Bike MEdia Rant - 2018 Madone SLR Disk 19.2 lbs, ouch!!

[TobinHatesYou]

My fastest two times up Kings Mountain (6%) are within 1 second. One attempt on the Emonda, one on the Madone. The Madone attempt took 10 watts fewer. Different days and different prevailing conditions...it was wet and cold when I rode the Madone. There’s no questioning the math, just the environmental variables (including rider power.)

[LewisK]

I’ve always ridden fairly light bikes, so, aero or not, I really don’t like the idea of riding round on a bike 7.5kg +

A friend of mine recently brought a systemsix himod etap, it was heavy and by the time it had a computer, bottle and saddle bag, it was close to 10kg! No thanks

It's fair if you say you prefer lighter bikes. It's just silly when others start claiming the bike media are in on some kind of fix. To use another shitty car analogy, just imagine the heavy aero bike as a six-figure GT car. It's porky, but it's still a pleasure to drive/ride. The lightweight bike is the six-figure lightened supercar. It's not important for the reviewer to note that the GT car doesn't slalom as well as the lightweight supercar. It's already implied by the category it occupies.

Also you're adding 2kg in bottles, a computer and toolkit to your lighter bike, are you not? Doesn't that just further illustrate the futility of it all? I weigh 63kg. My computer and mount weight 100g. My bottles, filled, weigh 1.4kg. My emergency kit weighs around 400g. My helmet weighs 300g. My shoes weigh 450g/pair. My kit probably weighs 500g.

Of course you're adding a bit in the way of accessories to a lightweight bike too. It's just if you add it to an already heavy bike, you end up with something heavier than a lot of hardtail MTBs. I try and keep it all to a minimum, and put spares in jersey pocket, means i can do away with a saddle bag/bottle storage which is more pleasing from an aesthetics point of view!

Like the car analogy btw

[TobinHatesYou]

I just found it a moot/irrelevant point. The difference in system weight is just the difference in weight between the two bikes. The higher the system weight, the less bike weight matters in the end.