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Or to take the alternate view, if you want to get fit, get a heavy wheel. I'm having a super strong one built right now, and extra weight is fine by me.

bluedino 10y ago
>> if you want to get fit, get a heavy wheel Better yet, get a high resistance tire. Wide knobbies will do it.
- LeifCarrotson 10y ago
  Or those trendy fat tire bikes. Yes, they are great on sand and snow, but pointless and even counterproductive on the asphalt where I am seeing them more lately.
  - farnsworth 10y ago
    Seriously, I keep passing these on the paved bike path on my way to work. Is that they only bike they own?
adriand 10y ago
Or take another alternate view: if you want to have a lighter bike and you don't want to pay for it, lose body weight instead. Then you'll be both lighter and fitter. Only once you've lost as much body weight as you can reasonably lose does investing heavily in a lighter bike make sense! Naturally this doesn't, of course, diminish the fact that lighter wheels give you more bang-for-the-buck than lighter anything-else, due to the physics described in the article. But if the difference between heavy, cheap wheels and light, expensive ones is a few hundred grams and a few thousand dollars, losing a pound of body fat is likely a better bet.
- eru 10y ago
  Depends on how much body weight you start out with. There's such as thing as too skinny.
  - marvin 10y ago
    Yeah, this advice isn't good for my 147-pound, six-feet frame ;)
zbobet2012 10y ago
> It doesn't get any easier, you just get faster. - LeMonde Bicycle weight only helps if you don't push yourself already. Going fast is fun, so why not go light?
- Johnny555 10y ago
  I'd rather go long than go fast, and I'm not willing to put in the training time to do both, so I choose long and slow over short and fast.
collyw 10y ago
Or fatter tyres, with the advantage that you can go downhill faster with the extra grip.

bluedino 10y ago

>> if you want to get fit, get a heavy wheel Better yet, get a high resistance tire. Wide knobbies will do it.

LeifCarrotson 10y ago
Or those trendy fat tire bikes. Yes, they are great on sand and snow, but pointless and even counterproductive on the asphalt where I am seeing them more lately.
- farnsworth 10y ago
  Seriously, I keep passing these on the paved bike path on my way to work. Is that they only bike they own?

adriand 10y ago

Or take another alternate view: if you want to have a lighter bike and you don't want to pay for it, lose body weight instead. Then you'll be both lighter and fitter. Only once you've lost as much body weight as you can reasonably lose does investing heavily in a lighter bike make sense! Naturally this doesn't, of course, diminish the fact that lighter wheels give you more bang-for-the-buck than lighter anything-else, due to the physics described in the article. But if the difference between heavy, cheap wheels and light, expensive ones is a few hundred grams and a few thousand dollars, losing a pound of body fat is likely a better bet.

eru 10y ago
Depends on how much body weight you start out with. There's such as thing as too skinny.
- marvin 10y ago
  Yeah, this advice isn't good for my 147-pound, six-feet frame ;)

zbobet2012 10y ago

> It doesn't get any easier, you just get faster. - LeMonde Bicycle weight only helps if you don't push yourself already. Going fast is fun, so why not go light?

Johnny555 10y ago
I'd rather go long than go fast, and I'm not willing to put in the training time to do both, so I choose long and slow over short and fast.

collyw 10y ago

Or fatter tyres, with the advantage that you can go downhill faster with the extra grip.