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58 Pound Cross Country Mountain Bike???

Old_Dude

Monkey
I was doing some math this morning & I was figuring the following:

My son weighs 85 pounds
His bike weighs 29 pounds
His bike is ~34% of his body weight

I weigh 170 pounds
My bike weighs 28 pounds
My bike is ~16.5% of my body weight

If I rode a bike that was 34.1% of my body weight, the bike would weigh 58 pounds.

Geez - I should really lighten his bike!!!
 

FlipSide

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2001
1,376
804
Hummm! Very interesting. I doubt a lot of fathers are thinking about that. You must be a good father then...

How old is he and what bike does he ride? If he rides in trails...then I guess he must be in very good shape to pedal this monster up.
 

Mudpuppy

Monkey
Oct 20, 2001
448
0
Port Orchard/Not WSU
Hey it could be worse. My calculator tells me that my bike at the 34.1% rate would weigh about 82lbs. Now thats even crazier. You could double check my calculations if you care I weigh about 240lbs. I could be off on my math its 2:19 in the morning and I'm kinda burned out from working and still working on my math final.
 

Old_Dude

Monkey
. . . How old is he and what bike does he ride? . . .
He's 12 & rides a Fisher Marlin. I'm thinking lighter bottom bracket, fork, bars, seat post, tires & tubes. This stuff should will either transfer to his next bike (when he outgrows this one) or he'll wear the stuff out (like tires, for example).

. . . My calculator tells me that my bike at the 34.1% rate would weigh about 82lbs . . .
That's correct. Assuming your bike is ~29 pounds and you weigh 240 - your bike is only ~12% of your body weight.

I wonder what the ratio is for the pro's - probably ~14%, I think.

What got me thinking about all this? Two things - first, there was this guy at the LBS who was probably about 5'6 and weighed about 135 - he had no mercy for people my size who were complaining about bicycle weight. When I looked at it from his point of view, bikes suddenly seemed much lighter. Second, there was the response to an earlier thread I posted - several fellow riders suggested (I'm paraphrasing) "to hell with the weight, get a bike that'll take the abuse & just ride it already".

Also, if weight is that critical, you can always lighten up - take a wee-wee before riding, or reduce the water for short trips, or just ride harder & more often & your body will adapt (as someone else suggested).

Why are bikes so heavy (another thread, perhaps)? Obviously cheaper is heavier, but also, the manufacturers have to design them for riders who weigh much more than 85 pounds - which I can understand this for legal & practical reasons. If Stephen stays with it, I told him I'd buy him a Fuel 80 & we can "go from there" adding lighter components to get the weight down as his skills improve.

Yet his mother still thinks $400 is a LOT for a bike.

Wake up & smell the bearing grease woman!
 

The Toninator

Muffin
Jul 6, 2001
5,436
17
High(ts) Htown
I'm a 140 and my bike is 23. That's 16.44%(but i do use this bike to race with)
but before my bike was 35 that's 25%

but i still have extra gear to add in too. camelbak, tools, pump, cell phone bla,bla bla.