Cyclists have been obsessed with weight for as long as bicycles have existed, and almost any cyclist will tell you they prefer a lighter bike. Lightweight bikes are ideal for speed and performance—the lighter the bicycle, the less effort the rider uses to move it forward.
Lightweight bikes are believed to be better for climbing (where many races are won or lost). Light bikes feel zippy and accelerate quickly. And while aerodynamic drag is often more important than weight in real-world situations, it isn’t something you can quickly assess in your garage or on the sales floor at your local bike shop. Plus, a lightweight bike is a status symbol in cycling culture.
Cycling’s international governing body (the UCI) dictates that “The weight of the bicycle cannot be less than 6.8 kilograms.” The UCI put this rule (Article 1.3.019) in place in 2000, an era when bicycle brands were shifting from steel and aluminum frames to carbon fiber and there was much skepticism about the safety of bikes being used in the pro peloton.
Testing standards and manufacturing practices have greatly improved over the past two decades. Bikes got safer and faster, and the weights of race bikes still dropped. And while technology such as disc brakes and aero frames added weight, many brands can now easily build production bicycles weighing less than 6.8kg (14.99 lb).
However, lightweight bikes and parts are problematic for many cyclists, since they often come with low rider weight limits—as I discovered firsthand when I snapped a seat stay on a Cervélo R5-CX frame in late 2023.
The break occurred while using the bike for its intended purpose (racing cyclocross) and Cervélo promptly dispatched a warranty frame. I received the replacement frame approximately two weeks later and began rebuilding the bike. But while flipping through the pages of the owner’s manual I came upon a detail I had overlooked when I assembled the original frame: the R5-CX has a 194-pound rider weight limit.
Though I do not consider myself a large person, I exceed this model’s weight rating by about 15 pounds. And I come close to or surpass the maximum weight limit on many frames and cycling components. So do many other cyclists across the country.
“Lightweight components are great but are often unusable for the 74 percent of Americans who live in bigger bodies, due to prohibitively low weight limits,” explained Marley Blonsky. As co-founder of All Bodies on Bikes, Blonsky advocates for size inclusion in cycling by creating a welcoming community at events. She also works with brands to improve bikes, equipment, and clothing to fit and withstand use by bigger-bodied riders.
The R5-CX is a cyclocross race bike designed with the brand’s top athletes in mind, so perhaps a low weight limit should be expected. However, it took some digging to find the bike’s maximum weight limit. It was a side quest many buyers probably will not undertake. This isn’t meant to call out Cervélo as the brand is not an outlier here—many bicycle and component manufacturers make weight limit information difficult or impossible to find. (Kudos to Trek and Scott for listing system weight limits in their bike specifications).
When a SRAM representative informed me, “There is no rider weight limit” for the new Red group, I sought to build the lightest possible road race bike with no rider weight restriction. Equipped with a list of frames raced by the women’s and men’s World Tour teams, I contacted many brands that sold bikes in the U.S., requesting their frame weights and maximum rider weight limits. And, of those who replied, none had frames without a weight limit.
I selected Cannondale’s SuperSix Evo LAB71. Raced by the EF Education-EasyPost team, the 58cm frame I received weighs 837 grams and boasts a 285-pound maximum system weight (rider, bike, and gear). This limit leaves about 267 pounds for a rider and gear after accounting for two full bottles, a cycling computer, and the UCI minimum bike weight. I went with the 1,257-gram Reserve 34|37 wheels used by Team Visma-Lease a Bike since, per the brand’s website FAQs, “Reserve wheels do not have rider weight limits”.
The completed bike weighs 15.75 pounds with 30mm wide Vittoria Corsa Pro tires, an alloy bar and stem, and 160mm rotors. While the build is over the UCI’s minimum weight by nearly a pound, it is still quite light and I feel confident the bike will withstand my training and racing. However, many cyclists who exceed the 285-pound combined weight threshold—the highest in the category—also want high-performance bikes.
To grow cycling and get more people onto bikes, it’s incumbent on brands to make equipment that fits more riders—not just in budget or height, but also weight. As Blonsky noted, “While not all of us are performance-minded and looking for the lightest components, for those who are, we need options that are both lightweight and strong, and that can accommodate higher-weight riders.”
Product development cycles can take many years, so I don’t expect weight limits to increase in only one or two seasons. However, bicycle and component manufacturers can start by being more transparent about the maximum weight limits on their products. Be upfront with bike shops and riders about the weights and limitations of products to allow cyclists to make better decisions about the gear they buy with their hard-earned money.
As Deputy Editor, Tara Seplavy leads Bicycling’s product test team; after having previously led product development and sourcing for multiple bike brands, run World Championship winning mountain bike teams, wrenched at renowned bicycle shops in Brooklyn, raced everything from criteriums to downhill, and ridden bikes on six different continents (landing herself in hospital emergency rooms in four countries and counting). Based in Easton, Pennsylvania, Tara spends tons of time on the road and trail testing products. A familiar face at cyclocross races, crits, and bike parks in the Mid Atlantic and New England, on weekends she can often be found racing for the New York City-based CRCA/KruisCX team. When not riding a bike, or talking about them, Tara listens to a lot of ska, punk, and emo music, and consumes too much social media.
