this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
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High end bicycle equipment has weight specs in grams.
It's always hillarious to me to see boomers on expensive bikes that aim to save every gram while they could save 20kg on themselves.
Perhaps that's why they are on a bike?
If the point is to burn calories, then shaving weight off your equipment is counterproductive.
But if it makes you want to ride more, then great!
Or skinny dudes with enormous ballsacks wearing tight Spandex on 15 pound carbon fiber bikes, but a 20 pound motorcycle lock.
In the cycling community we call those guys Freds.
And it's more of a light ribbing than a condemnation, since at least they've got themselves on a bike.
If you are trying to lose weight, you should be using the worst, heaviest bike possible.
Well, not if you still want to have some fun while doing so.
But I agree, that a regular bike should suffice and you don't need to worry about optimizing gear weight if you're not competing for anything and just ride it for your own well-being.
Well, not necessarily. A bike that's got a full carbon frame also absorbs shock and vibration from the road better. This means you can ride longer distances without getting fatigued in places like your wrists or ass. Longer rides = more exercise.
But once you have a carbon frame, chasing grams on other components gets to be a bit silly.
So using fewer calories.
I've yet to ride a carbon frame for any amount of real distance, so idk how good they actually are.
But having a less harsh ride can also be archived by not using the thinnest pizza cutter tires at 10 bar. Especially if we care about time ridden and not avg. speed.
And it's going to be slightly harder to get the same speed out of comfy tires, so that's also more exercise.
It was really funny about a decade back watching the entire bike industry all at once acknowledge friction coefficients, and suddenly the tires all went from 24mm/90psi to 38mm/40psi. All because the roadies started riding on gravel.
You could argue that TPI tubes / tubeless made larger road tires practical. But we all secretly know it was because people at the time just thought thin tires looked cooler and "more aero".
Steel is real. The road feel difference between carbon and steel is negligible, steel is usually way cheaper, survives a whole lot longer, is more often built to widely compatible standards, is fully recyclable, and in my humble opinion just straight up feels better under you on a ride. As for weight, unless one is a pro race cyclist there is never any reason to chase gram shavings, you will almost always lose more weight and go faster by working out your own body. But FWIW my default steel rig is 19 pounds and competes on weight with most carbon builds.
You could also just walk whenever possible, burns more kcals/distance
That's less efficient time-wise though, since it takes significantly longer to walk the same distance compared to riding.
Ie, riding 2 hours burns FAR more calories than walking for 2 hours.
There's a bell curve. If you burn out too quick you're not gonna get nearly as much cardio, and the torque required to move a real clunker is extra stress on your joints. Plus it's just not as much fun, cycling is a sustainable exercise largely because it's fun. But it's very true that a decent workout bike can be had for $100 if you look. My two workout bikes were both built in the 90s.
That's a stationary bike
I can't say I've ever seen that.
Well, it’s also fun to go places you know. If a shitty bike can only get you 20mi / 30km but a on a good one you feel confident doing a 30mi / 45km ride then the purchase makes sense.
But, why ? You drink a bit more water that day and it’s void.
It's a competition between brand. They're at the point where decrease a single gram is incredible task and are all racing to become the lightest weight and aero-est bicycle and get to claim that.
And then you have E bike companies producing lead bricks that are non-functional without the motor doing 90% of the work. Or with the massive motorcycle seats that make pedaling actually impossible.
A cup of water plus 250g is less than a cup pf water plus 500g. That's why.
But what if you drank more water and you didn't have the weight savings?