Bike weight limit
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bikingpanda
Posts: 68 Member
Hello,
When I was a much more active (thinner) member and rider, I purchased a trek 3700 mountain bike and later on a Fuji Roubaix Road bike. After some time and life happened, I am now at my heaviest pushing in at 370 and I am looking at getting into the swing of things. I know the Road bike is probably going to sit because it has carbon fork. The mountain bike does have a suspension, but worry I might put to much stress on it even for road use. My question is should I be concerned with my weight and the current bike line up? Or should I look into getting a cheap FX series or steel frame bike that is more rigid to support my weight?
When I was a much more active (thinner) member and rider, I purchased a trek 3700 mountain bike and later on a Fuji Roubaix Road bike. After some time and life happened, I am now at my heaviest pushing in at 370 and I am looking at getting into the swing of things. I know the Road bike is probably going to sit because it has carbon fork. The mountain bike does have a suspension, but worry I might put to much stress on it even for road use. My question is should I be concerned with my weight and the current bike line up? Or should I look into getting a cheap FX series or steel frame bike that is more rigid to support my weight?
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IMO biggest concern is the wheels and spokes. I think my highest weight was 315 and I rode an aluminum MTB and the spokes were the only problem I ever had.0
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IMO biggest concern is the wheels and spokes. I think my highest weight was 315 and I rode an aluminum MTB and the spokes were the only problem I ever had.
This ^^^
but, it's still possible to get something that'll cope - I've a pair of wheels on my MTB that were built to cope with my weight at around 165kg, but not just for riding on the road - they also coped with off-road in the Lake District and Peak District trails in the UK (think hard, rocky descents, water-bars across 1 in 4 downhill trails, fields of "baby-heads" rocks... i.e. bloody tough conditions) - they're effectively a lightweight MTB Tandem-Build (i.e. over-spec rims and spokes, 36H large flange Hubs, 3-cross spoking (tied and soldered) on 26" rims and Shimano XT disk hubs)... BUT they're tougher than a hybrid concoction of Jens Voigt and Chuck Norris, they're so tough, they've even out-lasted Lemmy! And I can, hand on heart, state that in over 15,000 miles - I've never broken a single spoke in any of them - had to occasionally re-true the wheel when I've done something REALLY stupid, but that's it.
Frames - I'd be tempted to get a good solid (preferably steel) "hybrid" of some sort if you can find one that runs 26" MTB wheels (they're inherently tougher than either 29'ers (i.e. 700c) or 27.5" ones...) - none of this suspension fork bollocks - anything under £600 for a pair of forks WON'T Cope with the weight you're putting on them - elastomer based ones will split and fail - sprung ones will collapse and die, and air-sprung ones will need such a high pressure to cope with the "sag" they'll probably end up blowing their seals. Get a rigid front fork, until you drop 150lb or so, then swap at that point - or better still - throw the old one on ebay and get whatever you can for it, but DON'T sell it to anyone you care about... because it'll be knackered by the time you sell it.
But so what - if you kill off a $1500 bike, and lose 150-200lb, it'll be the best investment you'll have ever made.
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IMO I'd say it completely depends on where you are riding. Realistically I don't think at that weight you should be doing anything that will put stress on the bike, even going up a curb. As has been previously said, it's the wheels. Personally I'd aim to get below 320 or so before attempting. I'm pretty sure the expensive part of your bike (the frame) will handle your weight, spokes are pennies to replace.0
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spokes are pennies to replace.
If you know how to do it yourself, yes. If you have to take a wheel into the shop, think of it this way...
1 day riding lost taking wheel into shop, plus minimum of 1 hour labour for the spoke fitting - say £20 + £1 (or more depending on if you're (sensibly) buying sapim/dt swiss rather than no-name monkey metal garbage) per spoke
soon pays for a cassette remover tool and spoke key, but of course, the knowledge of how to use them to refit and re-true the wheel is priceless...
IMHO of course, but then I did learn to build wheels 37 years ago...
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I have a friend who weighed similar weight when he started riding. He bought a Specialized Roubaix all carbon bike. He went through two sets of wheels before he finally got a set that held his weight. He still rides the bike 7 years later after losing all the weight. Carbon can hold the weight. As said before, it is the spokes.0
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as per my understanding, just check with bike dealer and let him helps you on selecting bike or tires.
As per Merida road bike it states on " user manual" max load for Bike+Rider is 120 kg.
However, on Trek bike Mountain bike I haven't seen any info.0
