Buying guide: Road bikes for heavy riders - XXL: The right road bike for riders over 90 kilos

As a former rower and strength athlete, TOUR reader Andreas Schumann, 57, from Möglingen, has considerably more muscle than the typical endurance athlete: he measures two metres and weighs 125 kilograms. He has already worn out four frames, each of which only lasted around 7,000 kilometres. Cracks appeared three times, mostly in the seat tube area, and once a frame suddenly broke above the bottom bracket and caused a fall.

Schumann is not an isolated case. There are many stories on racing bike forums about how the mass and strength of their riders limit the durability of delicate bikes. Schumann's frames were replaced without any problems or he even got his money back, but knowing that the bike could collapse at any time does not exactly inspire confidence. After extensive research, Schumann therefore entrusted himself to titanium specialist Miles, who commissioned a customised frame from Seven in the USA and selected the add-on parts for him. "With the 50 millimetre thick down tube, the bike stands like a rock," says Peter Hinterlang from Miles.

It is now Schumann's bike for the mountains. On flat terrain, he uses a Colnago C59 with a frame height of 65, purchased on the recommendation of a bike dealer. Colnago itself is not so optimistic and writes in the small print of its bikes that the frames must be individually reinforced if the rider is heavier than 90 kilograms. Unfortunately, Colnago was unable to tell us what limits apply to such reinforced frames when we asked them.

The small print

Colnago is no exception. Most manufacturers hide their weight limits, if they specify any, in the small print of the operating instructions. This makes the search for a resilient piece of sports equipment an obstacle course. Why don't manufacturers simply add the restrictions that apply to their bikes to the technical data? As a result of our research, we suspect that many of them don't know themselves or prefer not to address the issue ...

One positive exception is the mail-order company Canyon. Their website clearly states that the maximum permissible load - rider plus clothing and any rucksack - is 120 kilograms. So the limit for the rider is up to 115 kilograms, depending on use, which is a bit above average. The Koblenz-based mail order company also has large frames for cyclists over two metres tall, which are also rare. And even better: Canyon tests in its own in-house test laboratory; not just random samples of certain of its own carbon parts but all specimens are checked in a computer tomograph. The manufacturer's six-year guarantee on the frame and fork is also a strong argument for heavy cyclists.

So far, so exemplary. Nevertheless, Canyon is obviously also afraid of its own courage, because the 120-kilo weight limit is nevertheless accompanied by a footnote stating that add-on parts and wheels may reduce the limit.

You can find the entire buying guide below as a PDF download with these topics:

• ISO standard 4210 is not enough
• At the limit: wheels
• Aluminium, carbon, steel or titanium frame?
• Are brakes with 160 mm discs sufficient?
• Which components are strong enough (bottom bracket, seat posts, wheels, handlebars and stems)?

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