How heavy is too heavy?

fatgit

I have a friend who is considering getting a road bike but he's quite heavy (OK, very heavy) 24 stone infact..... is it worth even considering or will his weight be too much for the wheels?

gabriel959

Well Gary Brennan was over 39 stone when he started cycling – I believe he is now on his low 20s (may be 21 I think) and he has got two road bikes and don’t think he is having any problems – tell your friend to go and read http://gazzasblogs.blogspot.com/

careful

No problem with frame etc. With wheels it would be best maybe to avoid the very light (and very expensive) wheels that have less than say 28 spokes. Other road wheels have often been used on tadems for carrying 2 people without problems. MTB wheels should also be strong enough for this weight. Lighter carbon seat posts are also probably best avoided.

fatgit

I've read Gary's thread blog before, he started on mountain bikes and I wasn't sure how heavy/light he was when he got a road bike.

If tandems are OK on road wheels he should be fine! why did I not think of that?

pepelepew

I was 17 stone when I went to my LBS for a service (I'm 6' tall). He basically told me I was too big for road bikes, even though I hadn't asked him. Cheeky git! I carried on using it. Only problems i had were snapping a crank arm (hell of a bruise on my thigh/nuts area) and having to replace bottom brackets on my old bike. Must be too powerful for them! Or cheap cr@ppy components.

Onan

I'm 17 stone, 6'2". I'm probably too heavy for my road bike, but it'll just have to put up with me for the meanwhile, because I'm not going to get any lighter unless I ride it.

I'd suggest choosing wheels for strength rather than weight (I've broken spokes and buckled rear wheels on my cheap hybrid before), and getting apropriate gearing for hills (which I didn't do, and am finding fatty + too high gears + big hills is a horrible combination).

fatgit

cheers for the responses, hopefully that'll put his mind at rest.