Purchases that save weight

icarus

If I wanted to cut some weight from my Orange P7 what would be the best things to spend money on?

I'm thinking the obvious things like wheels and forks but is it worth changing things like seat posts/stem/pedals to carbon or magnesium versions - would it make much difference?

What upgrade would people most like to do?

The Spiderman

I have made loads of upgrades on my bike,everything but the frame and headset.The most beneficial,weight saving measure,one that I could actually feel was swapping to lighter tyres.

Very cost effective too,on a £ per gram basis.I saved over 500g on my bike,by swapping tyres alone.

Wheels are a good place to save weight too,but can get expensive,as can forks.You can expect to save at least 250g -500g on each.

You can save weight from anywhere on a bike,but some areas are more noiticeable than others,and some are more cost effective.A cheap weight saving measure is very often the cassette.150g weight saving can often be achieved by swapping to something like an XT cassettte.

Also think twice about going too light if you are heavy or ride aggressively.
With the P7 having a tough,but heavy frame,you are always going to be resticted on just how light you can go.(Some would say the most effective weight saving measure would be a new frame!)

On a P7 I would go for light but tough kit.Wheels,like Hope Pro 2s with Mavic 719s with Conti Mountain King tyres which are versatile and light but tough.

You could go for Easton EC70 carbon bars,and a Thomson post,too.Both are light but strong.Each of these would save 100g or so depending on what you aready have.

It does get to the point though,where,its cheaper to buy lighter bike to begin with!

What spec is your P7 and what/where do you ride?

supersonic

As usual, a very good post from Spidy. The emphasis with the P7s off the peg build is strength rather than light weight, hence the fork and frame are a bit heavier than the average. And it being steel, you add a bit more on compared to say a Kinesis Pha5e. Also, as all the parts are fairly balanced, to drop the weight significantly will mean a wholsesale change of many parts.

Anonymous

i got rid of my p7 after a few different spec changes as it is just a heavy bike no matter how you look at it.

i figured the bigest advantage to a hardtail was lightweight and in that department, the p7 didnt cut it.

they weigh in at over 30 pounds and at the time, my stumpy was 26.5 so i was miles better of with the latter.

tyres is the best place to save weight and the weight saved here is worth twice as much as anywhere else on the bike. as mentioned before though, you can get too light.

changing stems and seat posts can save a feww hundred grams but ends up being quite pricey to do it.

icarus

sheepsteeth wrote:

i got rid of my p7 after a few different spec changes as it is just a heavy bike no matter how you look at it.

Good point well made.

In effect I'm trying to side step the very reason I chose a P7, which was because its a sturdy piece of kit.
I wanted something that would cope with all sorts of abuse, I ride mainly girly stuff on canal toepaths and lights trails but every now and then me and a mate go and find some gnarly stuff and go a bit silly, its not unknown for us to use the bmx track for jumps, we're both motocrossers.

I did have the standard speedkings on that are very light but swapped them for Bontrager kevlar triple lined tyres because I kept getting punctures.

I think the smart answer here is learn to live with it or buy a lighter bike.
Maybe I'll save up and treat myself to a titanium frame for xmas.

Thanks all.

partyboy1101

Surely its better to make your bike heavier.....you'll be getting a better workout and will end up being fit as a butchers dog!!!!

supersonic

Or just ride further to get fit! And see more trails ;-)

Matteeboy

Managed to lighten my steel Stumpy (1997) a fair bit.

Lighter stem, saddle and seatpost.
Lighter front mech and crankset.
Lighter tyres and tubes.

Similar to my 2007 ally Stumpy - around 25lbs.

Thewaylander

could replace the frame for summat lighter,

get rid of the beefcake orange hehe

Splasher

My hardtail weighs about 26lbs and it would need a large investement to get it any lighter.

Conversely, I have about 14lb of surplus weight currently accumulated around my kidneys which I could get rid of without spending anything.

Father Faff

Icarus I thought you were stinking rich what with your BMWs and IWC watches so why not just get a hardcore Titanium hardtail like a Cove Hummer or the new Linksys.

toasty

Assuming it's a Pro specced one, they're pretty sensibly specced for what its for anyway.

You could swap the coil forks for floats/revs, saving about 300g.
Swap the cassette for an XT one for about 150g.
The 2.3 folding Speed Kings are apparently 560g each already, you could lower that weight with narrow tyres but it wouldn't really make much sense if you go too far.
A new wheelset won't do much either, Pro IIs with Comp spokes and speed disc rims are pretty decent anyway, if you swap to narrow rims you'll have trouble with the 2.3mm tyres.

You could knock a lot of but you'll change it into a lightweight XC bike wanna-be.


PS: I've got a tractor and I want to race it around Nürburgring, what would you guys suggest? :P

god1406

Toasty wrote:

PS: I've got a tractor and I want to race it around Nürburgring, what would you guys suggest? :P

tehehe.

My Kona and Marin weigh 30lbs each, whenever I ride anything lighter, like the Eldridge Grade, it feels like it's going to collapse under me (not that I'm heavy or anything)

I'd rather be spinning along thinking ''I'm indessttruucctttablleee'', than have a niggling feeling in the back of my mind that anything I do is going to result in something breaking.

Orange P7's are dam nice bikes!