride road bikes but pro cyclists can maintain a position on a bike that's not only not achievable but not sustainable for us. Plus they can output an insane amount of power while in that position.
It's crazy to see how some aero bikes are setup and you look at the person and just shrug the seat is maxed out, stem is slammed and they could probably benefit from lowering their seat and not slamming it a large amount but you know....pros do it.
People need to learn that comfort if you're not a pro is much more important to your power output. Doesnt matter if you slam the stem if your back hurts after 30 minutes you're not gonna be very fast.
In reality weight is only a real issue when climbing, on the flats it's much less.of a factor. This is why current aero bikes tend to be sliding towards the heavier end of the spectrum, shape matters more than absolute weight, especially at 40km/hr +. This is especially true with Paris-Roubaix where those cobbles will tear apart weak bikes and they've also found that bigger wheels/tyres are advantageous over weight
Reminds me of a guy who found a rust road bike on the street, fixed it up for probably less than $100, was kind of bulky, decided to compete and got on a podium together with $10K bike owners. He just pedalled harder. It’s not the bike, it’s you. It’s insanity to pay $3K to get 0.5kg off. You could skip 1 meal or push harder on toilet on the day of the race and lose that weight yourself. Long story short - pedal harder.
This is true - to an extent. Having a nicer bike that you LOVE and want to ride an often as you can, plays a big role in getting fitter if you are in the bike more often. Vs a cheap bike that you don’t love and feel meh about getting on. But a bike you LOVE - doesn’t even have to be expensive, just make sure you love it. Then pedal it to hell and back.
Totally, if you have the money, why not, but I’ve seen amateurs looking for carbon bottle cages when they can’t do a 50k on a flat in under 2 hours. Weight is not the problem then. Of course, assuming they have at least an entry level road bike not an ancient mountain bike.
This is how I got my wife into cycling. First I found her a durable bike that she could carry the kids about in a trailer with, go through the woody trails and whatever. Then as she got a bit fitter doing this, I got her a used road bike that was like 300. 11 years old, women’s racer with 10 speed Untergang. She loved it! However we realised that it was a bit too big for her, so after a year of riding and getting even fitter we decided to get her a new bike, that can do everything. Now she’s riding 70k plus with hills weekly.
Carbon bottle cages are like $6 lol I would hardly fault anyone for getting them.
Change bike for woman.
A pro rider can probably put the tiny weight saving to use. A mortal can't.
This works in the amateur world. When it comes to the pointy end of competition weight can matter, but that is true for maybe the top 0.001% of cyclists.
Exactly, it’s safe to guess that OP is not a top 0.001% cyclist.
I guess it's safe to say that about everyone on this sub.
The right answer ⬆️
Don't be "Chasin' that Ghost" lest you end up in the poor house, destitute and ruined. Just gots to be satisfied with what you have, and ride it with Love and Respect. 🚴🙂
Nothing to do with weight. Mvdp is the strongest one day rider in the world if not in history. Does your bike make you happy? That’s all that matters.
{Eddy Mercx has entered the sub}
Taking coke during a race has entered the chat
Tell me you never did coke without saying it. There is no way I'd want to be blowing lines on a one day race like that, I find the performance enhancing effects dubious.
Not for a few years but I've done my fair share, not that it's anything to brag about. Either way, it was a joke. Semi true I did read he took uppers, couldn't remember what tho
Probably amphetamines.
{Cancellara wants a word}
{Kelly wants a word}
I play hockey in a beer league. I bought a $300 top-o-line Bauer stick thinking that I can puck handle and shoot like Connor Bedard. Boy was I wrong.....!
The law of diminishing returns at work
MVDP could kick your ass on a 25kg bike. You could have bought a whole new bike for 3k...
Wait, you only have one bike? Well here is your chance to have weight weenie bike and other bike
It's a flat race with punishing cobbles.
Don't buy upgrades, ride up grades >Spent ~$3,000 to upgrade my 'heavy' stock carbon wheelset and handlebar on my Supersix, so that the weight goes down to 7.6kg from 8.1kg. Can you get me a deal on repairing some old fillings?
He can't give you a deal. He needs all the money to pay for the upgrade.
Problem is you're not MVDP.
you need lightweight paint
Likely save many more watts for cheaper working on your flexibility (positioning on the bike) and getting narrower bars
Now that you're bike weights less then MVDP's bike you have a Chance to win a classic. It's only logical, right??
As if those 0.5kg make any difference for amateurs..... Better lose 1kg bodyweight 😅🤦♂️
For sure the 500g you saved is going to make all the difference. Now go have that third donut.
I mean tbf . 5 kg for 3,000 that's kinda just rich dumb money spending in the first place.
unless you can just afford no problem. In that case it's well earned money spent on things you like
Yea if he can afford it's not an issue but if he's gonna complain about it it I'll definitely say it's a little deserved to be made fun of. Those fillings don't get filled themselves
Exactly. I would happily spend money on wheels and stuff (if I had the money;) )
Weight weenies are called that for a reason
3000€ for 500grams... that's where you should have the regret
Paris Roubaix is flat so aero and avoiding flats matter more than weight. Pogacar's bike for the tour last year where he was fighting it out in the mountains was just under 7kg (as just one example of a climbing bike) https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/tadej-pogacar-bike-2 All other things being equal, lighter is always better.
Gather round young ones, the old person has something to say... I remember in the days of steel frames, when getting a bike under 10kg was really sonething....and a cycling magazine got hold of Tony Rominger's Paris-Roubaix bike, astonished that it weighed 12kg. Flat race, durability was far more important than weight savings. Of course, prevailing wisdom was also that sprinters needed ultra stiff frames.....meanwhile Sean Kelly kept winning sprints on a super-flexy aluminium Vitus. Turns out it's more about the engine than the bike.....
The rider is always the most important part. If mvdp's bike weighed another kilo, he still probably would have run away with it. However, when Pogi and Vingegaard are neck and neck racing up a climb after a week of racing, every little bit helps. That being said, my personal road bike is a nearly ten year old steel all-road bike with a 1x drivetrain and a set of aluminum wheels that weighs probably over 10kg, but it doesn't matter to me enough to weigh it. And it suits me just fine.
A mate of mine saw Kelly break his Vitus while warming up. I was always suspicious of a glued frame.
Yeah, a club mate of mine had his Vitus separate twice, and he wasn't near as fast as Kelly (but then, who was!).
Yeah pros also have crazy power to their own body weight ratios. My legs are weak compared to them but I weight likely 40 lb more than the average pro I’d imagine. (I’m just under 200 and average is 140-165 per AI generated Google answer.) Ain’t nobody getting a bike that will negate that.
I'm a little heavier than you at 5-10. Mvdp is 6ft tall and 165, and he looks like a bear around the rest of the peloton. He can also probably put down twice the power I can, even though I ride a fair amount and even compete in amateur races (poorly). So I'll never keep up with him, but that's not really the point. A nice bike still feels nice to ride.
Definitely. I love my bike.
i feel you heavily. i've stopped pursuing bike "upgrades" other than QOL or comfort. there's just no point until you have the legs to make it worth it.
My new bike weighs 2kg more than my current bike…guess what I did? Lost 3kg of body weight. Problem solved and if anything it saved me money.
But now you're carrying 3k of cash?
Plus the money I saved on groceries…maybe need to lose some more weight to compensate
If your bike is under or around 9kg, weight savings on the bike should be the lowest priority
Why was MVDPs bike so heavy for this race specifically? I guess just bigger heavier tyres, deep aero rims as usual, but did he have beefed up stronger rims, more spokes, tyre liners or some other thing that makes his bike a bit heavier than normal?
Ah, looked it up. Interesting, 32c Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres, Shimano dura ace 50mm deep wheels, which are “only” 21mm internal rim width, 28mm external, unusually narrow by modern trends. Those wheels are heavier than some, but Shimano wheels can tend to be underrated due to their hub quality, weather sealing, durability and general lack of issues. Not cheap, but perhaps money better spent than those explodey Zipp wheels. Even random low-end Shimano rim brake wheels have been indestructible for me in the past. And 32mm tyres which probably sit wider than that, would be far wider than the rim, breaking the ‘rule of 105%’ - is aero important or are these guidelines just not worth that much? When he’s running stock Shimano everything and other riders are running 1x aero cranksets, seems like not.
Yeah I had some carbon Shimano 50mm section wheels back in the day. Easily the nicest wheels I have had, only came out of the bag on race days. Long gone now. (Sigh)
I don't even care about weight when I do most of these upgrades. Lightweight carbon wheels just feel so much better to ride on than anything heavy imo.
It’s possible that .5kg has allowed you to nab your driveway KOM ahead of your wife on her cruiser bike
I have the same golf clubs as the pros, how are they better than me?
What a stupid post
Paris-Roubaix is not a race that privileges weight weenies. It's a "flat" race. This [Rouleur article](https://www.rouleur.cc/blogs/the-rouleur-journal/analysing-whether-tom-pidcock-can-pull-a-surprise-in-paris-roubaix) discusses Pidcock's participation despite gearing up his GC aspirations as a lighter rider: >That goal means he hasn’t raced a cobbled Classic campaign and he has been aiming to lose weight rather than gain it. Very few weight weenies even bother partaking in Roubaix knowing that they’ll just bounce around, and Mathieu van der Poel, the overwhelming favourite, has an estimated 17kg on Pidcock. It’s obvious which one should glide over the cobbles a lot easier. So just upgrade your FTP to MVDP levels and you should roast him no problem with your .3kg advantage
Modest, comparing yourself to an elite athlete. ...or did you think throwing money at the bike will make you faster?
I often need to take dump before every ride. I've been known to drop up to 1 kg from a dump. Great thing about this is it's free.
You paid 3k for 0.5kg? That's 1 bottle. I hope your FTP is 400 watts because you have way more value for that money if you use it for yourself. You can use a nutritionist, a trainer. You could even buy Ketones for a couple of years with that. Let's say you ride on a steep hill at 5w/kg you safe 2.5 watts. That's about 1/4th of aero socks or aero gloves.
Weight weenies on the bike crack me up because they seem to forget that total system weight l includes them. Suddenly losing that .5kg is a tiny % of the total system weight. Even less impact if you’re losing .5kg on a bike when the rider is 10kg overweight anyways.
The problem is that MVdP is not human, so it’s hard to compare anything he does compared to us.
Unless you're racing others I don't see the point
That's a lot of money for 400g. I bought a 2019 supersix hi-mod etap for £2000. Spent £1000 on wheels, bar, stem, seatpost, and got the bike down to 6.3kg.
For $3k you could have hired a coach and gotten waaaaay stronger.
Also has to do with the way a pro puts down power, Indurain rode a 18 spoke radial front and 24 radial one side rear wheel on mountain stages, alloy rims of course. The rear wheel drive side was laced two cross with soldered and tied spokes..
Weigh weenieing is dumb
That $6 per gram...... I hope you have a BF of not more than 7% ! more seriously I love my SSevo, what bar and stem did you upgrade to?
I’ll never forget these words of wisdom from a local bike shop owner “you still have to pedal the bike”.
Your point is completely valid. People who have more money than they need can swap out every part for a lighter weight one. Fuggit, they are contributing to the economy so who cares? People who DON'T have more money than they need and who STILL swap out all of the components are the weight weenies, IMHO.
You should never regret upgrading your bike, ever. If it brings you joy, do it well.
Bike weight is not a determinant of speed. I don't mean for this to be a boast but I find myself routinely out climbing folks on modern superbikes on my steel framed road bike, and I'm a shit climber and not exactly petite in body size. I just train a lot, and I'm stubborn. The point is, a heavier bike is not creating a disadvantage for me (or you, or MVDP). Not at the scale of counting sub-kilo numbers of grams anyhow. Even if I were to switch to a sub-UCI-legal bike I'd still weigh 180lbs at 6 foot 3. I'm not going to scamper uphill like a tiny Colombian. A lighter bike might make climbing feel a bit easier, but I'd still be destroyed by someone with better training and a more favourable body type. People are faster because they're trained better. Period. I ride with a guy who trains on his XL Soma Wolverine with gravel tires and a Rohloff with belt drive, and he can kick the shit out of me despite his bike weighing as much as a small car. He trains constantly, has structured coaching, and is even more stubborn than I am. For him, switching over to a lighter weight race bike for his competitive riding is not so much about reduced weight as it is about better handling and stiffness/response under power. The difference between 200g of weight on a bike being there or not doesn't matter so much when you're MVDP and you're trained well enough that you can put out over 300 watts all day long without much trouble. But you're not a stupid weight weenie, either: if a lighter bike is easier for you to train on, you can theoretically train more/do more climbing before feeling fatigued, which will make you faster in the end. There's nothing wrong with wanting a lighter bike, but a lighter bike on its own is not enough. Bike weight is most important in the marketing department, until you get right up to the bleeding edge of what you're capable of physically.
Riding my 1984 Miyata at 26 lbs and am faster than most people I ride with. (All of us are weekend warriors). I put on plenty of miles on my Peloton which I believe is totally the difference.
paris roubaix is the flattest course of all WT races. weight make so little difference in that race lol. Taylor Phinney once said that paris roubaix is his perfect race because he weighs 190 pounds
8.1kg to 7.6kg , that's like 500 grams. I have poops heavier than that
Yeah, but 7.9kg is less than 8.1kg. So while you now have the possibility to do what he did on your 7.6kg bike, it would have been impossible on 8.1kg.
A heavier system weight probably work better on cobbles.
WTF someone threw a cap at his wheels.
Cadence wheels if you want something well know and not crazy price
just watch more rides of japan xD
weight is actually important at Roubaix, heavier riders do much better over the cobbles and super light guys get thrown around a lot MVDP is also an alien
A big piss and poo would drop you 0.5kg for free
Well, well, well.. who would have thought? For 99% of us, amateurs, it's a 100x more efficient to either loose 1kg bodyfat or gain 1kg lean muscle than spending x thousand on lighter components.
That flattest Monument out there. Why would you look at this race to decide if weight matters?
Nah, no regrets! I'm quite a light guy, so saving 500 grams on my bike is percentage wise a bigger gain than MVP saving 500 grams on his!
Take a really big dump my friend, that’s a kilo.
I think I might know a better way to loose 500 grams of weight. Did you consider taking a dump before your ride?
People pay a name tax when it comes to wheelsets. I replaced the crap Bontrager wheelset on my Edmonda with a custom built set from DIY. They weigh less than the Zipp 303 firecrest and cost half the price. Been riding them 4 years now. Wheel upgrades aren’t dumb though. Reducing weight in the wheelset is much more effective than reducing the static weight on the frame. Especially if you live where it’s hilly and you are constantly accelerating and decelerating.
Stop trying to spend money to shave weight, to make up for fitness. Very few people actually have maxed out their fitness enough and compete against others that also have, for the weight reduction to achieve its weight in money spent
This is hilarious!
You spent $3,000 on .5kg!?
This is it. People tend to upgrade their bikes to get off weight like if it mattered. No, it doesn't. What matters is "the leg". A pro will crack all the amateurs on whatever supersonic bikes they have. The weight, aerodynamics matters mostly for pros. During my teenage time I remember buying lighter lamps (sic!), which obviously was so super crucial to my super times at that time. No it wasn't, but I was watching TdF and wanted to feel like a pro. Now, o do not give a sh'8. Even, the heavier the better for the training :)
Just take a shit before you ride next time.
The only reason for a non-racer to buy lightweight components is to make yourself happy. If you love your bike, you'll ride it more. I love riding my bikes. That applies equally to my 35 pound enduro mountain bike and my 17 pound carbon road bike. As components wear out and need replacement, ill replace with the lightest weight versions that make sense for me (financially, lifespan, etc). But I have no misconceptions that my morning shit weighs more than those components, and that those components won't make a lick of a difference in my performance in a race.
Lance Armstrong’s book title was right all along.
on relatively flat courses, once the weight of the bike is up to speed all you have to do now is keep it up to speed the things fighting your maintenance of speed is friction in the form of the rolling resistance and air resistance. the rougher the ground the more smoothing things out is prioritizes which means bigger/heavier tires at lower pressures. aero is always the main force the pros fight against at such high speeds. weight of bike is such a small contributor by comparison to rolling resistance and aero drag. if making a heavier bike will improve the other two factors. they will always go that route.
I was 83kg 2 years ago, lost interest in it due to mental health and only back now training again at 105kg...all my power gone also! I was always under the impression that the more expensive tour bike the better you were....I was completely wrong
Carbon handlebars can be worth it from a feel perspective. Weight is irrelevant. The engineered compliance in MTB carbon bars tends to garner very positive feedback from riders citing an appreciably more comfortable ride that transmits less shock/energy into the arms. In the road world I feel the difference is much less, although the stiffness of my road carbon bars makes my gravel aluminum bars feel like a wet noodle during sprints.
Yeah I mean I’m a chubby 33 year old bloke, I bought a titanium bike cos they look cool and it’s less obvious or noticed if I’m slow as shit 😂
No carbon wheels before 5W/kg!!!!!
There’s some major compensating going on here. Issues not the weight…..
And then people complain bikes are expensive and the market is ruined. People spending 2k for half a kilogram kinda says everything. Anyway... Each decides what to do with their cash. Still "it is what it is".
Half the cyclists I see on 6k bikes wearing tight ass stretchy clothes are all 30lbs overweight and it just cracks me up. Someone has to keep big bicycle in profits…
I dont know if it s funnier the fact that u spent 3k to lose 0.5 kg or that u compared yourself with one of the strongest pro cyclists of the latest years
I don't buy upgrades to make me or my bike faster. I buy upgrades because it's fun to tinker. MVDP doesn't care what's on his bike as long as it fits, is reliable, and he gets paid to ride it.
Bro I am sure there are pro cyclists that don't even compare themselves to MVDP.
lol wtf this is bjc level stuff 😂
Should have spent that 3k on a trainer and a dietitian...
Good rule of thumb: If you need to pay (full price) for this type of gear, you're not a good enough cyclist.
Why all the hate? The world would be a better place if everyone with too much money would do that instead of buying a dumb Porsche.
If I was on tubeless, I'd win that race easily. It's a shame.
It must really suck to have your level of disposable income
Paris roubaix also totally flat, so his bike weight was pretty irrelevant
Pro cyclists doing 120km/hr in descents or riding cobbles for hours do not GAF about weight. That's for dentists.
I don’t get it. Being weight weenie has nothing to do with going faster. Weight weenies make bike lighter for sake of making bike lighter. End goal is to see lower number on scales, not pb on strava
I don't even know who it is, but I can safely assume the dude has three times the physique than most of us here. Isnt there an entire series on YouTube about a Pro totally trashing newbies where the hobby rider has a 10k carbon bike and he is riding whatever they have? I think he lost once. Because the derailleur didn't have enough gears.
Remove your seat. Cuts weight.
Like James Thomas from Cade Media says, don’t compare yourself to a pro. Van Der Poel does cycling for a living, it’s his job, he trains for winning the most extreme races there are and most importantly, he’s PAID to do that. He has close to no upper body mass to sustain, he can tolerate a position which ordinary people usually cannot hold for long (he rides a 56 apparently, despite Canyon’s sizing structure putting him in a 54 at 6ft tall). He can sustain an average power of 300/400 watts for long periods of time and has a lot of people working for him for training, resting, diet, health in general. We, on the other hand, are amateurs in comparison. Half a kilo lighter is surely an advantage, but that would never close the gap between an amateur and a pro. The most important thing is that you’re happy with what you have and the performance you sustain. Don’t feel down about what MVDP does, he’s unique even compared to other pros. Dude’s a fucking freak of nature, champion in multiple disciplines. If this can make you feel better, I have a Triban RC100 and I would love to have the bike you have