Maximum weight on a hybrid?

branners69

Hey,

I have a Dawes Discovery 501 hybrid bike which I used to cycle a lot, but over the past few years I have piled on the pounds. I am 18 stone now and am wondering do I need to loose a stone or two before I get back on the bike or do I just need to be careful and avoid the pot holes and kerbs?

Thanks,

Branners

lennymc

i was 17.5 stone on a carbon race bike so i would imagine you should be ok.

Beasty

I was nearly 20 stone when I started on my hybrid a few years ago - there are plenty around here who are probably not that far off 18 stone who ride racing bikes without any problem. You'll be fine on the hybrid. Still, hopefully it will encourage you to lose a bit of that weight;)

It's always worth taking a bit of care to avoid the potholes and kerbs mind, whatever your weight ...

Tonyandthewhale

What are you doing riding over kerbs anyway? Stay on the road, don't be tempted by those dodgy off-road cycle-lanes.

njburke

I had a similar concern before I bought my hybrid. In the end I went for a Trek 7.5FX partly because the manufacturer had at least published a maximum rider weight recommendation of 300lbs. It does have 32 spoke wheels though, not sure whether they'll hold up in the long term, given the rough state of some of the roads around Kildare.

Squidgy Black

What would be advised is rims with more spokes eg. 32, and tires as wide as you can fit on the bike.

Harrybelafonte

Like the others here I was heavy when I started, almost 20 stone. Don't worry too much about it, just don't jump kerbs and try and avoid potholes. I started on an old 90s MTB with a decent spoke count and big tyres. I only broke a spoke once and that was from hitting a kerb and not minding tyre inflation.

jaqian

Not a problem. Just inflate the tyres to full pressure or like use to happen to me was it looked like the bike had two flat tyres.

tomasrojo

I broke the rear axle on my hybrid numerous times, but that would be because of combined weight of me and baggage (about 110kg, 83+25 or so) and the rear wheel having a freewheel. The Discovery has a freehub, so it should be fine for that sort of weight.

branners69

Thanks for all the replies!

Am looking forward to getting back out and about!

kumate_champ07

No problem on an steel frame, you'll need to keep the rear tyre at 120psi if its 23mm, top it up every week. With a heavy backpack I sometimes feel the rear tyre 'bottoming out' on a kerb or pothole, im around 18stone myself.
for heavy duty wheels you could have 36h front and rear built with dt swiss spokes and some kind of 22-24mm wide rim(mavic a119/319, sun cr18, rigida sputnik) that will take a 25/28mm tyre and ride comfortable but still fast. Shimano 105 or ultegra or novatec/taiwanese hubs

njburke

36 h would have been my preference, one of the Giant rapids I looked at had even fewer spokes than that.
Anyway the problem diminishes with distance cycled, currently at a rate of 1Kg per 100KM for me, I'm down 6Kg for 600KMs with a bit of rationing on the grub.
However the bike gets heavier with distance cycled (bottle, spares, carrier, SPD pedals and leather saddle).

Good luck with the Dawes, I have a steel dawes tourer from the late 80's which I'm going to give a bit of a restore.

Niall