Water Bottle Weight

Yossie wrote:

On the training bike I carry two large water bottles full of damp sand - approx 3.2 kgs each. Its an arzzze when you first start doing it (start with 1, then two) but after a couple of weeks you don't notice it.

Work supplied the bottles to everyone as an incentive to drink more water but they are shhyyyyyte and leak so I stole some more and filled them with sand instead.

When you jump back on the good bike you will fly as not only have you dumped nigh on 6kg of sand but you've also dumped all the training bike weight as well. You can then factor in all the efficiencies from having the good groupset, wheels etc as well.

The handy thing about doing this as well is that if you are having an off day then you can take the sand off, as opposed to running just a really heavy bike.

When you add the winter lights and all that jazz it all helps as well.

When overtaking all the all the gear/no idea dudes up hills and they make comments about "ooh, your bike must be well light" you can either a) hit them with a bottle of sand or b) just point them out. Always an ego boost and worth an extra 2mph top end.

Racing: carry two, drink them as you need them - to an extent you can't hydrate enough.