Four Cheap Ways To Lose Weight from your Bicycle

Are you a weight weenie?
Do you try to save every gram?
(cheap bolt-and-cover crankbolts compared with Stronglite bolt-and-sealing ring crankbolts)

Are you a weight weenie?
Do you look to save every gram, often paying out quite a bit to do so?
Here are some cheap ways to save weight you may have overlooked for your next Sportive or Strava KOM attempt:

1. lose weight
2. take all the junk off your bike
3. weigh your clothes 
4. have a haircut

So let's look at each of those in turn (they are listed in roughly the order of the amount of weight you can save)

1) Lose weight
For the Summer of 2014, I weighed 95 kg. For the Summer of 2015, I was down to 90.6 kg, for the Summer of 2016 I was down to 85.4 kg.
Now I'm quite a big guy - 1.9m (6'3") tall.
But I'm not built like Arnie, with a heavily muscled uppper body. No sirree!
More like a well-padded midriff :-)
So, for "normal" folks, BMI is a decent "rough and ready" measure.

And my BMI for the period in question comes out as:

• 2014: 26.3
• 2015: 25.1
• 2016: 23.7

so, even now, I'm not exactly skin and bones!
But think about it.
I lost 9.6kg from my weight.
Doesn't matter whether you lose weight from yourself or the bike, as long as you don't lose muscle, weight is weight!

2) Take all the junk off your bike
Cycle jerseys have back pockets for a reason.
Bottle mounts are popular on a bike for a reason.
You don't see lights, tablets, and U-locks on the Tour de France - for a reason.

Sports watch, bike computer, or i-phone?

My Garmin 310xt, a fairly large sports watch.

A sports watch, like my Garmin 310XT weighs 77g (and that includes the mount - a wristband!)
A more modern sports watch like the Garmin 920XT weighs 61g.
A modern bike computer, like the Garmin Edge 520, weighs 60g plus mount
An i-Phone weighs 138g (i-Phone 7 - an i-Phone 7 Plus weighs 188g!!!), and you're going to want to see the screen, so there will a mount on top!
An i-Pad weighs at least 331g (i-Pad mini-2, wifi only)
So next time you fancy a new phone/tablet, think about keeping your old one a bit longer, and buying a specific sports device instead!


But, but, but ...
what about the camera, maps, etc. etc.
Look, make your mind up.
You want to be a sportsperson, or you want to go on a picnic.
Both are nice.
I put a pannier on, with a flask of tea and some food, and have a lovely ride in the country.
But when I want performance, I don't.
If you are riding at night, or need to lock your bike up, then the lights have a purpose.
I commute all year on my bike. But in the Summer ...
And most amateur sporting events aren't at night ...
So what do you want?
"Commuting" "Touring" or "Sporting"?


3) Weigh your clothes
How much do your clothes weigh?
Yes - I really did weigh my clothes!

a proper cycling cap is lighter than ...

... a typical well-made "baseball"-style cap.

sports vest (sleeveless under layer)

short sleeved running top

Shoe covers (smooths the airflow over laces etc)

"fingerless" cycling gloves

Ultralight cycling short.
And they are "short" shorts, too.
with just a modest pad thickness, and rather thin material

Full-length cycling trousers (tights) with fleecy legs and a much thicker Italian pad.
(But more than three times as heavy as the ultralight shorts!)

Long-sleeve, medium weight, full zip jersey

Long sleeve, half-zip, winter jersey

 As you can see, there can be quite a few grams to be saved by clothing selection!

4) Have a haircut

How much weight is a haircut worth?

Just how much does hair weigh?
Only one way to find out.
I had a haircut - taking my hair from not quite shoulder length, to quite short, but not "military".
Shall we say "Winter"-weight hair to "Spring/Autumn"-weight hair?
33g saved (I forgot to "tare" the scale, and the bag weighs 3g!)
33g from no more than a couple of inches of hair off.
Wow!
So splash out hundreds of pounds/dollars/euros on a fancy rear cassette with some of the gears made from titanium, or whatever, or have a haircut?
(e.g. 11-23 DuraAce 9000 11-spd weighs 166g, 11-23 Ultegra 6800 11-spd weighs 212g - a difference of just 46 grammes for the titanium gears, which translates to about a 3-inches-off-all-over haircut)
I suppose at 52, I ought to be glad I still have the choice :-)
But swap shoulder-length hair for a nice trim your Mum would like, and enjoy the weight saving!