You say placebo, I say mental. It is a mental game and if that's what it takes, so be it.

Besides, "climbing" can be a relative term as well. Hit an upgrade and you have the advantage... Round a corner, etc.

I think that the weight of a bicycle means nothing to average cyclists. When you are talking about professional cyclists, it could potentially make a difference. If you carry 2 full water bottles on your bike, you are adding about 2.5 pounds to your bike anyways so why pay so much extra for a bike that weights a few grams less.

It's kinda like a tv, you buy the biggest you can afford.
I buy the best bike and components I can afford. I recently put a new XT crankset on my mtb. Yes the XTR would have been better, but it was a lot more than I wanted to pay, and I'm not sponsored. A lot is mental, even swimming in the high school sectionals meet I got a new papersuit to race in. Was that alone going to make me win? No, but it sure felt good.

Just my 2 cents.

I think psycho hit the nail on the head here, the easiest, most efficient, and sexiest way to improve bike performance is loose weight of the rider and increase lean muscle mass, though I do have to say carbon fiber is pretty darn sexy lol

I don't think weight matters all that much... There are certainly things that are unnecessarily heavy that you can try to eliminate, but I'm not spending extra money to get something that's a few grams lighter.

I thought it was funny that the picture of the "racing bicycle" is some old Raleigh Triple...

Also, with the lighter bikes, most being made from carbon fiber, the biggest difference is not in the weight, but in the stiffness and the dampening effects making it a more comfortable ride. I would rate both of these factors as being much more important and having a much bigger performance boost than the weight of the bike.

It's not just that weight isn't very important, but that aero-position is MASSIVELY important. Especially at higher speeds, a slight decrease in the amount of cross-section that you present (by being lower/flatter on your bars, etc., etc.) makes a HUGE improvement in speed-per-effort. Especially in a triathlon where there's no drafting and you have to cut through the wind alone.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that this is not quite right. The additional mass of the wheel is felt when they are accelerated (angular momentum). The mass is immaterial in a frictionless constant velocity motion. This phenomenon is easily manifest when you compare deep rim aero wheels versus narrow rim wheels MADE OF THE SAME MATERIAL. The narrow rim wheels (being lighter) allow you to accelerate much more quickly (and is one of the reasons why road riders typically don't ride aero rims in road racing). The deep profile rims will weigh more, but offer aerodynamic benfits (reducing drag and the consequent need to accelerate). The point is that I'm not saying that there is a simple answer here, but rather that there is a complicated interplay. The type of riding that you do and the typical conditions and the terrain over which you ride are such variable factors that this weight aero trade-off is a complicated question.

Dave

Last year at IMC, on my 25lb steel Bianchi with the triple crank and clip-on aero bars, I finished 112 miles about 50metres ahead of a lawyer from California in my AG, who was riding on a $7000 carbon bike with power cranks, deep dish wheels, AirStryke bars, GPS, and an on-board computer, heh.
His bike was lots lighter than mine, but when you only ride at about 27kph, aero doesn't matter much either.

I know my new Cervelo will be a lot lighter, and stiffer, and aero, but really, if I have to haul the same 220lbs up the Richter and Yellow Lake, the difference the bike makes will be reduced to making a better race photo!

PoC

That's actually generally not the case. Most TT bike manufacturers have weight as their third priority, with aero being first and stiffness being second. Most TT bikes actually weigh significantly more than a comparably priced road bike.

You might usually use lighter materials for a more aero bike because of shape and everything (it's harder to make a pointy seat tube out of aluminum, and you lose tons of stiffness), but you usually need a lot more material too. Just look at seat and down tubes on road and TT bikes.

you just dated yourself! paper suits are ancient, i havent even thought about those horribly uncomfortable things in about 10 years. all about the full body fastskin these days. and those WILL make you faster.

Vindicated! I am vindicated! I have been preaching this for years! Euro snobs who whine about points in their crits, with their 15lb Ti-Carbon blend and Zipps, who *sniff* about how 'slow' my 20lb Softride is and bulky my Mavic SSC SL are IGNORE simple math (and the fact that tri and road bikes serve different masters):

Bike 1: 150 lb rider + 20 lb bike = 170 lbs
Bike 2: 150 lb rider + 15 lb bike = 165 . . . or a small 2.9% reduction in total weight. The RIDER is the largest component in this equation.

What the hell is a papersuit? Papersuit? Swim?

it only gets better ;)

Many people due. They just cant help themselves. I am THAT lovable!

Several of Softride's model tipped the scales way in excess of 25 pounds. An older 105 equiped lower end bike could be closer to 30, but still crazy fast. The demise of the Softride bikes saddens me. They are perfectly suited to Florida racing and very comfy. I wouldve bought one, but rumor of the selling of the brand had already started to circulate, so I backed off.

Carbon fiber can have better aerodynamics, but aluminum can match much of the aero shapes to a point that the aero dynamics are mute. Unless you start going to the extremes of a P3C or the other top end tri/TT bikes.

Position is everything. If you can get into a position that maximizes aerodynamics while minimizing power loss that is more important than anything. So if you get a good fitting alum. bike, it will serve you better than a poor fitting carbon one.

Definetely spend your money on good race wheels (or rent them!!) as opposed to dumping your cash on a expensive frame.

Lastly, components do matter. Higher end stuff has smoother bearings, which are way more efficient. As well, good shifting is vital to being able to change gears confidently while climbing. A good bike should come with a min. Ultegra (or equivalent).

More aerodynamic bikes are generally slightly heaver than an equally equiped non-aero road bike because of the extra material used to create the tubing. This is the old trade off of aero vs.weight. Long straight roads? Aero is important. Lots of hills? Weight is important.

First things first though. Upgrade your legs so you can take advantage of all of those wonderful aero benefits.