Help me lose some weight (from my bike)

[Kawasicki]

So I bought a new canyon spectral a couple of weeks back....it's great, weighs 13.7 kg with pedals.

My previous and now second bike is a first generation cotic soul. It weights a few hundred grams less than the canyon. That's a gap I would like to increase, on a strict budget....

The frame itself weighs just under 2kg...so it isn't light...but it's not crazy heavy.

Starting with the Wheel set

Ready to ride with tyres, tubes and skewers weigh 4.95 kg - is that very heavy, or not?
Hubs Shimano XT m756
Spokes - no idea..wheels were a merlin cycles build
Rims x321 disc - 32 spokes front and rear
Tyres conti vertical 2.3 (made in India)
Tubes - generic
Discs - magura 180mm front, 160mm rear
Skewers Shimano XT

I appreciate any advice, I am not fully convinced this project makes any sense at all!

Edited by Kawasicki on Friday 16th September 20:38

[neenaw]

Get some decent tubeless tyres like Specialized Ground Control/Fast Trak or some Schwalbes and get them set up tubeless. That'll save a bit of weight and you'll get improved grip as well.

Another easy way to shed weight is to convert to single ring up front. Saves the weight of a chain ring, front mech and shifter all for the cost of a narrow/wide chain ring and a set of chain ring bolts.

[NatAsp]

I'm glad you're not convinced this makes sense, because it really doesn't. Few beers tonight?

[Captain Muppet]

I've saved tiny amounts of weight by rebuilding wheels with aluminium nipples, cutting down bolts, taking off reflectors, using the shortest workible cable routing (which is also the only sensible length), not fitting a bolt to the bottom bracket cable guide (the cables hold it in place once tensioned), removing bar end plugs, tapping a 6mm thread up each end of quick release axles and fitting two short bolts rather than a heavy QR skewer, cutting off excess seat post length and on my first Orange I replaced all the fasteners with titanium the week before it was stolen.

I've never been able to spot the difference from any of it when riding.

None of this is justifiable to a normal person, doubly so given that I'm fat and lazy. It's just something to do to kill time in the garage or bike porn, depending on whether or not you can see the difference. I also don't own a set of scales that would accurately weigh a bicycle.

I've also needlessly increased the weight of bikes by building snowflake spoked wheels (I think they are pretty and quite like building wheels - there is no other reason) and on every single bike I've owned I have bolts in the unused water bottle bosses rather than just leaving the hole empty or taping over it. Dunno why, it just looks wrong without a bolt in it (obviously a cut down aluminium bolt for preference).

[Kawasicki]

So I lost half a kilo from my road bike, just with a set of wheels, fitted with light tyres and tubes.

The reason I mentioned the weight of my wheels is that 5kg seems SUPER heavy to me.

Does anyone have an idea what a ready to ride typical xc wheelset weighs?

[Herman Toothrot]

Get a 2nd hand set of Easton EA70 XL wheels probably pick a set up for £100 as they often come on bikes around the £1500 mark and as off trend being narrow internal diameter 20mm get swapped out, they are super light and seem strong enough, 24 spoke straight pull spokes etc. 1600g a pair, some good tyres for tubeless, Nobby niks or continental X Kings, about 600g each. 2.8kg total fair chunk of weight gone. Feel very fast on my XC bike.


http://www.jensonusa.com/Easton-EA70-XL-275-Wheels...

Edited by Herman Toothrot on Saturday 17th September 11:04

[AndrewEH1]

Take a st before you ride?

But changing to tubeless and a new wheelset will make a big difference!

[Kawasicki]

So, it looks like I can get a wheelset that weighs about 1800g for 200€
Some schwalbe tubeless tyres weigh less than a kilo for the pair.
Discs and mounting hardware is about 200g front, 170g rear.
My existing cassette weight (cs m580) is 330g with locking.


So, including skewers I'm looking at 3.5 ish kg...so a 1.5 kg saving in the wheels alone. Total cost about 300€.

The other big weight loss potential is my front fork, which is a rock shox 351 u-turn...it weighs about 2.2 kg...I can but a much lighter 120mm fork for about 300-400€ and save about 700g.

So in total I can save about 2.2kg...bringing the bike down to about 11kg....which is light enough to actually make it worth keeping as an alternative to the Canyon.

Or do I just bundle the 300€ and 400€ together and just buy a lighter hard tail with that?

[Kawasicki]

Herman Toothrot said:

Get a 2nd hand set of Easton EA70 XL wheels probably pick a set up for £100 as they often come on bikes around the £1500 mark and as off trend being narrow internal diameter 20mm get swapped out, they are super light and seem strong enough, 24 spoke straight pull spokes etc. 1600g a pair, some good tyres for tubeless, Nobby niks or continental X Kings, about 600g each. 2.8kg total fair chunk of weight gone. Feel very fast on my XC bike.


http://www.jensonusa.com/Easton-EA70-XL-275-Wheels...

Edited by Herman Toothrot on Saturday 17th September 11:04

thanks for that...problem is I am limited to 26"...but your idea of buying a light set of second hand wheels is where I am focusing now.

[AndrewEH1]

Kawasicki said:

thanks for that...problem is I am limited to 26"...but your idea of buying a light set of second hand wheels is where I am focusing now.

.#26aintdead

Loads of cheaper used 26" stuff now many have moved upwards!

I'm still riding my 26" Cotic Soul, lovely frame!

Edited by AndrewEH1 on Saturday 17th September 19:26

[gazza285]

Just remove everything that isn't absolutely necessary, my Cannondale 29er weighs 9.1kg. Carbon rigid forks, single speed, tubeless, alloy freewheel etc...

[Watchman]

I have little experience with tubeless tyres but my brother has them on his 10-year old Scott Genius MC Ltd. It was the top of the range when it was released, and the wheels are Mavic Crossmax with bladed spokes with ball-ends that fit into the special hubs. I don't know where the weight is lost the most but those wheels and tyres are supernaturally light.

I keep looking for some on eBay but they always go for top dollar.

[Some Gump]

Just have a big dump.

[Woody]

I got a pair of 12 month old 140mm Fox 32's off eBay for £100 last year.
You should also be able to get some decent wheels - I picked up pair of Superstar carbon 26" AM wheels for £240 in the sale - these weigh 1.6kg.

[pembo]

Why did you buy a whole bike? Wouldn't it have been cheaper to build one from scratch after replacing everything?

[anonymous-user]

i shaved about 2kg from mtb.

lightweight tyres and inner tubes
carbon seat post, lightweight seat, and magnesium pedals.
carbon riser bar.

[daddy cool]

I got some Superstar Components carbon wheels - thread here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Prior to that i had replaced the (heavy) FSA cranks with some glorious carbon cranks (still 2x10).
I have just converted those to single ring (32T) and ripped out the front shifter & derailleur (about 300g).
http://thumbsnap.com/sc/rprBJrUP.jpg
Bike was carbon framed and quite light from the off, and now its 10kg on the nose i think - possibly less. Its very quick to accelerate though. In fact, its an exhausting ride to be honest!

To get even lighter it would be the law of diminishing returns - big cost for XTR rear shifter/derailleur for minimal savings, replacing a decent SID fork for one fractionally lighter for £700... im not THAT bothered about being a weight weenie...