Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: thedoc on 21/12/2010 13:41:53

Title: Is a lightweight carbon-fibre bike worth the extra expense?
Post by: thedoc on 21/12/2010 13:41:53

Does owning a lightweight carbon fibre bike cut down your commuting time? Contrary to expectations, a trial carried out by anaesthetist Dr Jeremy Groves from the Chesterfield Royal Hospital in the UK suggests that cyclists should pay more attention to the weight of the rider than the bike!

Read the whole story on our  website by clicking here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/news/news/2130/)

  

Title: Is a lightweight carbon-fibre bike worth the extra expense?
Post by: maffsolo on 20/12/2010 18:12:41

Only the times you have to carry it up the stairs to your office on the 30Th floor when the elevator was broken. That may be a benefit there, but from what I read of the rider's experience, it may be just for prestige, to own the lightweight machine? An inflated ego would not add weight to a person, would it?

Title: Is a lightweight carbon-fibre bike worth the extra expense?
Post by: Don_1 on 21/12/2010 07:43:01

A carbon fibre cycle may result in a weight advantage when you consider that a normal tubular frame cycle might cost around £200 - £400, whereas a carbon fibre cycle (like this piece of kit (http://www.evanscycles.com/products/felt/f1-2011-road-bike-ec024392)) would set you back around £8500. The considerably lighter wallet should make quite a big difference. Whether that would be offset by the inflated ego maffsolo hinted at, I wouldn't like to say. Also, if you had to chain it to some railings, you'd want a pretty heavy gauge chain and padlock, which might rather defeat the object too.

Title: Is a lightweight carbon-fibre bike worth the extra expense?
Post by: Mazurka on 21/12/2010 09:28:02

certainly amongst downhill moutain bikers, the greatest amount of surplus weight is attached to their neck...

Title: Is a lightweight carbon-fibre bike worth the extra expense?
Post by: CliffordK on 21/12/2010 12:09:33

Is the goal to burn the most fat?  Or to have the best riding experience?

I've ridden a classic road bike, a clunker, and a moderate quality mountain bike (sorry, nothing with Carbon Fiber).

A big part of the experience is in the wheels and tires.

The road bike is much more pleasant to ride on any paved surface...  and as mentioned, also nicer to load into vehicles, or carry inside.  Fenders might be a benefit for the winter though.

The benefits of adding carbon over a good alloy bike are likely negligible except for high end racing.  Perhaps one's money is best spent on a 20 yr old alloy road bike.

Title: Is a lightweight carbon-fibre bike worth the extra expense?
Post by: Geezer on 21/12/2010 17:44:30

It's a problem of diminishing returns. Even if you could reduce the mass of the bike to zero, it's not going to make an awful lot of difference to the effort you have to put in to propel yourself. It's still going to be hard work because of hills and wind resistance.

In my case, I'd probably invest the money in a battery power assist system  [:D]