How to lose weight cheapest?

JamesBrckmn

I am trying to get my bike to weigh a bit less, as at the moment it's just under 13kg/28.6lb, which is heavy for a 100mm hardtail. It's a Rockrider 5xc: http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/rockrider-5-xc-disc-34964379/

andrewjoseph

the cheapest way to lose weight is to buy less food.

how much do you want to spend? Look at wheels, tyres, crankset, cassette, seatpost, handlebars, pedals, stem, chain, shifters, deraileurs,.

In more or less that order.

The most noticeable weight difference straight away is tyres/wheels. it's going to cost a lot to reduce weight all over the bike by a significant factor, and might even be cheaper to buy a lighter bike.

I don't bother looking for lightweight parts now, reliable is more important for me. You get used to the weight, it's difficult to get used to a bent wheel.

RealMan

go on a diet, take a dump before riding, get rid of anything on the bike you don't need (eg: cassette, chainrings, saddle, seatpost, front brake, mechs, reflectors), lighter tyres and tubes will make a difference, but its probably those wheels that could use an upgrade.

blister pus

JamesBrckmn wrote:

just under 13kg/28.6lb, which is heavy for a 100mm hardtail.

It's not. It's a decent weight for the price, I'd say better than average.

As above, look at rolling weight (wheels and tyres) but getting fitter if you're finding it a drag will be far more effective - or buy a road bike.

Barteos

How much do you weigh with kit, water etc?

E.g. 2lbs off the bike only makes about 1% of the rider+bike+kit package weight and it doesn't even translate to 1% of average speed increase.

If you want to go faster then a pair of descent tyres will do the job nicely, otherwise I'd save for a new bike.

Raymondavalon

Starve!
Or buy a Kona Hoss Clydesdale class frame made for the bigger guys..

bigmart

unless your a wippet, try and loose some body weight, you'll loose much more than throwing £100s at the bike to save a KG or so

The Northern Monkey

Have a dump.... saves around 5lb

supersonic

Superb value bike with a very light frame.

I'd stick a Reba on it.

JamesBrckmn

Thanks for the advice. What wheels/ tyres would you recomend (i ride xc/trail - surrey hills/swinley forest etc.)?
Also if i'm going to get a new bike in around 3 years, do you think it would be worth spending £250 or so on Rebas?
And i'm not going to eat less - i'm 13 so i'm too busy growing!

Northwind

13kg is light enough that it's never going to be that much of a pain, IMO, but then it's always nice to be lighter. One thing to do is just go around it weighing stuff, you can find irrationally heavy parts, like the 450 gram seatpost in my brother's Revolution, or the 1050 gram tyres on my kraken. Changing those tyres made a huge difference. Even tubes... The cost to save a hundred grams off your rims can run to big money but the cost of saving a hundred grams off your oem spec tubes is probably about £6.

nferrar

I agree with swapping the forks if you're going to be using it a lot off-road, you prob wouldn't save a whole lot of weight with that change though (but you'd gain a much more controlled fork). The wheels are probably pretty heavy so would be top of my list to change, wouldn't be cheap though (£150-200). Tyres maybe, if they're budget wire-bead models on there atm you could probably save a a couple of hundred grams changing them (you'd proabably need to spend £50-60 though).

Not sure I'd bother doing much to it for the moment though (apart from the fork if you have the cash), just wait until stuff wears out and replace it with lighter bits then. As someone else said, 28lbs isn't too bad and is perfectly fine for long rides.

The Spiderman

Largest single weight saving I ever made was through a tyre swap.Went from wire beaded Kenda Nevegals to Schwalbe Nobby Nics and saved over 500g.
Cost was £50.

yoohoo999

yup, tube and tyres can make a huge difference.

i've got 2.5" wire bead High Rollers and DH tubes on my FR bike, and the weight of them is staggering! The tubes in particular....i had no idea that you could make a bit of rubber so heavy!

Then again, i've never had a puncture since building the bike, and i hit a hell of a lot of rocks, roots, stairs etc.

bomberesque

given the spec (which all seems quite generic in the fork/wheel/tyre department) I'm surprised it's that light. 28 lbs isn't heavy really.

without going nuts, I'd suggest the following (mostly echoing what's been said above)

Schwalbe Nobby Nic 2.1 or Maxxis HR kevlar tyres - erm about 50 quid? if you have wire beaded supermarket specials atm (and the descript says generic 2.0 tyre) then this could save you a shocking amount of weight
Maxxis fly weight tubes - 20 quid. An alternative is ghetto tubeless, which will weigh more but you won't get punctures anymore. Otherwise (coz a tenner is a lot to pay for tubes, tbh) I'd see what your current tubes weigh. Decathlon tubes are pretty good, but changing to a normal thickness (rather than flyweight) named brand tube could save you a hundred grammes or so for just a few quid.

then, if you're feeling like investing;

XT hubs on 517s with DB spokes - 140 ish
RS Rebas - 300+