Help me shed some weight!

beanieripper

I would like to shed some weight off my bike without loosing to much strength, im thinking I could loose some on wheels/tyres and possibly cranks/bb/pedals... and suggestions welcome. currently running S/C Chameleon 07/08 (M), rs revelation coil u turn, king headset, thompson stem & post, o/s ea70 bars, bel air ti saddle, saint brakes, 09 xt running gear, raceface prodigy cranks & fsa isis bb, v12 peds, wheels are merlin built mavic f219 on 36 hole xt hubs with plain guage spokes, tyres are conti verticals. These wheels have been great and i love em but im not sure if im carrying a bit too much weight with them, im only 10.5 stone and ride xc hard and some trail centre stuff, few drops but nothing crazy.... i've never once put them out of true..could i save some weight on my wheels? If so I dont knowwhich rims to go for......

gezzza

Best place to save weight is the wheels
you can get MTB wheels that are sub 1Kg for the pair but they are race day only and will cost you and arm, leg and a kidney.

Sub 1.5Kg is light and at the upper end strong enough for XC drops starting from £400 ish

While you are changing wheels you should think about going tubeless saves a few grams and no more punchers.

nicklouse

i would leave it as it is as the only thing i would have done is have the wheel built with BD spokes as you get a lighter and stronger wheel.

tyres and tubes. folding tyres and light weight tubes.

Dirtydog11

A set of Easton carbon bars and some MG1 pedals will save you around 250grams over your current setup.

Fit a set of Halo Hex bolts (60 grams) instead of quick release and a pair of Conti MTB light tubes (250 grams a pair).

Those 4 items will save you just under half a Kilo.

You could save weight on the wheels as XT hubs are not the lightest in the world but you would have to spend quite a bit of money to get a pair that are going to be significanlty lighter.

Something like these
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... lset-28683
will probably save you 500-600 grams or more!

Andy

gezzza wrote:

Best place to save weight is the wheels
you can get MTB wheels that are sub 1Kg for the pair

Are you sure?!? Considering a superlight front wheel will be 600-700g I think you are a bit hopeful there!

Wheels you could save a fair bit of weight and still keep strength by going DT Swiss or Hope hubs on competition spokes attached to something like a mavic 719 rim and you'd have a strong and pretty light wheelset!

The next obvious thing would be to go for an air fork instead of coil which would save a fair amount of weight. Otherwise just change stuff as it breaks!

gezzza

andrew156 wrote:

gezzza wrote:

Best place to save weight is the wheels
you can get MTB wheels that are sub 1Kg for the pair

Are you sure?!? Considering a superlight front wheel will be 600-700g I think you are a bit hopeful there!

!

yes im sure

Innolite rims, Extralite hubs and Ti spokes weight would be around 980g for the pair

and 600-700g for a front wheel isnt super light that would be a 1400-1600g wheel set

Andy

Touche! Can you link me to the Ti spokes please? 100g a wheel sounds amazing?!

Although a 600g wheel is likely to be accompanied by a 700g rear so not quite 1600g :P

robertpb

Well if I were 10.5 stone I would be heavy at 5'5", I'm 9st 10lbs

I decided a long time ago just to get fitter with the bike weight I have, you don't say how heavy your bike is.

You can spend a lot of hard earned cash shaving a few grams off a bike.

My full susser weighs the same weight my custom built bike weighed 23 years ago so I haven't shaved any weight there, then I'm the same weight as 40 years ago.

The only difference is I'm faster than 23 years ago.

supersonic

Saint brakes will be hiding some lard too.

Definitely chuck the pedals, 30 quid for MG1 and a third of a pound saved in a stroke.

nicklouse

I would never run Ti spokes they feel like crap and Ti is not a good spoke material.

just noticed the cranks and BB

lose them.

supersonic

Original XT disc hubs were very heavy too - which I assume he has since running a 219

gezzza

andrew156 wrote:

Touche! Can you link me to the Ti spokes please? 100g a wheel sounds amazing?!

Although a 600g wheel is likely to be accompanied by a 700g rear so not quite 1600g :P

Ti Spokes

http://www.marwiusa.com/default.aspx?ci ... 4&taxid=34
http://www.pillarspoke.com/product.asp? ... pagesize=3
http://www.sapim.be/index.php?st=produc ... etail=aero

nicklouse

gezzza
and the last are not Ti

supersonic

Think I'd stick with DT Revs at 140g per wheel (av 32, 260mm) for a lightweight XC wheel!

Andy

Not quite as light as you claimed then pllus surely with the weight saved by ti spokes you negate by having to run brass nipples where as with alloy spokes you can use alloy nipples?

Chilesy

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/mountain- ... heels.html

gezzza

andrew156 wrote:

Not quite as light as you claimed then pllus surely with the weight saved by ti spokes you negate by having to run brass nipples where as with alloy spokes you can use alloy nipples?

hubs 227g for the pair



Rims 510g for the pair


alloy nipples 56 = 20g


that leaves 223g for 56 spokes

Andy

Ok but he needs disc hubs.

supersonic

You can get lighter 135 non disc hubs than that (tune). Can't see them lasting though.

bomberesque

to echo the above and roughly in the order of value per gramme saved (do people still call it the hairsine ratio?);

• Tyres/tubes (you don't say what you're using but potentially 200 gr per wheel switching from Maxxis HR 2.35 to Nobby Nic 2.25 for example, plus 100-150 gr per wheel switching from decathlon specials to Maxxis flyweight innertubes)
• Pedals
• wheels. I guess our current wheels are 2-2.2kg. 300 quid you can shed 1/2 kilo off those with Easton XC1s or Hope XC3s (or carefully chosen handbuilts)
• cranks I suppose your current set up weighs either 900 or 1100 gr depending on whether you have the XC or DH version of the prodigy (for triple ring). Shimano XT wil run about 850 and be stiffer so worth it if you have the DH crank.
• Skewers (DD is right, I have tit allenkey skewers on my SS and the difference compared to Shimano ones is surprising)
• brakes not sure but I'd bet XTR are a good 300 gr lighter than Saints for the pair

I got a deal from Merlin on Easton XC1s (1600gr wheels) and XTR brakes (dunno how light, but light) for 500 which I am happy with. The wheels are really quite stiff and while not super light, you need to spend quite a bit more to get a lot lighter. Hope XC3s, however, are lighter (1800 incl discs according to weigthweenies iirc) and the same money due to the 3 bolt disc, but I think the same overall weight can be achieved with XC1s and Hope floating (alu carrier) discs. Up your budget and Stans olympics on American classic hubs can be had from JRA for about GBP 530 at a claimed weight of 1350gr with the added bonus of being tubeless. Lighter than that as far as I could find you're talking big money and/or short lifespen. Some of teh new carbon wheelsets are claiming 1100gr in stiff strong wheels as I recall but they're >1000 GBP so for early adopters / subsidised riders / bike shop owners only fr the time being I guess

/edit oh, and do more/ eat less, of course

/edit2 bah what am I thinking! SC Camaleon has EBB; convert to SS!

Big dave 3

This is an interesting thread!

I am in a similar position where I have done the obvious weight saving upgrades but now left with the fork & wheels to do next.

I am very ignorant concerning wheels so I do not know much about the different types.

I currently have Alex EN24 rims (450g/rim) with shimano deore disc hubs (245g/front & 449g/rear). I am unsure about spokes. These are the standard wheels that my Cube team ltd came with.

I am guessing that these wheels are not great!

Would the Easton XC ONE wheels be a big improvement in performance & weight? I do mainly roads & light cross country.

bomberesque

Big dave 3

there are lots of other options, the Easton XC Ones were just the choice I made looking at what was on the market at the time

That said, yes, I believe you would see a noticable difference in performance and weight with these wheels compared to the workmanlike (meaning nothing wrong with them but a bit heavy) wheels you have now. strip the wheels down and put them on a scale to really see the weight, but i expect 2.2kg+ for the pair (excluding tyres and tubes, QR, Cassette and rotors). XC Ones (and others at this pricepoint) run nearer 1500gr the pair. This is a significant saving, especially where the saving is to the spokes and rims. The XC Ones are also a very stiff wheel which may or may not be an improvement over what you have now.

Big dave 3

Thank you for the advice!

So would this be money well spent in your opinion?


Are there other better value options then? I like the idea of these wheels as they come as a package. I dont need to decide what rims/spokes etc to choose :oops:

bomberesque

the internet is a big place, it's always possible to find a better deal. I got mine from Merlin and they seem pretty good value. Otherwise, Supersonic ordered a pair of quite unbelievably specc'd wheels from the Wolly hat shop which were 1950gr incl skewers (which would be about 1800 excl) iirc for 90quid.

Personally I am happy with the money I spent on these wheels.

Andy

If you are doing light XC get yourself a set of wheels made up with Mavic xc717 rims and DT Swiss revolution spokes on the best hubs you can afford.

Big dave 3

Would the above wheels with say hope pro 2 hubs be better than the Easton wheels then?

This is when I get confused! The talk of the different rims, spokes & hubs etc :?

Bighead

sub 1kg wheelset:

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=61342&start=15

Those rims look interesting. I read somewhere that DT were bring out a lighter carbon rim than the XRC330 in 2010 so I was waiting for that. But those rims are much lighter. I will probably stick with DT though.

The Spiderman

These are a bargain:http://www.lexs.co.uk/acatalog/Hope_Pro_2__Pair_.html
Pro 2 with ZTR 355 rims would be my choice,sub 1700g ,strong and easy tubeless conversion.

HandjobDan

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it, but if you went for Clipless pedals you'd save even more weight than the MG1's, also help you to tune up new MTB skills, like spinning and proper form when pedalling.