That song was so FIRE that it was copywritten (meaning i dont get paid for this video) and I was like "worth it!" ua-cam.com/video/We8_iNMIR0M/v-deo.html
Good vid. Ive found that mindset is the most important thing. I know 'thick' riders who can dominate lean dudes on climbs because they are just willing to hurt more.
+durianrider The ability to suffer is a big part if it. That's why I love power because it will tell you if you're just breaking mentally or not. Thanks for dropping a comment bro, you are the reason I am vegan and make videos.
Then there are those with a 2000€ bike who take a full minute to accelerate to 10 km/h on a flat road. I had one of those guys in front of me at the traffic lights two days ago.
Weight is a huge factor, l went from 190ish at the beginning of the season down to 175 currently. And how I feel on climbs now at my current weight is mind blowing.
Well i am a loooong time cyclist with a moderate fitness level. And for some time had no regard for what i ate hence the being a bit heavy 190 -205lbs. I am 5'10" and should ideally be 165-170lbs. This year i made a determined effort to make a change and went plant-based. As i progressed with my diet huge changes started to occur not only with loss of weight but gains in fitness. I live in a hilly area of Massachusetts so i would measure myself against the people that hit Strava segments in my area. And i noticed that i have been creeping up in the yearly and overall standings. :-)
I'm seeing similar results over this summer as well. Long time runner, back into cycling this year after about a year off from everything. At 6'2" tall, I've dropped from ~200lbs to ~180/185lbs and also gone 95% plant based diet. Fitness is only going up and I'm now putting down more and more top-10 times on Strava on my own (as in no drafting or leadouts). I can relate my gains to running, in that I just "feel better" after dropping 15-20lbs and have more spring in my step overall.
Totally agree! I also went from 200 to 175. Same strategy, STRAVA. Noticed significant improvement in performance, so much I have been able to get good fair KOM in my area. Not only that, I also noticed: decrease in heart rate from baseline of 80 to 56, some times 50, systolic blood pressure from 139 to 110. I did get a little extra heart beat, got a little concern but did a little research (MD) and found out I was overdoing it. I slowed down a bit and the extra-beat has decreased. I keep moving forward and jumping to the next level: got my indoor trainer, got my structured workout app, plan in doing races in Zwift, etc. What was supposed to be a way to improve my health and lose weight, it really ended up being something more, and I am loving it. Good luck to all of you. Your videos are great @The Vegan Cyclist.
Keep at it bro! Been watching you for about a year now, and you're one of the reasons i went vegan! Best decision of my life. Hope to meet you at the Yosemite cycling camp one year!
I'm 300lbs ex power lifter. Just lost 26.. It sucks because I love to cycle and have always followed the sport. But I'm so restricted to climbing hills or doing group rides...But no matter what, I'm still pushing...Just sucks!
A fundamental error in the study, IMO, is that carrying 15 lbs of weight on your back has a totally different effect than carrying same weight in FAT around your guts, organs etc. The body-borne FAT requires much more demands from your heart and circ system than an external weight would. A skinny person carrying 15 lbs will not simulate a heavier person of same weight. This explains the muted results of your study vs what people who lost significant weight do report. Cheers !
My thought exactly. Also the DV is weight but the weight is added on him. This will cause a variable that is inconsistent of that of someone who actually weighs that weight. He is not satiated to the resistance. The reliability of this study is flawed. The social study is there. The reliability of this study would be accurate if he uses multiple studies across individuals.
Great work on the video! Thanks for including me in the project and for the link to my channel in the video description! It was a pleasure working with you and I'm glad you found the collaboration useful. You did a great job putting in the effort and addressing the concerns of Marginal Gains #1. Stellar work!
Keep it consistent and structured and you will do well! Your best bet is a training program if you have an indoor trainer for bad weather. There are many out there that offer free trials as well.
In the early summer I went down from 187 to 167lbs and didn't loss any bit of my FTP (~315)... I am climbing now way faster. On a 2mi long climb I gained nearly a minute...!!!
My friend weighs 13 kg less. On 5-6% climb it means 24%!!! more watts I have to put to have same speed. Tested several times. Higher gradient would mean even more...
Was 288 xmas 2015...now 218...headed for 175...up to about 750miles a month...FTP up to 310...basically I ride every day sun or rain...no indoor trainer...no excuses...ok on avg I miss 2 days a month...for me it is all about riding constantly even if it is only 8-10 miles in a ride...I am also just hammering not worrying about structured training...however now as I get closer to my target weight and start training for next years race season I will be adding more structure
Great job! These studies are interesting! I'm glad you got help with the test set-up. More data points would be great. One possible explanation with your HR numbers is cardiac creep. If you perform these three tests, one way to help eliminate the HR variation is by performing the tests with a good solid hour warm up before. Make sure to have a good solid recovery period between each interval to get fully recovered before starting the next one. Maybe 10 minutes? Also, do the tests multiple times in a week and change up the order of the test. One day, have the 12 lbs on first, and then the 3lb and then nothing. On another day reverse the order (e.g. nothing, 3lbs, 12lbs). Hopefully, with lots of data, you can smooth out the variability in HR and how "fresh" will sometimes affect each interval. And, it might be a good idea to back off the power numbers a little, so you're not digging too deep to perform each one. Hard enough to see a clear trend in the numbers, but not too hard where you can't repeat all three feeling about the same.
So I think you hit a good point about being able to lose weight. For some of us there is plenty of room to lose weight without sacrificing muscle. However, for some dropping any significant amount of weight would require muscle loss. I personally started cycling when I was 315lbs. I'm now down to about 255lbs. I already had a decent amount of leg muscle when I was at my heaviest, but between losing a lot of fat and gaining muscle there was a major increase in power to weight. Even going from 270 down to 255 made a massive difference in my climbing times, max/average HR, and how I felt after a climb. I think the biggest thing to keep in mind with losing/gaining weight is power to weight ratios. If you start losing and your power drops because of it, it may actually help you to gain a little in the form of muscle.
Re the you're not a scientist comments from the first video... I don't think people understand what you're doing. Kind of real world marginal gains. I'm really interested in this series and find the results fascinating.
dan110024 EXACTLY!!! Actual non-sponsored, non-competition racing environment. OBVIOUSLY, if ur at/near peak fitness-then of course ur equipment weight, water weight, aero will have an effect. But avg rider Joe who is 195lbs with 10lbs of fat and rides occasionally will not benefit greatly from a 6kg aero bike with ceramic bearings. Nice add;-)
MUCH MORE BETTER than the first marginal gains testing experience ;-) Good job ! You are right, if you take two riders with same power ratio, the heavier one will always climb (a bit) faster. Don't remember where I read it, but I think that there is a 2% advantage for 10kgs for example.
Great vid! I want to share my experience with weight loss and power. When I started cycling i weighed 217 lbs and have an ftp of 124W. Fast forward I lost weight and dropped down to 190 lbs. I didn’t lose weight via cycling but through jiu jitsu. I actually stopped riding the bike for a year. Less than 2 weeks ago i got back on the bike to help with my fitness and to complement my jiu jitsu training, and my ftp jumped to 192W. My average speed is also up by +3mph
I am 232 now and have 20 weeks to be ready for my first ever Gran Fondo NY. I am hoping to drop 20-40 lbs by then through training and the 90% whole food plant based diet I have adopted for health reasons. Looking at these base numbers I can really help myself by doing this. Also, my Dr. and I think that if I can get below 200lbs and lower my resting heart rate by about 8 bpm that it will have a dramatic improvement to my blood pressure. This video, even despite the "you are not a scientist" and the "not good science" gives me alot of hope and motivation. Due to my BMI being being 34, a loss of 10-15% of my body weight probably won't decrease my power.
First of all, excellent work ! It is obvious that more data points (more reps, more weights points, more bikers ...) will strengthen your results but the way you did it was pretty much the right way to do it. Those who feel like he's not doing good should get up and go biking to bring him more data points =) As for the explanation why the performance loss is not directly proportional to the weight difference, the short answer is that your body don't react in direct proportions. The reason and explaining is so vast you could spend your whole life studying it. A good math tool you can use when trying to understand the results is the logarithm of the added weigh, this is more closely related to how your body will perceive the added weight. A common example for this is the way we measure sound level perceived by our ears : we use decibels(dB) which are indeed obtained with the logarithm of the amplitude of the sound wave. Anyway, great video =)
Great videos as usual. I think the tyre pressure should be considered to match the weight of the rider if there are significant changes in rider weight especially when you’re dealing with marginal gains.
Can you do this in a group ride situation? E.g., get a buddy to hold your vest on one half of an out and back. Even in the peloton I'd expect excess weight to penalize accelerations, like the conclusion from your sprint experiment
Frictional and aero losses will increase linearly with speed with speeds below about 12 mph. Aero increases as the speed squared at faster speeds. Gravity load is linear with speed when going up a hill too so with data from different weights you should be able to back out the fraction of work from Aero and Friction combined with data on a hill at low speeds and a few weights. One way to go about it may be to do each trial at the same speed up the hill and play with the average powers but going up the hill at the same power is another way to chase it.
I am running a similar experiment on myself. Last year, I was dropped in every crit race at 225 pounds. I will be more like 190 at the start of this season. As you mentioned at the end, the small gain in explosive power, repeated every corner in a crit, I hope will make all the difference.
Hey Tyler, I'm speaking to you from 6 years in the future. Your video quality is a little better now, but your content is no less entertaining as it is 6 years in the future. Love binging these old videos
If everyone else is going to be critical.. Usually your limiting factor for speed going up/down/flat is the ammount of oxygen your heart can pump to your crying legs. I propose you do the same tests, but run all of them at 93% of your maximum heart rate. I think you will find the ability to move yourself and bike will be much more noticible and your legs/heart will give up much easier. I would also propose that you do a group ride with the extra +12lbs and see how much different it feels from a non-weighted ride and where. Here you are climbing at a fixed power level, not your max. Run your max up a hill with different weights and see how marginal it becomes. Hopefully this is a positive critique and food for thought. Thanks!!
On flat sections... I think weight plays a large factor in group rotating pace lines and bike races.. Where you need to cover surges.. during those surges.. you have to accelerate yourself. if you weigh more, it takes more work to get that desired acceleration and then that extra work piles onto your cardiovascular system and will increase the chances of you getting popped out the back on that group ride or race. (PS>> the group rotating pace lines are brutal because the forward moving side of the rotation is moving as much as 1.5 mph faster than the backmoving side this is depending on the wind and you that rotation happens over and over and over rapidly which means each of the accelerations adds to the last. so there is a limit to how much you can recover.)
Worth mentioning that increase in size will no doubt be an increase in power as well. Also being heavier is more beneficial on downhill or flats. If you only race on the flats I would say its better to be stronger and heavier
on June 27 I weighed 168.5 I weighed myself this morning and it's August 31st and I weighted 150lbs so on all my rides mentally I felt better as the weight came off, but the fist 3 weeks I felt sluggish hungry all the time sub par rides, I generally ride solo and now since the weight loss I've been getting PR's and 2nd and 3 rd best effort on all my rides now. I feel so much better no gut and frankly it changes your whole life. as a cyclist.
I respect the grind. I'm been riding for a little over a month since the rain has stopped. From 183 to 166 is a huge difference. Pr's left and right. And I'm not even at my final weight which will be 153. I went from 5 minute miles to strong 3:20 minute miles on average. Still getting faster.
A couple things, heart rate would be higher at the heavier weights if it was actual body mass, muscle or fat. The other thing you touched on is losing power with weight is a given but as you get lighter you actually use less power to produce the same results at the heavier weight. If you lose the body fat and retain the lean muscle mass you get to be very powerful. Overall awesome vid and I love the way you presented it all! kudos.
I'm heavy by standards. I can always tell a difference in HR/ power ratio when I drop 5lbs. A buddy the same height loss 20-30 lbs and I quickly made marginal gains while his power slowly fell away. My biggest take away was your first test. The amount of avg speed coupled with the increase HR is telling.
Good video. I think sometimes being heavier can be an advantage especially on flat terrain. If I gained some mass I'm sure my power would go way up. I think a skinsuit would be a good test also!
Looking forward to helmet and wheels. I've recently dropped from 69kg to 66kg with the same power and it made a nice change to my numbers. Windy flats can be tough though
Enjoyed the video as usual. Here is a little info on weight from my past year. Lost 90 lbs in about 1.5 years. 60 of it bike riding for fun, not training as I just turned 51. My average rides went from 13 to 15 MPH. My 40k time is now 1 hour 14 minutes down from around 2 hours. It seems like my weight stayed the same as my clothes got looser and continued about every 10 lbs. It seems like my speed improved more before each weight drop (building muscle?). Can't wait to see what I can do when I get below 200. Only 20 lbs to go.
I think the good question to answer would be if adding weights on body for training is equal (or better, or worse) to training in high gears. Curious what is the difference between these training styles. Only could find info in old forums with two opinions: 1) I do the training with weights and I feel/see results; 2) better go incline faster or in higher gears.
As you alluded to, the impact of weight on a single effort isn't that great but over the course of a day, doing multiple efforts, the difference will be more pronounced. That additional fatigue built up then has an impact on you're ability to recover, if doing multiple days of riding.
I have gone from 260 to 235 and I will tell you it makes a huge difference in climbs and slight long up hill roads. Flats there is a change in speed and what I can hold.
Great work, i do read many health articles and they do indicate that being fat-heavy (high body fat percentage) will raise blood pressure and pulse rate. Blood has to circulate through the extra fat. Longer circulation and further blood has to travel. This should slowdown the cyclist further. imo.
Interesting vlog. It's difficult to create a scientific control test but you do what you do best, make an entertaining vid. If I want to go for a PB sometimes I shed my water bottle, helmet and saddle bag with puncture repair kit, inner tube etc. A full bidon 600 ml of fluid is 600 grams, I checked this on scales at home. Helmet has got to be around 250-300 grams and the saddle bag maybe 4-500 grams so you are probably looking at 3lbs of weight saving there. I find that shedding weight means being able to push hard for just a like longer, it does not feel like you are about to blow up quite so easily. I also have two bikes, one carbon about 7kg and the other Aluminium about 9.5kg. Doing the same hills there is a big time difference as you might expect.
If you put on 12 pounds of flab on your body, the physiological toll would be significantly different than being at your current excellent weight/fitness and adding a 12 lbs weight vest. Likewise, if you bulked up 12 lbs of muscle by lifting, the performance effect would differ from either 12 lbs of flab or the weight vest, especially on the flat and steady climb.
I agree with this with the 3 lbs of weight. Given training plays a factor into this final results. But my coach has me doing killer rides over the weekend and just over the past month my weight has dropped but im flying up the climbs faster than I use too.
Interesting vid. However in real life, if a person overweight by say 20 pounds took up cycling and lost that said 20 pounds while cycling/training consistently will see an astronomical increase in performance over an already fit bike guy just adding 20 lbs. of dead weight to his body/bike. The former may only see a low to moderate drop in performance as in this test. Of course, if you're going only by the weight of the bike in a race, the loss of weight may mean something. I'm just putting this out there so other viewers don't think that the 12 lbs. they need to drop will only result in marginal gains. It's a big difference!
mistermatsuda Additionally, when you drop weight it makes riding longer SO MUCH EASTER. When you carry excess body fat like I have and still do, you learn that even a 10lb difference makes a drastic difference in your performance and stamina.
Schrader U'd definitely notice a large jump in avg spd using the same power~ BUT u'd also feel waaaay better over the same course...now going from 9kg to 6kg is not as noticeable. Sure spin up would feel different but the price of most 6kg bikes is astronomical when compared to 9kg bikes~
Great series%%% Does it make a difference on where you apply the weight? Bike vs added weight on you. If you rode a bike that is 12lbs heavier would you get similar results? What if you could add 12 lbs to the wheels for example. It would probably make more of a difference don’t you think?
I think on a fresh pair of legs you can keep the numbers close together. At the back end of a century ride I think the weight would be more noticeable as the ability to push the power when fatigued would come into play. Plus of course there is fat weight and muscle weight.
More costly and less effective. Most people have a lot more excess weight on their body than on their bike. Even if you had a bike that was weightless in Tyler's case that would be a savings of only 9.4% and it would be hella expensive! Contrast that with the very realistic goal of dropping 6.8kg of body mass (and the much lower cost) and it's a no brainer, just skip the ice cream.
it's more effective to lose body weight, especially since most people carry their weight in the midsection/thigh so area losing weight would mean your legs have less work to move and therefore can put more power into the pedals
great study did you stay in the same gearing for all 3 rides or did you have to do any shifting? also if you went longer how do you think your results would be?
I should also add I am 6'2 and 168lbs (76kg) so losing weight is not really an option as I am quite lean already and as Tyler puts it if you shed too much weight you lose muscle and power.
Also, more belly fat + more intramuscular fat (vs simply a weight pack on one's back) = less cardiovascular efficiency bc more body insulation + overheating.. requiring higher HRs.
Really interesting video, I love these sorts of experiments, though it would also be interesting to see a more "long term" experiment to see how ability to push out power changes with weight. You said on one of your streams that when you lost weight you found it harder to get the power out, i'd be really interested to see a more detailed video on something like that, if you have the data for it. *Edit:* Wrote that reply half way through, I see you did discuss it at the end :D! I've been cycling for just over 6 months and am trying to work out what target weight would be best. When I started cycling I weighed 74kg, and am now down to 66kg. Whilst I feel pretty light and am decent on hills, i'm wondering whether losing more would help, or whether it would simply start to hinder my maximum potential power. At the moment i'm pretty lean, though I feel there is room to remove 2-3kg more, what I wonder however is whether muscle growth would naturally cause me to converge to say 65kg. At the moment my power zones are: 5s - 1000w (Not really tested/trained) 30s - 760w 1 min - 600w 2 min - 460w 5 min - 380w 20 min - 277w (6 weeks old) 60 min ~ 263w (theoretical), 255w (highest in practise, though havent done an all-out 60 min) As far as how I feel, my strength seems to be on short-ish climbs/bursts (anything from 30s to 3 minutes), though I fade a fair bit on longer climbs, and don't seem to pull great average speeds on medium length efforts. Even though its early days, I do feel like i'm at a bit of a crossroads, with this sort of power profile, do you think I should just stick to the weight I am now, or would there be significant up-hill benefit if I could say lose another 5kg. Basically, I don't really want to diminish my rate of improvement with the raw power figures and by reducing growth from dieting, as I feel that'll result in weaker performance on the flats. Thoughts?
You don't see the gains from extra weight until it is a steeper decent, and higher speeds. Then you would see the weight prevents you from losing as much speed due to wind resistance.
VC, you need to take into account the uncertainty in your measurements. HR was most likely an insignificant change as the uncertainty in measurement is likely greater than 1.
While this is interesting, a solid factor missing is that extra weight means extra body size, and a significant difference in aero drag, not accounted for in the weight belt. I for example am 81.5 kg, and am carrying a significant paunch in the middle, so by dropping down to 64kg like Vegan Cyclist, my body area decreases and there fore my power is more effective at transferring to speed. So for me personally, dropping 7.5 kg is not so marginal in benefit.
Actually frontal surface area doesn't significantly increase or decrease as a result of a 10-20lb gain/loss in weight. This goes back to the volume/surface area relationship. As you increase any volume the rate of change of the frontal surface area increases at a much lower rate. Meaning, the relationship between the two is non-linear.
Gonna go out Ina a limb and say that because he was freshest for the +12 climbs that is why his results were more linear than one would expect. Even though the average watts were similar I'm seeing a fatigue trend. I know when I hit the ground in any workout, even if I try to pace, I end up doing much higher power from the onset simply because what feels easy at the beginning is gruelling once lactic acid sets in. Stats are probably as accurate as a human test subject can get them. I don't believe any human can 100% beat fatigue though.
Love this vid, Bruh ! However, some of that data might be affected by a person's psychological effort (subconsciously). You know, the "here we go again" or "damn, this is heavier" thoughts. You would have to get an e-bike or something like that, to ensure that you start at a specific power point, and maintain it steadily from the start until the end. What would the data be if the weight was on the bike instead of the person ?
interesting comment at 13:20 . . . I'm 190 but I can sprint on flat solo to upwards of 35mph, 1400w+ 5 second and 1200w+ 10 second easily, and I found it interesting that you could barely break 30 mph solo. I have no doubt you could shred me on a hilly or punchy ride, but I'm surprised your peak power is where it is. so interesting to see such different CP curves!
in the sake of accuracy and because I don't like over-inflated blustering on the internet, I checked Golden Cheetah this morning to verify the numbers. peak is 1466, 5 second is 1300, 10 second is only just over 1000w. max sprint speed in a flat race finish with a headsup sprint with no leadout was 34.7mph. cat 5 club level race (non-USAC).
I would expect a 190lb cyclist to have more absolute output than a 158lb cyclist; which could translate to a better top speed on flats. Watts/kg is another story.
I'm 6'3" and 185 lbs. When I was 18 and 165 lbs, I could sprint up to 38 mph solo, and 43 mph in a pack sprint. I was pretty fit at the time, and nowhere near that fitness now that I'm 31 and fatter and just getting back into riding! I think my last ride that I did a sprint effort I may have gotten to like 32 or so.
It's been tried numerous times with very little in tangible outcomes. The trouble is the power differences in tire pressure/rolling resistance is hard to measure in real world tests. The differences are just too small and the accuracy of the testing equipment is not sensitive enough to filter out the noise in the data. Most power meters measure to a whole Watt at best. The rolling drum tests are able to measure smaller differences, but the criticism is the rolling drum doesn't account for real world conditions because it's too idealized. What a drag, literally! One thing to keep in mind is it's better to sacrifice a tiny rolling resistance, by lowering tires pressures, in an effort to decrease general fatigue. Higher tire pressures transfer more road vibration to your body thus creating additional fatigue. At least that's the theory as I understand it. More studies on vibration and fatigue would be interesting to help sort this out. I've found a tiny decrease in pressure has improved my endurance. That could be placebo though:/ Any way this is going to be a debate topic for a long time to come.
Only 30mph on a sprint...Do you even ride bro?😉 Nice work btw, keep up the good work. I'm looking weight and seeing massive gains both from it and getting fitter. One day I might be half as quick as you.
velo1337 this is true. As a control test after each ride Tyler should have checked his own weight and added fluids accordingly. It's what pro teams do with their riders. They check their weight before and after each stage on hot days so they can measure fluid loss and know how much to give them for recovery.
yea but that loss is applied to all efforts. And since I reversed the order of the efforts it should not effect / affect WHAT THE FUK EVER the results.
velo1337 and TurneyUK - That is a good idea. That is also the main reason I had the VC go back out and do the runs in reverse order. This controls for water loss, changes in barometric pressure throughout the day and any other environmental and temporal variables. Definitely something to think about for the future.
yea I want to see the aero wheel test, I'm thinking on getting some zipp 303 should I or is it a waste of money, also I'm not a racer but zipps look cool.
I am not a heavy cyclist, but I think is a well known fact for what we see in the pro peloton that skinny cyclist are great in long climb and stronger cyclist are better for short climb and sprinting due to the fact that stronger cyclist carry more muscle weight which help them to be great sprinter and great at attacking short climbs. If you would have added muscle weight instead of water, rock or whatever you use to add those extra pounds it would be a different story.
I think a weight vest would be more scientific because if you've got body weight to lose, it's on your body and it probably affects you much more than extra weight on the bike. Your core and arms will work harder and the restrictions from the extra weight will put your body in more strain. I am quite convinced I have the power and strength of the other riders in my area, but I have like 15 kg of body fat to lose and that is making me less fit and effectively makes me an inferior rider.
Bro, VC, WHAT is that intro song?
That song was so FIRE that it was copywritten (meaning i dont get paid for this video) and I was like "worth it!"
ua-cam.com/video/We8_iNMIR0M/v-deo.html
The Vegan Cyclist 🔥🔥tracks dude
Petit biscuit - sunset lover (Daktyl remix)
Good vid.
Ive found that mindset is the most important thing. I know 'thick' riders who can dominate lean dudes on climbs because they are just willing to hurt more.
+durianrider The ability to suffer is a big part if it. That's why I love power because it will tell you if you're just breaking mentally or not. Thanks for dropping a comment bro, you are the reason I am vegan and make videos.
We are not measuring the ability to suffer, we are measuring applied efforts against speed.
Then there are those with a 2000€ bike who take a full minute to accelerate to 10 km/h on a flat road.
I had one of those guys in front of me at the traffic lights two days ago.
@@Schradermusic HAHAHAHAHAHA so true
I love climbing. It's my favorite part of cycling. The climbs on Mallorca were beautiful
Weight is a huge factor, l went from 190ish at the beginning of the season down to 175 currently. And how I feel on climbs now at my current weight is mind blowing.
Bruce L Can you talk about your fitness level at each weight?
Well i am a loooong time cyclist with a moderate fitness level. And for some time had no regard for what i ate hence the being a bit heavy 190 -205lbs. I am 5'10" and should ideally be 165-170lbs. This year i made a determined effort to make a change and went plant-based. As i progressed with my diet huge changes started to occur not only with loss of weight but gains in fitness. I live in a hilly area of Massachusetts so i would measure myself against the people that hit Strava segments in my area. And i noticed that i have been creeping up in the yearly and overall standings. :-)
I'm seeing similar results over this summer as well. Long time runner, back into cycling this year after about a year off from everything. At 6'2" tall, I've dropped from ~200lbs to ~180/185lbs and also gone 95% plant based diet. Fitness is only going up and I'm now putting down more and more top-10 times on Strava on my own (as in no drafting or leadouts). I can relate my gains to running, in that I just "feel better" after dropping 15-20lbs and have more spring in my step overall.
Totally agree! I also went from 200 to 175. Same strategy, STRAVA. Noticed significant improvement in performance, so much I have been able to get good fair KOM in my area. Not only that, I also noticed: decrease in heart rate from baseline of 80 to 56, some times 50, systolic blood pressure from 139 to 110. I did get a little extra heart beat, got a little concern but did a little research (MD) and found out I was overdoing it. I slowed down a bit and the extra-beat has decreased. I keep moving forward and jumping to the next level: got my indoor trainer, got my structured workout app, plan in doing races in Zwift, etc. What was supposed to be a way to improve my health and lose weight, it really ended up being something more, and I am loving it. Good luck to all of you. Your videos are great @The Vegan Cyclist.
Might be, just might be... the reason why you're better at climbs now is because of the weight you lost relative to the fitness level gained? Right?
Keep at it bro! Been watching you for about a year now, and you're one of the reasons i went vegan! Best decision of my life. Hope to meet you at the Yosemite cycling camp one year!
You should use a larger weight difference. i say this because the people concerned with weight probably need to lose 20-30Kg
I'm 300lbs ex power lifter. Just lost 26.. It sucks because I love to cycle and have always followed the sport. But I'm so restricted to climbing hills or doing group rides...But no matter what, I'm still pushing...Just sucks!
What about investing those 1000's of $€ etc for these few extra gram gains... This experiment saved me some buck!
I never comment on UA-cam videos unless I really love the content and the channel. Keep it up VC, I always look forward to your posts!
+gino mangini thanks for commenting! I never comment either, so glad you did!
A fundamental error in the study, IMO, is that carrying 15 lbs of weight on your back has a totally different effect than carrying same weight in FAT around your guts, organs etc. The body-borne FAT requires much more demands from your heart and circ system than an external weight would. A skinny person carrying 15 lbs will not simulate a heavier person of same weight. This explains the muted results of your study vs what people who lost significant weight do report. Cheers !
I think this can be looked at as the effects of carrying a load or having a heavy bike
My thought exactly. Also the DV is weight but the weight is added on him. This will cause a variable that is inconsistent of that of someone who actually weighs that weight. He is not satiated to the resistance. The reliability of this study is flawed. The social study is there. The reliability of this study would be accurate if he uses multiple studies across individuals.
Very interesting point!
I just started cycling for my college club team, I get so motivated after watching your videos. Enthusiasm is infectious man, keep spinning!
Great work on the video! Thanks for including me in the project and for the link to my channel in the video description! It was a pleasure working with you and I'm glad you found the collaboration useful. You did a great job putting in the effort and addressing the concerns of Marginal Gains #1. Stellar work!
DFTA (Don't Feed The Animals) That's a great demonstration of class! It's good 2 know civilized people still exist!-) 🖖👌✌️
I'm giving you a thumbs up just on that first graph, "no ice cream" vs "all the ice cream" :D
that graph should have been in three dimensions... as shown, it only had the two independent variables and not the dependent third variable
I am 231 and hoping to 190-200 by the end of the winter session. Glad to see work will payoff!
Nonoririko you should, I dropped 20lbs since I started cycling in june
Keep it consistent and structured and you will do well! Your best bet is a training program if you have an indoor trainer for bad weather. There are many out there that offer free trials as well.
Nonoririko it will I've gone from 225 to 184 so far just from cycling and eating clean
You can get there faster by dieting too, long rides help too
Nonoririko breathe thru your mouth. Work hard enough that you need too
Good video! Been thinking about this a lot lately, gains from weight loss. You deserve to be on UA-cam
The effect of weight is worse because fat requires oxygenation.
I say this as a cyclist that has lost 50 lbs in the last 5 months.
In the early summer I went down from 187 to 167lbs and didn't loss any bit of my FTP (~315)... I am climbing now way faster. On a 2mi long climb I gained nearly a minute...!!!
My friend weighs 13 kg less. On 5-6% climb it means 24%!!! more watts I have to put to have same speed. Tested several times. Higher gradient would mean even more...
Was 288 xmas 2015...now 218...headed for 175...up to about 750miles a month...FTP up to 310...basically I ride every day sun or rain...no indoor trainer...no excuses...ok on avg I miss 2 days a month...for me it is all about riding constantly even if it is only 8-10 miles in a ride...I am also just hammering not worrying about structured training...however now as I get closer to my target weight and start training for next years race season I will be adding more structure
try fasted cardio, its a fat shredder
huntingsynth Keep working!!!
Great job! These studies are interesting! I'm glad you got help with the test set-up. More data points would be great. One possible explanation with your HR numbers is cardiac creep. If you perform these three tests, one way to help eliminate the HR variation is by performing the tests with a good solid hour warm up before. Make sure to have a good solid recovery period between each interval to get fully recovered before starting the next one. Maybe 10 minutes? Also, do the tests multiple times in a week and change up the order of the test. One day, have the 12 lbs on first, and then the 3lb and then nothing. On another day reverse the order (e.g. nothing, 3lbs, 12lbs). Hopefully, with lots of data, you can smooth out the variability in HR and how "fresh" will sometimes affect each interval. And, it might be a good idea to back off the power numbers a little, so you're not digging too deep to perform each one. Hard enough to see a clear trend in the numbers, but not too hard where you can't repeat all three feeling about the same.
Two of my favorite guys on UA-cam. Mr. Wildeberry, and Tyler. Always good stuff. Hats off to Ms. Cools. She is amazing in her Vans 😁
So I think you hit a good point about being able to lose weight. For some of us there is plenty of room to lose weight without sacrificing muscle. However, for some dropping any significant amount of weight would require muscle loss. I personally started cycling when I was 315lbs. I'm now down to about 255lbs. I already had a decent amount of leg muscle when I was at my heaviest, but between losing a lot of fat and gaining muscle there was a major increase in power to weight. Even going from 270 down to 255 made a massive difference in my climbing times, max/average HR, and how I felt after a climb. I think the biggest thing to keep in mind with losing/gaining weight is power to weight ratios. If you start losing and your power drops because of it, it may actually help you to gain a little in the form of muscle.
Great video Bruh! Really quality stuff, keep it up!
Thanks for the time and effort put into these videos. Don't worry about the haters. Good job
Re the you're not a scientist comments from the first video... I don't think people understand what you're doing. Kind of real world marginal gains. I'm really interested in this series and find the results fascinating.
dan110024 EXACTLY!!! Actual non-sponsored, non-competition racing environment. OBVIOUSLY, if ur at/near peak fitness-then of course ur equipment weight, water weight, aero will have an effect. But avg rider Joe who is 195lbs with 10lbs of fat and rides occasionally will not benefit greatly from a 6kg aero bike with ceramic bearings. Nice add;-)
MUCH MORE BETTER than the first marginal gains testing experience ;-) Good job ! You are right, if you take two riders with same power ratio, the heavier one will always climb (a bit) faster. Don't remember where I read it, but I think that there is a 2% advantage for 10kgs for example.
The was a great vid!!! It's evident you put a lot of work into this one!!
Thanks for doing this test papi
Great vid! I want to share my experience with weight loss and power. When I started cycling i weighed 217 lbs and have an ftp of 124W. Fast forward I lost weight and dropped down to 190 lbs. I didn’t lose weight via cycling but through jiu jitsu. I actually stopped riding the bike for a year. Less than 2 weeks ago i got back on the bike to help with my fitness and to complement my jiu jitsu training, and my ftp jumped to 192W. My average speed is also up by +3mph
I am 232 now and have 20 weeks to be ready for my first ever Gran Fondo NY. I am hoping to drop 20-40 lbs by then through training and the 90% whole food plant based diet I have adopted for health reasons. Looking at these base numbers I can really help myself by doing this. Also, my Dr. and I think that if I can get below 200lbs and lower my resting heart rate by about 8 bpm that it will have a dramatic improvement to my blood pressure. This video, even despite the "you are not a scientist" and the "not good science" gives me alot of hope and motivation. Due to my BMI being being 34, a loss of 10-15% of my body weight probably won't decrease my power.
First of all, excellent work !
It is obvious that more data points (more reps, more weights points, more bikers ...) will strengthen your results but the way you did it was pretty much the right way to do it. Those who feel like he's not doing good should get up and go biking to bring him more data points =)
As for the explanation why the performance loss is not directly proportional to the weight difference, the short answer is that your body don't react in direct proportions. The reason and explaining is so vast you could spend your whole life studying it. A good math tool you can use when trying to understand the results is the logarithm of the added weigh, this is more closely related to how your body will perceive the added weight. A common example for this is the way we measure sound level perceived by our ears : we use decibels(dB) which are indeed obtained with the logarithm of the amplitude of the sound wave.
Anyway, great video =)
Really awesome video bro!
Great videos as usual. I think the tyre pressure should be considered to match the weight of the rider if there are significant changes in rider weight especially when you’re dealing with marginal gains.
Love this series bro. Great stuff. F the haters. This is the way to do it. Who cares about lab results. All that matters is real world results.
Totally agree on the "science" thing. The experiments don't have to be perfect or definitive to have value. Keep them coming, please
Can you do this in a group ride situation? E.g., get a buddy to hold your vest on one half of an out and back. Even in the peloton I'd expect excess weight to penalize accelerations, like the conclusion from your sprint experiment
Frictional and aero losses will increase linearly with speed with speeds below about 12 mph. Aero increases as the speed squared at faster speeds. Gravity load is linear with speed when going up a hill too so with data from different weights you should be able to back out the fraction of work from Aero and Friction combined with data on a hill at low speeds and a few weights. One way to go about it may be to do each trial at the same speed up the hill and play with the average powers but going up the hill at the same power is another way to chase it.
Really interesting series, could you maybe do a 25c vs 28c tires and maybe aero vs climb wheels? Thanks!
I am running a similar experiment on myself. Last year, I was dropped in every crit race at 225 pounds. I will be more like 190 at the start of this season. As you mentioned at the end, the small gain in explosive power, repeated every corner in a crit, I hope will make all the difference.
Hey Tyler, I'm speaking to you from 6 years in the future. Your video quality is a little better now, but your content is no less entertaining as it is 6 years in the future.
Love binging these old videos
Great work once again, scientist bruh!
Always on point and authentic.
Interessting. Thanks for the work.
love crunching numbers!
Me too! :)
Put on 90 pounds and you'll know what Maven feels like.
*BURN*
Bretzky ha ha
Bretzky true but at least Maven is out there riding..
See who fares better in a max sprint...
Great vid as always
Keep these vids up I love the science behind cycling
I have 2 more in the works, helmets and music. THEY ARE GONNA BE FIRE!
If everyone else is going to be critical..
Usually your limiting factor for speed going up/down/flat is the ammount of oxygen your heart can pump to your crying legs.
I propose you do the same tests, but run all of them at 93% of your maximum heart rate.
I think you will find the ability to move yourself and bike will be much more noticible and your legs/heart will give up much easier.
I would also propose that you do a group ride with the extra +12lbs and see how much different it feels from a non-weighted ride and where.
Here you are climbing at a fixed power level, not your max. Run your max up a hill with different weights and see how marginal it becomes.
Hopefully this is a positive critique and food for thought. Thanks!!
On flat sections... I think weight plays a large factor in group rotating pace lines and bike races.. Where you need to cover surges.. during those surges.. you have to accelerate yourself. if you weigh more, it takes more work to get that desired acceleration and then that extra work piles onto your cardiovascular system and will increase the chances of you getting popped out the back on that group ride or race. (PS>> the group rotating pace lines are brutal because the forward moving side of the rotation is moving as much as 1.5 mph faster than the backmoving side this is depending on the wind and you that rotation happens over and over and over rapidly which means each of the accelerations adds to the last. so there is a limit to how much you can recover.)
Worth mentioning that increase in size will no doubt be an increase in power as well. Also being heavier is more beneficial on downhill or flats. If you only race on the flats I would say its better to be stronger and heavier
on June 27 I weighed 168.5 I weighed myself this morning and it's August 31st and I weighted 150lbs so on all my rides mentally I felt better as the weight came off, but the fist 3 weeks I felt sluggish hungry all the time sub par rides, I generally ride solo and now since the weight loss I've been getting PR's and 2nd and 3 rd best effort on all my rides now. I feel so much better no gut and frankly it changes your whole life. as a cyclist.
I respect the grind. I'm been riding for a little over a month since the rain has stopped. From 183 to 166 is a huge difference. Pr's left and right. And I'm not even at my final weight which will be 153. I went from 5 minute miles to strong 3:20 minute miles on average. Still getting faster.
A couple things, heart rate would be higher at the heavier weights if it was actual body mass, muscle or fat. The other thing you touched on is losing power with weight is a given but as you get lighter you actually use less power to produce the same results at the heavier weight. If you lose the body fat and retain the lean muscle mass you get to be very powerful. Overall awesome vid and I love the way you presented it all! kudos.
This is awesome 👌 my wheels are 3#s lighter and I just lost 12#s of fat! All the numbers make perfect scenes. You help me out SOO MUCH.
I'm heavy by standards. I can always tell a difference in HR/ power ratio when I drop 5lbs. A buddy the same height loss 20-30 lbs and I quickly made marginal gains while his power slowly fell away. My biggest take away was your first test. The amount of avg speed coupled with the increase HR is telling.
Good video. I think sometimes being heavier can be an advantage especially on flat terrain. If I gained some mass I'm sure my power would go way up. I think a skinsuit would be a good test also!
250+ here. hoping to get down to 230 and crush some climbs. good vid, bruh
Looking forward to helmet and wheels. I've recently dropped from 69kg to 66kg with the same power and it made a nice change to my numbers. Windy flats can be tough though
Enjoyed the video as usual. Here is a little info on weight from my past year. Lost 90 lbs in about 1.5 years. 60 of it bike riding for fun, not training as I just turned 51. My average rides went from 13 to 15 MPH. My 40k time is now 1 hour 14 minutes down from around 2 hours. It seems like my weight stayed the same as my clothes got looser and continued about every 10 lbs. It seems like my speed improved more before each weight drop (building muscle?). Can't wait to see what I can do when I get below 200. Only 20 lbs to go.
I think the good question to answer would be if adding weights on body for training is equal (or better, or worse) to training in high gears.
Curious what is the difference between these training styles. Only could find info in old forums with two opinions: 1) I do the training with weights and I feel/see results; 2) better go incline faster or in higher gears.
Thanks for this interesting video
great vid. scientific experimental design FTW
As you alluded to, the impact of weight on a single effort isn't that great but over the course of a day, doing multiple efforts, the difference will be more pronounced. That additional fatigue built up then has an impact on you're ability to recover, if doing multiple days of riding.
dude! nice videos
I have gone from 260 to 235 and I will tell you it makes a huge difference in climbs and slight long up hill roads. Flats there is a change in speed and what I can hold.
Good stuff!
Great work, i do read many health articles and they do indicate that being fat-heavy (high body fat percentage) will raise blood pressure and pulse rate. Blood has to circulate through the extra fat. Longer circulation and further blood has to travel. This should slowdown the cyclist further. imo.
Interesting vlog. It's difficult to create a scientific control test but you do what you do best, make an entertaining vid. If I want to go for a PB sometimes I shed my water bottle, helmet and saddle bag with puncture repair kit, inner tube etc. A full bidon 600 ml of fluid is 600 grams, I checked this on scales at home. Helmet has got to be around 250-300 grams and the saddle bag maybe 4-500 grams so you are probably looking at 3lbs of weight saving there. I find that shedding weight means being able to push hard for just a like longer, it does not feel like you are about to blow up quite so easily. I also have two bikes, one carbon about 7kg and the other Aluminium about 9.5kg. Doing the same hills there is a big time difference as you might expect.
If you put on 12 pounds of flab on your body, the physiological toll would be significantly different than being at your current excellent weight/fitness and adding a 12 lbs weight vest. Likewise, if you bulked up 12 lbs of muscle by lifting, the performance effect would differ from either 12 lbs of flab or the weight vest, especially on the flat and steady climb.
I agree with this with the 3 lbs of weight. Given training plays a factor into this final results. But my coach has me doing killer rides over the weekend and just over the past month my weight has dropped but im flying up the climbs faster than I use too.
Interesting vid. However in real life, if a person overweight by say 20 pounds took up cycling and lost that said 20 pounds while cycling/training consistently will see an astronomical increase in performance over an already fit bike guy just adding 20 lbs. of dead weight to his body/bike. The former may only see a low to moderate drop in performance as in this test. Of course, if you're going only by the weight of the bike in a race, the loss of weight may mean something.
I'm just putting this out there so other viewers don't think that the 12 lbs. they need to drop will only result in marginal gains. It's a big difference!
mistermatsuda Additionally, when you drop weight it makes riding longer SO MUCH EASTER. When you carry excess body fat like I have and still do, you learn that even a 10lb difference makes a drastic difference in your performance and stamina.
What if I change out my 20kg bike for a 9kg one? Will I turn into Sonic the hedgehog?
Schrader U'd definitely notice a large jump in avg spd using the same power~ BUT u'd also feel waaaay better over the same course...now going from 9kg to 6kg is not as noticeable. Sure spin up would feel different but the price of most 6kg bikes is astronomical when compared to 9kg bikes~
Great series%%%
Does it make a difference on where you apply the weight? Bike vs added weight on you. If you rode a bike that is 12lbs heavier would you get similar results? What if you could add 12 lbs to the wheels for example. It would probably make more of a difference don’t you think?
I think on a fresh pair of legs you can keep the numbers close together. At the back end of a century ride I think the weight would be more noticeable as the ability to push the power when fatigued would come into play. Plus of course there is fat weight and muscle weight.
I wonder how it would change if you added weight to the bike instead. Like "should you loose body fat or just buy a lighter bike"
More costly and less effective. Most people have a lot more excess weight on their body than on their bike. Even if you had a bike that was weightless in Tyler's case that would be a savings of only 9.4% and it would be hella expensive! Contrast that with the very realistic goal of dropping 6.8kg of body mass (and the much lower cost) and it's a no brainer, just skip the ice cream.
lose body fat, without any discussion at all. lose weight.
it's more effective to lose body weight, especially since most people carry their weight in the midsection/thigh so area losing weight would mean your legs have less work to move and therefore can put more power into the pedals
Gun did that a few weeks ago
The life Of Jake gun? You mean gcn?
Can you detail how many watts are contributed to your vegan diet? There aren't too many variables or anything...love the videos, keep creating!!
Now the real question is: how much does body weight affect descending speed ?
great study did you stay in the same gearing for all 3 rides or did you have to do any shifting? also if you went longer how do you think your results would be?
I should also add I am 6'2 and 168lbs (76kg) so losing weight is not really an option as I am quite lean already and as Tyler puts it if you shed too much weight you lose muscle and power.
Also, more belly fat + more intramuscular fat (vs simply a weight pack on one's back) = less cardiovascular efficiency bc more body insulation + overheating.. requiring higher HRs.
Really interesting video, I love these sorts of experiments, though it would also be interesting to see a more "long term" experiment to see how ability to push out power changes with weight. You said on one of your streams that when you lost weight you found it harder to get the power out, i'd be really interested to see a more detailed video on something like that, if you have the data for it. *Edit:* Wrote that reply half way through, I see you did discuss it at the end :D!
I've been cycling for just over 6 months and am trying to work out what target weight would be best. When I started cycling I weighed 74kg, and am now down to 66kg. Whilst I feel pretty light and am decent on hills, i'm wondering whether losing more would help, or whether it would simply start to hinder my maximum potential power.
At the moment i'm pretty lean, though I feel there is room to remove 2-3kg more, what I wonder however is whether muscle growth would naturally cause me to converge to say 65kg. At the moment my power zones are:
5s - 1000w (Not really tested/trained)
30s - 760w
1 min - 600w
2 min - 460w
5 min - 380w
20 min - 277w (6 weeks old)
60 min ~ 263w (theoretical), 255w (highest in practise, though havent done an all-out 60 min)
As far as how I feel, my strength seems to be on short-ish climbs/bursts (anything from 30s to 3 minutes), though I fade a fair bit on longer climbs, and don't seem to pull great average speeds on medium length efforts.
Even though its early days, I do feel like i'm at a bit of a crossroads, with this sort of power profile, do you think I should just stick to the weight I am now, or would there be significant up-hill benefit if I could say lose another 5kg. Basically, I don't really want to diminish my rate of improvement with the raw power figures and by reducing growth from dieting, as I feel that'll result in weaker performance on the flats.
Thoughts?
You don't see the gains from extra weight until it is a steeper decent, and higher speeds. Then you would see the weight prevents you from losing as much speed due to wind resistance.
Which camera do you use??
There is a special kind of effect in your videos. How do you do it???
Not gonna lie..i came here again for that Sunset lover vibes with the climbing footage. 🥰🥰
VC, you need to take into account the uncertainty in your measurements. HR was most likely an insignificant change as the uncertainty in measurement is likely greater than 1.
Pretty interesting video, goes to show how a rider with lesser optimal weight can hang around in crits. Even in cat1/2 races
While this is interesting, a solid factor missing is that extra weight means extra body size, and a significant difference in aero drag, not accounted for in the weight belt. I for example am 81.5 kg, and am carrying a significant paunch in the middle, so by dropping down to 64kg like Vegan Cyclist, my body area decreases and there fore my power is more effective at transferring to speed. So for me personally, dropping 7.5 kg is not so marginal in benefit.
+Lemuel Saunders I tried to explain that, because your right, less mass also gives an aero advantage as well as weight.
Actually frontal surface area doesn't significantly increase or decrease as a result of a 10-20lb gain/loss in weight. This goes back to the volume/surface area relationship. As you increase any volume the rate of change of the frontal surface area increases at a much lower rate. Meaning, the relationship between the two is non-linear.
Weight can be a variety of things too not just fat. It could be water, muscle or even blood density.
Gonna go out Ina a limb and say that because he was freshest for the +12 climbs that is why his results were more linear than one would expect. Even though the average watts were similar I'm seeing a fatigue trend.
I know when I hit the ground in any workout, even if I try to pace, I end up doing much higher power from the onset simply because what feels easy at the beginning is gruelling once lactic acid sets in.
Stats are probably as accurate as a human test subject can get them. I don't believe any human can 100% beat fatigue though.
Love this vid, Bruh !
However, some of that data might be affected by a person's psychological effort (subconsciously). You know, the "here we go again" or "damn, this is heavier" thoughts.
You would have to get an e-bike or something like that, to ensure that you start at a specific power point, and maintain it steadily from the start until the end.
What would the data be if the weight was on the bike instead of the person ?
interesting comment at 13:20 . . . I'm 190 but I can sprint on flat solo to upwards of 35mph, 1400w+ 5 second and 1200w+ 10 second easily, and I found it interesting that you could barely break 30 mph solo. I have no doubt you could shred me on a hilly or punchy ride, but I'm surprised your peak power is where it is. so interesting to see such different CP curves!
+Alec Meyer The sprints were at the end of everything, so I was kinda toast. And I have hit 35 solo as my best, but it is hard for me to do
in the sake of accuracy and because I don't like over-inflated blustering on the internet, I checked Golden Cheetah this morning to verify the numbers. peak is 1466, 5 second is 1300, 10 second is only just over 1000w. max sprint speed in a flat race finish with a headsup sprint with no leadout was 34.7mph. cat 5 club level race (non-USAC).
I would expect a 190lb cyclist to have more absolute output than a 158lb cyclist; which could translate to a better top speed on flats. Watts/kg is another story.
I'm 6'3" and 185 lbs. When I was 18 and 165 lbs, I could sprint up to 38 mph solo, and 43 mph in a pack sprint. I was pretty fit at the time, and nowhere near that fitness now that I'm 31 and fatter and just getting back into riding! I think my last ride that I did a sprint effort I may have gotten to like 32 or so.
Rolling resistance and tire pressure would be neat to explore too.
It's been tried numerous times with very little in tangible outcomes. The trouble is the power differences in tire pressure/rolling resistance is hard to measure in real world tests. The differences are just too small and the accuracy of the testing equipment is not sensitive enough to filter out the noise in the data. Most power meters measure to a whole Watt at best. The rolling drum tests are able to measure smaller differences, but the criticism is the rolling drum doesn't account for real world conditions because it's too idealized. What a drag, literally! One thing to keep in mind is it's better to sacrifice a tiny rolling resistance, by lowering tires pressures, in an effort to decrease general fatigue. Higher tire pressures transfer more road vibration to your body thus creating additional fatigue. At least that's the theory as I understand it. More studies on vibration and fatigue would be interesting to help sort this out. I've found a tiny decrease in pressure has improved my endurance. That could be placebo though:/ Any way this is going to be a debate topic for a long time to come.
best experiment would be for you to dirty bulk to about 190 pounds and then test your performance
Only 30mph on a sprint...Do you even ride bro?😉
Nice work btw, keep up the good work. I'm looking weight and seeing massive gains both from it and getting fitter. One day I might be half as quick as you.
C Oliver maybe it was uphill or into a headwind :-}
probably depends a lot on whether that weight difference is muscle or fat
if you didnt drink, you mess up the data as well, since you loose weight due to sweat which can be in the ballpark of 1kg/hr
velo1337 this is true. As a control test after each ride Tyler should have checked his own weight and added fluids accordingly. It's what pro teams do with their riders. They check their weight before and after each stage on hot days so they can measure fluid loss and know how much to give them for recovery.
yea but that loss is applied to all efforts. And since I reversed the order of the efforts it should not effect / affect WHAT THE FUK EVER the results.
velo1337 and TurneyUK - That is a good idea. That is also the main reason I had the VC go back out and do the runs in reverse order. This controls for water loss, changes in barometric pressure throughout the day and any other environmental and temporal variables. Definitely something to think about for the future.
The Vegan Cyclist Doesn't the water weigh the same whether you carry it on your bike or in your stomach?
david wilkins if you drink the water you will loose some through sweat, but as has been pointed out the efforts were flipped to control for this
Great vid! Spinners are winners get your feet moving faster
How does weight effect descending...??
Did you recalibrate your power meter for your new total weights ( bike +rider) between tests?
I weigh 45lbs more than a guy I ride with and was exactly 1 minute slower up a 20 minute climb. He can't hold me on the flat at all.
yea I want to see the aero wheel test, I'm thinking on getting some zipp 303 should I or is it a waste of money, also I'm not a racer but zipps look cool.
I am not a heavy cyclist, but I think is a well known fact for what we see in the pro peloton that skinny cyclist are great in long climb and stronger cyclist are better for short climb and sprinting due to the fact that stronger cyclist carry more muscle weight which help them to be great sprinter and great at attacking short climbs. If you would have added muscle weight instead of water, rock or whatever you use to add those extra pounds it would be a different story.
What is your FTP W/kg?
What was your VI for all three? That would also help tell the story
I think a weight vest would be more scientific because if you've got body weight to lose, it's on your body and it probably affects you much more than extra weight on the bike. Your core and arms will work harder and the restrictions from the extra weight will put your body in more strain. I am quite convinced I have the power and strength of the other riders in my area, but I have like 15 kg of body fat to lose and that is making me less fit and effectively makes me an inferior rider.
GEARING???? Static, or variable?
If u have 3lbs vs 12lbs on the bike, the difference in performance might be greater especially on steep hills