[TurboTurtle]

For the discussion on another thread about shifting your weight back and braking, I put my race bike on the trainer with the front wheel on the bathroom scale. My normal riding position in the hoods had about 85 lbs on the front wheel. The bike and I weigh about 220, so that's about 40/60 for front/rear. Good? Bad? I always feel light at the front when I corner and lean forward to weight the front wheel - TF

 

[bikeboy389]

How much drop do you have? I would think that would make a big difference--if you have a lot of drop, 40/60 front/rear seems light in front. If your bars are high, not so much so.

 

[asgelle]

For the discussion on another thread about shifting your weight back and braking, I put my race bike on the trainer with the front wheel on the bathroom scale. My normal riding position in the hoods had about 85 lbs on the front wheel. The bike and I weigh about 220, so that's about 40/60 for front/rear. Good? Bad? I always feel light at the front when I corner and lean forward to weight the front wheel - TF

Did you level the bike?

 

[TurboTurtle]

Did you level the bike?

Yes. - TF

 

[spyro]

seems like I remember reading that was about normal, but ive been wrong before...

 

[steelbikerider]

weight distribution

an old school bike book (Hinault, CONI?) said that it should be 45% front, 55% rear but I haven't seen anything in the last few years about it.

 

[elvisVerde]

It is not a surprise that bikes are normally rear-biased...

insofar as you are sitting on a tube just an inch in front of the wheel. If you have long heavy legs, that is a significant bias. I don't think that there is any point at which an average rider reaches a dysfunctional rearward bias. I think that a rider with even a somewhat upright stance can manuever their machine without undue problems.

When you corner do you put your weight on the outside pedal? When I corner, I often put what seems like all of my weight in 2 places: the outside pedal and the outside handlebar contact point. But I don't shift my body forward, nor do I lean forward, but I do pressure that bar heavily. I have no weight on the saddle or the inside pedal.

I didn't see the thread that you are referring to, but I have seen the rearward slide technique used in pro road racing, and I practice it regularly on my mountain bike. It works.

For the discussion on another thread about shifting your weight back and braking, I put my race bike on the trainer with the front wheel on the bathroom scale. My normal riding position in the hoods had about 85 lbs on the front wheel. The bike and I weigh about 220, so that's about 40/60 for front/rear. Good? Bad? I always feel light at the front when I corner and lean forward to weight the front wheel - TF

 

[David Kirk]

That sounds about right.

Dave

 

[spyro]

I didn't see the thread that you are referring to, but I have seen the rearward slide technique used in pro road racing, and I practice it regularly on my mountain bike. It works.

He he he, I have gotten so far off the back on a steep drop on my mtb that my butt hits my rear wheel! But thats a whole different can of worms.

To be honest I spent so much time sliding my mtb around that when I corner a road bike all i can do is be amazed how well it hooks up and ripps those corners.

 

[Mark McM]

Weight distribution measurements

For the discussion on another thread about shifting your weight back and braking, I put my race bike on the trainer with the front wheel on the bathroom scale. My normal riding position in the hoods had about 85 lbs on the front wheel. The bike and I weigh about 220, so that's about 40/60 for front/rear. Good? Bad? I always feel light at the front when I corner and lean forward to weight the front wheel - TF

I'm not surprised that you haven't gotten many quantitative answers. Cyclists like to to have endless discussions on things like weight distrubution, and throw around numbers like "45/55" or "40/60", but very few have taken the time to actual due some quick and easy measurements.

For what it's worth, I have done a similar measurement to what you have, and had a total weight of 188 lb., and weight on front wheel of 75 lb., for a 39.9%/60.1% front/rear weight distribution. Since the bike had a 98cm wheel base, that put the c.g. 59.0cm behind the front wheel/ 39.1cm in front of the rear wheel. Since the bike has 41.5cm chainstays (and a 6.5cm drop), that puts the c.g. about 2cm behind the center of the BB.