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Re:The Sketchy World of Fake Bike Gear by mmmBacon on Sunday October 04, 2015 @11:28PM (#10329833)
Yeah there's a bit more to it than that. Lighter stuff allows you to go further with less energy. Lighter wheels and tires make a really big difference as does tire rolling resistance. In something like a century (100 mike ride) a lighter bike may make the difference between finishing and not finishing.

Also wind resistance goes up as the square of velocity so it's harder to go faster than it is to simply ride around a clunky heavy bike.

There is a saying in cycling: strong,light, cheap. Pick two.

Re:The Sketchy World of Fake Bike Gear by Asbostos on Monday October 05, 2015 @02:14AM (#10330194)
All those factors can be addressed with a small hub motor and battery which together is much cheaper than the high-efficiency parts. If you set the power level right, you could even tune it to give the same reduction in effort for the rider.

Batteries and motors are more energy efficient than humans, so it's good from a more pure energy point of view too.

Re:The Sketchy World of Fake Bike Gear by analog31 on Monday October 05, 2015 @06:47PM (#10335561)
To me, that seems to add a lot of weight, cost, complexity, maintenance (battery charging and replacement), and failure modes (running out of juice) when you could just spend a couple more bucks for a lighter bike that's also more fun to ride.