Am I too heavy for a road bike

tyke1973

At the moment i'm using a 80's Raleigh Record.
During a ride today the bottom bracket broke.
I'm 17.5 stone and 6ft 1" (too heavy I know).
This bike is to just put me on til my 40th in March when my parents have said they will buy me a new one.
I was hoping to get a Triban 3 or Carerra TDF, but after today i'm wondering if perhaps they may be a little less durable for me so I just looked at a Raleigh Royal online and thought it might be a little more up to the task of C2C and general road roading.

Any opinion on this ?

Cheers

RandG

I doubt it, I'm 5.9 and 15 stone, so comparable to your height and weight I guess.

majormantra

You aren't too heavy for a road bike, but you may have trouble with cheap, badly built factory wheels that you get on low end road bikes. By trouble, I mean increased problems with spoke breakage and/or going out of true.

CYCLESPORT1

+1

MajorMantra wrote:

You aren't too heavy for a road bike, but you may have trouble with cheap, badly built factory wheels that you get on low end road bikes. By trouble, I mean increased problems with spoke breakage and/or going out of true.

simon_masterson

No, you aren't.

There have been prescribed rider weight limits before, if I remember correctly, and high-end bicycles are made (obviously) for the kind of person that typically rides them, but we are talking about high-end bicycles here. Tin can-thickness aluminium and steel, and really lightweight wheels. And even then, I would be expecting the frame to develop stress cracks prematurely or something.

I haven't seen your Record, but if it's made from 501 or 531 and has a pair of 'normal' wheels, it ought to be fine, and I would assume that a low-end road bike made today would also be fine. A fully loaded touring bike may be able to take 70kg or more; granted that bike is made and equipped for the job, but 25-30 years ago they were made from very similar 531 to the road racing bikes of the time.

Rather than getting anything else, I'd just keep the Record if I were you. I would agree with the chap above who mentioned wheels; new low-end road bikes may not have feather-light carbon clinchers on them, but they don't have tougher 32/36 spoke wheels such as you will find on older bikes.

Keep in mind that there are plenty of cyclists out there who always carry a spare tyre.

Hoopdriver

I've read posts on this forum by people who are, or were, a good five stone heavier than you and they were evidently out riding. You shouldn't have any problem at all, although it might be a good idea to get good wheels - a good idea in any case, for everybody.

peejay78

http://theamazing39stonecyclist.wordpress.com/

brindlescoops

18.5 stone here and no problems. Your starting weightnis my target weight!

notnot

tyke1973 wrote:

At the moment i'm using a 80's Raleigh Record.
During a ride today the bottom bracket broke.
I'm 17.5 stone and 6ft 1

I've got an old Raleigh touring bike - late 80s/early 90s, I suspect. Occasionally bits break, but I suspect it's more down to the age than anything else - I'm 72kg, so it shouldn't be my weight.

I don't know whether modern road bikes will struggle with your weight, though I know some pretty heavy people who ride and I'd think any robust frame should be able to take your weight (given the amount people sometimes load on panniers). I imagine it would make sense to avoid things like light weight wheels with lower spoke counts - aside from them potentially being more fragile, it's probably not worth paying the extra to save a relatively small amount of weight.

Graydawg

tyke1973 wrote:

At the moment i'm using a 80's Raleigh Record.
During a ride today the bottom bracket broke.
I'm 17.5 stone and 6ft 1" (too heavy I know).
This bike is to just put me on til my 40th in March when my parents have said they will buy me a new one.
I was hoping to get a Triban 3 or Carerra TDF, but after today i'm wondering if perhaps they may be a little less durable for me so I just looked at a Raleigh Royal online and thought it might be a little more up to the task of C2C and general road roading.

Any opinion on this ?

Cheers

You're not too heavy for that mate. I'm 6'4" and 17.5 stones and riding my triban 3 with no problems! Just make sure your pressures are up on the tyres to avoid pinch flats and you'll soon see the weight drop down

fludey

If it helps when I first jumped back on a road bike I was just shy of 19st at 6ft I road an Orbea for a year with no issues. Sold that to mate who now rides it still with nothing broken or replaced other than a worn chain.
Now just under 18st ride a Felt F75 and a a Felt AR4, I am over the weight limit for the AR4, but have not had any issues with either.
So if you buy a quality bike don't think you will have any issues, don't know your budget but my Orbea Aqua with Sora was around the £600 mark.

snaphappyspen

I'm 5.9 and 110 kg and i have been fine riding my Trek 1.5 2013, i love it, albeit the lack of gears compared to my mountain bike took some getting used to on the hill up to my house. After 3 weeks of cycling up the hill i don't struggle at all.

From what i know i have aluminium frame with carbon fibre front forks

Bustacapp

I'm 18.5 stone & 6ft. Just bought a Carrera Virtuoso Ltd Edition which is the same bike as the TDF basically. The bike is plenty strong enough. The only thing about it is the lowest gear is not as low as you'd like at our weight for steep climbs!

snaphappyspen

Bustacapp wrote:

I'm 18.5 stone & 6ft. Just bought a Carrera Virtuoso Ltd Edition which is the same bike as the TDF basically. The bike is plenty strong enough. The only thing about it is the lowest gear is not as low as you'd like at our weight for steep climbs!

I found this a hinderance at the start as i live halfway up a very steep hill, but after a few hard climbs home i find myself coping with it better, and its almost enjoyable again!

Bustacapp

snaphappyspen wrote:

Bustacapp wrote:

I'm 18.5 stone & 6ft. Just bought a Carrera Virtuoso Ltd Edition which is the same bike as the TDF basically. The bike is plenty strong enough. The only thing about it is the lowest gear is not as low as you'd like at our weight for steep climbs!

I found this a hinderance at the start as i live halfway up a very steep hill, but after a few hard climbs home i find myself coping with it better, and its almost enjoyable again!

Well I'm tackling the hill each week until I get it and to be honest may make is a permanent weekly fixture as it's excellent training. Every other incline feels like nothing compared to it!!

snaphappyspen

Bustacapp wrote:

snaphappyspen wrote:

Bustacapp wrote:

I'm 18.5 stone & 6ft. Just bought a Carrera Virtuoso Ltd Edition which is the same bike as the TDF basically. The bike is plenty strong enough. The only thing about it is the lowest gear is not as low as you'd like at our weight for steep climbs!

I found this a hinderance at the start as i live halfway up a very steep hill, but after a few hard climbs home i find myself coping with it better, and its almost enjoyable again!

Well I'm tackling the hill each week until I get it and to be honest may make is a permanent weekly fixture as it's excellent training. Every other incline feels like nothing compared to it!!

well put it this way, i have had my bike 4 weeks, first time i tackled the climb i sucked. Now, i can get up it in harder gears than i used to. Not only this but when cycling with my younger brother who is around 13 stone wet, i left him for dust on the climbs we tackled in the route we did.

wardieboy

Crikey another Raleigh record owner! I bought one to start training on in August of last year, not a bad starting bike but the gearing is aggressive and the frame is very flexy. I used mine on the road for about four months and had to switch to a MTB rear cassette so I could tackle the steeper inclines, now have her strapped to the turbo (still too flexy to do any out of the saddle work).

vs4b

Just to add to the chorus of fat blokes wading in to your thread... I'm 19 st and have done plenty of miles on myroad bike ( van Nicholas ) 200miles in the last 48 hours it happens but to reassure you, you're not too heavy for a road bike.

layzphil

18st and 6'7" here. As noted earlier in the thread I kept breaking the spokes on the crap Maddux wheelset that came with my CAAD8. With enough whinging at my LBS and Cannondale I got them to swap the wheels out for Shimano R500s - no problems since.

bigharj

Beat you all 6ft 7in and 20 stones.

My Cube Peloton has a maximum user weight of 275lbs so I need to lose 51lb sharpish. I'm glad to see that my bike came with Shimano R500's and have had no issues with the wheels which was my major concern when choosing a bike (see my earlier posts).