£250ish to lose weight..help me make the right decision

Ffluff

Evening All,

My hardtail is an 05 Giant XTC 2 hardtail. The fork is the 80mm Bomber (not sure on the weight) and the wheels are formula xero hubs/element discs (about 2100g).

I've been thinking for a while about changing the wheels and the fork to achieve as significant weight reduction as possible and to deal with parts that are now wearing out.

I've got about £250 to start with and guess the wheels will make the biggest impact on weight to start with.. what do you think? I'm looking at Mavic Crosstrails - any thoughts?

Any advice gratefully received

Cheers

Amos

Not an expert on wheels weights, but also remember to consider your tyres. At one point I was using some heavy Maxxis tyres and swapped them for some lighter Conti's which shaved nearly 1.5lbs in weight, and as its rotational weight its even more noticable.

supersonic

Id do the fork first - ie a reba, should save 1lb. Are crosstrail that much lighter?

Dazzza

I was going to suggest the same, bombers are quite heavy forks, then move onto wheels/chainset, those will net you the biggest gains.

Ffluff

thanks guys, that all makes sense..

i'll be honest, i really fancy the Crosstrails but I think they come in at around 1830g and that gives me a saving of about 250g vs the current wheelset

if I can get a weight saving on the fork and get an improvement in control then that's the best upgrade at this stage - wheels can come in the new year

sooooo... its a reba then (100mm) over the 80mm bomber)??

Anonymous

i used to have the crosstrails and they were the business of a wheelset. next time i buy a bike and its wheels need changing, they are exactly what i will buy.

as mentioned before, the best (and i do mean best) way to save weight is to look at tyres, often, a good pound or so can be shaved by fitting the same tyre but in either a more suitable size or better version (oem tyres tend to be tonkversions of good tyres)

i like high rollers in 2.1, very light, quick and grippy. Ignitors are good too but i havent used anything other than the very skinny 1.95

next i would look at forks and again, as said before, you cant go wrong with a reba, its not original/unusual but the reason they are so well recommended and widespread is because they are the business, i have had 2 sets on 2 different bikes and they are awesome, the top versions feel the same as the lower price ones so im not certain it is worth getting anything better than the sl. i reckon that would employ your 250 quid pretty well

hodgey68

could do worse than going for something like this for £250 ish

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/gt/ ... e-ec000664

Anonymous

hodgey68 wrote:

could do worse than going for something like this for £250 ish

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/gt/ ... e-ec000664

i doubt that will save him any weight

johnsav

hahahaha

Ffluff

am running michelin drys but am gonna switch over to nobby nics or i've got a pair of bonty mud x's which i like.. i'll see how that, coupled with the new fork does me until i can afford the wheels!

cheers for the advice - i think the fork change is the way forward

The Spiderman

I have Rebas on my XTC.Work really well,and combined with some lighter wheels and tyres,you can make an XTC into a very fast bike.
I`m running XT/717 wheels with a Nobby Nic and Racing Ralph tyre on each end.
BTW I bought my Reba SLs for £150 secondhand and my wheels for £80.I got £100 back on the old forks and wheels,so only £130 to upgrade.
Have a look on the STW forum classifieds.

ragtop

Best way off taking weight off the bike is to walk alongside!!!!!!!!!

Carlos13

I asked a similar question a while ago. I was told to drill holes in the frame. No more detail than that. So I had a think and drilled some strategic holes at various points, particularly around the welds where there is loads of material. First ride out, the front end of the bike became completely detached. I reckon it saved me about 8 lbs.