How much should a road bike weigh?

I know this is a total rookie question and also very subjective… but I figured it was worth a shot.

I do triathlons and my only “good” bike is a Tri Bike. It’s nothing fancy, but it does the job and I’m very happy with it (it is certainly not my limiting factor).

I want to get a cheap road bike for getting in on some group rides, commuting, and potentially very minor racing.

I have an old (2010) flat bar aluminum framed khs hybrid and was wondering if converting it into a “road” bike would be worth it by adding drop bars, possibly a used 105 groupset or something similar and having a good beater bike and would have lots of clearance for big tires for gravel, etc.

Problem is though to me it feels heavy, I haven’t weighed it yet but compared to my Tri Bike (carbon) it feels pretty heavy.

So what I want to know is if there is a “maximum” weight for a useable road bike? I’m not trying to set hill climbing records here but also want to have something useable.

Sorry if this is a question that can’t really be answered but again I gmfihured it was worth a shot.

20 lbs.

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No max at all but the geometry may not suit the conversion. Could be too high at front and more likely to be too long.

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Tri/TT bikes are generally a bit heavier than top end road bikes but make up for it in aerodynamics.

An alu hybrid frame will probably be a few kgs heavier but would easily do a job. If you have the bits then put it together and if you eventually feel like upgrading to loss some weight on it then go ahead.

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The dirty little secret is that weight doesn’t really matter that much in most cases.

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Yep.

Edit: I think the image they refer to has been stripped out of the article. This is what they refer to:

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Love this!

My road/trainer bike is a £300 Btwin, it weighs 10.5kg and kicks ass. :smiley:

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Aero beats lightness in almost every case.

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Yeah. It must be pretty depressing to spend a shed load on lighter components to find out you only get to the top of a big climb a few secs quicker than before! :grimacing::grinning:

Investments in a decent bike fit, TR subscription, aero equipment etc. are much more worth it IMO.

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Still nothing wrong with buying cool bikes, though.

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You can of course buy a btwin for cheaper price but god knows what will happen when you push >1000 watts at the sprint section. You may end up only with a handle bar at the finish line :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

When I build bikes I generally hope for them to fall anywhere in the 7kg to 9kg range. No need to get weight weenie. It’s the quality, not the weight, of the components that means most to me… Stiffness where it matters, good power transfer, reliability etc.

As said above though, you don’t ‘need’ a lighter bike, but it is of course a nice thing to have for lots of reasons.

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Way to go Mr. Arroganto Condescenderoony :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Sorry :neutral_face:

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Yep my btwin t3 cost £299 and weighs about 10kg roughly (think actually about 9-10kg). Done me proud for several years - done plenty of century rides, club runs and also (with some clip on aero bars) got me started on time trialling. Still my main road/do all bike.

Ask yourself…is it easier/cheaper/better to lose weight from bike…Or rider!

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Easier: Bike
Cheaper: Difficult to say, healthy food can be darn expensive :stuck_out_tongue:
Better: Rider

Every now and then the idea of buying a newer/better bike pops in my head but it quickly goes away when I realise I would only really improve on the looks rather than results.
It would feel like a disappointment spending that much money and not seeing it really in the results.

I bought a Sensa Romagna with a 105 groupset for 325 euro second hand as my first bike, the only thing I changed on it were the rims, the Shimano wh-500 were just to heavy and the front hub was just a mess.
That change in rims did make the ride a lot smoother.

But don’t get me wrong, I can understand why people buy high end bikes it’s just an awesome feeling when you know it’s yours and you are the one that gets to ride it.

Said another way - if you’re worried about your performance on a beat up and heavy bike and blaming the bike for not keeping up with someone else then you’re focused on the wrong things. By far the cheapest and easiest way to get up a hill faster is to lose weight and gain fitness. Nearly none of us are approaching our lower weight or our upper fitness limits.

That said - go buy yourself a fancy bike if you can afford it and you want to - just don’t justify it by telling yourself that those 2 lbs are going to make the difference. The 5-10 lbs that nearly everyone is carrying (myself included at 6’3 169 lbs this morning) hurt you a lot more

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Hah that’s funny how depending on our goals we all see things differently. To me that graph proves a completely opposite point to what Velonews are trying to make: 12 seconds advantage per mile on a 7% grade is massive, that’s a minute on a 5 mile climb :wink:

But I’m in full agreement that there’s no point in being a weight weenie as a beginner, it only makes sense when shedding body weight is not possible anymore.

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I was just joking on the expensive part, I am with you that the biggest results come losing weight and gaining fitness.

I really noticed the weight difference in a period where I trained less but lost more weight (14 kg total this year, but at that moment 2-3kg) and just found that going uphill was just so much easier to do than the period before.

Throughout the year everything became easier but I felt that that was a combination of better fitness and losing weight. But the period mentioned above really felt like it was just the weight loss.

As for the topic on hand, I guess it would be more important that you find a bike that fits you well in terms of size. Having a bike that fits your body (in combination with a bike fitting) will give you better results than +/- 1 kg of weight of the bike.

I will say this about bike weight/form from VERY recent experience… and from those of you who have seen my posts on other threads will know I have an absurdly, unjustifiably expensive bike and that I also did a race this past weekend on my other bike (because it was a gravel race).

Before using TrainerRoad, I used to show up at bike races and size up the competition by the quality (read: price tag) of their bike. I always kinda felt that the better the bike = the better the bike rider.

The race I did last weekend was that first race I’ve done since beginning to use TR. What was interesting is that I found myself checking out the bikes, just as I always do at races, but I assigned less skill to the best bikes as I used to do. Instead I found myself thinking: “I wonder if they are working as hard as I am? I wonder if they’re using TrainerRoad? (I hope not!!).”

I more-or-less felt that my training could/would overcome any bike weight advantage. It was odd and unexpected how my thoughts changed on this. And also pretty empowering.

But don’t get me wrong . . . I still love the badass bikes. Bikes are so cool.

N+1 forever :wink:

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