Is losing a Kg around the waist the same as off the bike?

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 FrankBooth 18 Feb 2013
I think I read somewhere that a road bike's weight gradually decreases until the £1500 mark, thereafter it costs around a further £1000 for each Kg you want to loose after that.
Aside from the fiscal benefit, are there any benefits for the average middle-age punter, to loose weight from the bike rather than around the waist?
 balmybaldwin 18 Feb 2013
In reply to FrankBooth:

Rotational Mass (i.e. the Wheels and drive train) make quite a difference to your ability to accelerate, and more so than loosing a Kg off your seatpost or your belly. Having said that to save 1Kg off a pair of wheels is going to seriously cost you.

Always better from a performance point of view to loose the weight off your belly first. (But a nicer bike may encourage you to ride more and loose that belly fat too)
 gethin_allen 18 Feb 2013
In reply to balmybaldwin:
"Having said that to save 1Kg off a pair of wheels is going to seriously cost you."
On my MTB I realised that the stock tyres were crazy heavy steel bead monsters so managed to scrape a kg off the wheels just by changing the tyres.
Same could be said about low range road bikes, the differences aren't quite so large but you could save quite a reasonable amount off by changing the tyres.
 Liam M 18 Feb 2013
In reply to FrankBooth: As said above, if the loss of weight is from the rims then the bike will accelerate more easily (less of an issue with flat or rolling steady paced efforts, hence why TT bikes have wheels more focussed on aerodynamics than rotating mass).

You'll also be limited in how much lower you can go with the bike weight - at £1500 you can probably get a sub 9kg bike and the UCI minimum weight limit is 6.8kg, so unless you intend to take a drill to it as some domestic climbers do, you won't lose a huge amount.
 martinph78 18 Feb 2013
In reply to FrankBooth:

Loosing weight around the waist can make a big difference to your day out. It will make your body more efficient (fat people burn more calories than thin people for the same activity as a simple example), nevermind the health benefits you'll get.

Chris Boardman's coach computed that a loss of 1.5kg body fat would give a 46 second advantage over a typical 1 hour climb (8%). Over the tour that would equal 7 minutes.

OP FrankBooth 18 Feb 2013
In reply to Martin1978:
46 seconds? hmm, not sure thats worth me giving the pies up for!

Thanks for responses though guys. I've a bit of a pact with her indoors that if each of us achieve our target weight, we can have a bit of a treat. I just wanted to make sure that if mines comes on two wheels, it's worth the agony!
 ChrisJD 18 Feb 2013
In reply to FrankBooth:

I've dropped nearly 6 kg in the last few years after getting back into mountain biking.

Fight the middle age spread and you'll feel (and probably look) so much better for it. And biking will be more fun and easier, the fitter and lighter (within reason) you are.

Buying a lighter bike is just cheating ;-0
OP FrankBooth 18 Feb 2013
In reply to ChrisJD:
similar really - dropped to 72 kg but the last few Kgs are holding their own!
 martinph78 18 Feb 2013
In reply to FrankBooth: I'm "stuck" at 72-73kgs at the moment. Damn hard to shift lower than this. Saying that it was hard getting down from 93kgs to this so dunno why I thought it might get easier!

I don't eat pies. Maybe I should
 ChrisJD 18 Feb 2013
In reply to FrankBooth:

Great effort.

Looks like we've had a similar middle aged journey then! 82 to 76kg

I don't want to get any lighter now, just want things to move upwards to where they used to be


 Enty 18 Feb 2013
In reply to FrankBooth:

If you're a few kilos overweight and you're training hard the weight will fall off, you'll get faster and your improvement will be exponential. It's an amazing feeling. Combine this with chopping a few hndred grams off your bike and you'll never look back.

E

PS - Come on guys, lose and loose - please look it up

New POD 25 Feb 2013
My 1990's steel mountain bike is designed to help the weight fall off the user, by the amount of effort required to get it going, and keep it going.

If you are cycling for fitness, go for a flabby bike.

If you want to win the Tour D' France, buy something lighter.

oxoman1965 09 Mar 2013
In reply to FrankBooth: Loose it of the waist, does you more good costs less and you feel better for it. The heavier the bike the easier it is to lose weight.

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