Bike Weight...all that important ??

njee20

It cannot be an accident that all of the main TdF riders are tiny and the sprinters are not.

Cav's not big, only about 5'9" IIRC and lighter than most on here I suspect!

It's all relative, to me weight really matters, but there are still places it's not worth saving, rigid forks, or even old style SIDs etc.

For me and my riding style light bikes are more fun! I'm not heavy, I'm not hard on kit, I race a lot and I like to attack hills rather than sitting and spinning. If I wasn't racing I'd go for something with more travel, some fatter tyres etc, but would still make it as light as practically possible!

Stevo_666

Joe_Pineapples wrote:

What's that old saying....light, strong, cheap - you can only ever have two of the three.

As generalizations go, that pretty much hits the nail on the head....

weescott

Ride a trail that your pal can ride quicker than you because his bike weighs 2lbs less then weight becomes important. When you compare like for like and buy something because it's lighter you start to notice the small gains. When you start buying Ti bolts and carbon fiber jockey wheels...then it becomes an obsession. When you replace your pedal spindles with Aluminium versions to save weight...then it becomes dangerous.

submityournentries

my bike before i swapped for the aluminium mantra frame to the steel blue pig was 34lbs, so god knows what that weighs now.

however i weigh like 9 stone 7/8 depending on the time of day and am 6 foot 2, and have a moderate level of fitness, and i can still get away from lights in a reasonable gear at the same speed as a large number of roadies and that just makes me happy

Spugnut

Bike weight also comes into play with suspension. Low unsprung weight is going to make your suspension work more efficiently, and if your bike is a hardtail, with your legs effectively being the shock, then the mass will make a noticeable difference.

Personally, I'm a sizeable unit, I could lose the entire weight of my bike and still be 14 stone so a light bike is all vanity really.

That's not going to stop me buying more shiny carbon bits though.

Stu 74

You could spend £500 on making a bike lighter so that it climbs quicker or............... you could spend £50 on some low rolling resistance tyres and get twice the benefit!

For example, my 33lb full suss running small block 8s climbs fireroads quicker than my 26lb hardtail running a Minion on the front and an Aspen on the back. :shock: (I regularly time myself on the same climb.)

This actually sounds quite unbeliveable but it is true!

Stu

Northwind

Stu 74 wrote:

You could spend £500 on making a bike lighter so that it climbs quicker or............... you could spend £50 on some low rolling resistance tyres and get twice the benefit!

For example, my 33lb full suss running small block 8s climbs fireroads quicker than my 26lb hardtail running a Minion on the front and an Aspen on the back. :shock: (I regularly time myself on the same climb.)

So you're sacrificing grip for weight. That doesn't sound like a great tradeoff to me. Nor, again, is it mutually exclusive.

Stu 74

Northwind wrote:

Stu 74 wrote:

You could spend £500 on making a bike lighter so that it climbs quicker or............... you could spend £50 on some low rolling resistance tyres and get twice the benefit!

For example, my 33lb full suss running small block 8s climbs fireroads quicker than my 26lb hardtail running a Minion on the front and an Aspen on the back. :shock: (I regularly time myself on the same climb.)

So you're sacrificing grip for weight. That doesn't sound like a great tradeoff to me. Nor, again, is it mutually exclusive.

I agree that grip is not a good thing to sacrifice. However, if you ride in certain conditions you can get a fast tyre without sacrificing grip. For example, on hard sufaces SB8s grip better than Minions in my opinion and roll considerably faster too.

I do see where you are coming from but the point I am making is that choosing the optimum tyre for the conditions you ride in can, in some cases, give you far more benefit per £ than reducing bike weight.


Stu

Northwind

Oh, absolutely. But again, there's no reason it has to be one or the other, greater benefits are gained from both.

Paul 135

I'm not at all bothered by weight but I've seen the advantage of a lighter bike.
I had a kona coilair supreme 08 and cracked the frame. sent it off and they replaced it with the new supreme frame. I read on the website that it was all new and lighter but didn't think it would be enough to make it noticeable.. How wrong I was!!! with the new lighter frame and shock the bike has just livened up! I doubt its the lightest thing ever but it definitely has brightened up

Anonymous

Grip over speed for me every time. I'm not obsessed with speed anyway. I don't do endurance, trials, etc. I'm a weekend warrior, up for fun

It's one of the reason I don't do roads. Head down looking at tarmac on your carbon ultra feather light bike and skin tight lycra, going as fast as possible, is about as boring as being on the cycle machine at the gym in my opinion

Pr][nCe

is all down to riding style, if you want to go up then light is the way to go and makes it more flickable when it turns downwards, if you going down then a little weight goes with beefing it up to take it, and also makes it more planted and track better,

just a case of what you ride, and how light do you want to go without parts fail.

had some easton monkey lite carbon xc bars, bars were lighter than the box they came in, but 9 months later, slight bit fast bumpy downhill on a hardtail so not to quick, and snap.
face to headset, hospital 3 ops 9 months later and i have to go and have another op to breath tidy out my right nostral.

won't be saving weight on bars again, let me tell ya...
2010 Santa Cruz Heckler xc/am 29.4Lb

Anonymous

Couldn't give a crap about weight here, as long as it's not unreasonably heavy.
I prefer to have a bike that will take a severe beating and come back for more.
I've tried riding a few very light bikes, and found them to twist alarmingly under power, and flex in the corners and over the rough stuff.

Anonymous

I ride hard tail for mainly XCish stuff, I actually love a good hill climb and don't do big downhill stuff.

For me weight is a big consideration, and one reason that I'll upgrade for on it's own.

But, I'm aware I'm pretty heavy (mainly as I'm so tall) and there is nothing worse than something breaking so I also keep that in mind.

It doesn't matter how light it is if it's in two pieces

For this reason I choose Easton EA70 bars over the carbon ones, and Stan's Arch rims over the 355s/Crest.

My 2009 Kona Caldera comes in about 10.5Kg, which is pretty light (must be about 2Kg lighter than when I brought it), but there is no really fragile weight weenie stuff on there.

Though I have been guilty of buying KNCN skewers that only weigh 44g a pair and a set of Mt Zoom alloy jockey wheels, but that was mainly for the bling.

To what degree it aids performance I don't know, maybe part of it is psychological.

Anonymous

you mean psychological, surely?

Anonymous

yeehaamcgee wrote:

you mean psychological, surely?

LOL, yes, better go and edit that.

Anonymous

Sorry to be pedantic, but getting those two words mixed up completely, and entirely changes the meaning of your sentence in that context!

Anonymous

Agreed, no problem.

Northwind

Another reason weight matters- my bike + bike bag + a bit of extra padding to protect it from crazed slingers weighs in 100 grams under the 20kg weight limit, if I had left the SLX cranks on it instead of switching to the XTR ones off the Soul I'd have to pay £10 extra each way postage

Anonymous

Northwind wrote:

Another reason weight matters- my bike + bike bag + a bit of extra padding to protect it from crazed slingers weighs in 100 grams under the 20kg weight limit, if I had left the SLX cranks on it instead of switching to the XTR ones off the Soul I'd have to pay £10 extra each way postage

OOOOOH! That is the best reason I've ever heard for lightweight bikes!
You've just changed my entire perspective on the matter!

Northwind

Pretty compelling eh?

Shaggy_Dog

Obviously a light bike will go uphill faster, I'm 12 stone, I think for me the magic number is 30lbs, anything more than that is just a pain in the arse. Light bikes are also easier to "chuck around." Light wheels really help with acceleration, braking and direction changes at speed.

I find myself climbing out of the saddle more on a bike that weighs in around the 25lb mark and also staying out for longer, taking in more climbs, getting fitter in the process so people who say a heavier bike makes you fitter must have tremendous willpower, I get fed up and go home if the climbs are a drag.

That said, although I like a light bike I don't like it at the expense of all stiffness, I like a little bit of lateral flex in the frame for cornering but don't like it when you can't mash the pedals without the bike tying itself in knots. Same goes for wheels, enough flex so you've got something to push against but not so much it flutters over rough trails. If the stem's been milled away to next to nothing you really notice the bars rock when pulling hard on standing climbs. Sometimes the comfiest saddles are the hideously expensive ones that weigh nothing and flex like mad

Anonymous

Damned straight!
So by buying XTR instead of SLX, you're SAVED £20!
AWESOME

supersonic

I have to say 30lbs seems to be some magical/psychological number for me too.

Northwind

yeehaamcgee wrote:

Damned straight!
So by buying XTR instead of SLX, you're SAVED £20!
AWESOME

Well. My XTR cranks cost me £105 and I sold the big and middle rings for £20 then stuck a deore steel ring and a bash on them So I'd call that not bad. Though I did have to pay about £20 for the bloody crank remover. The SLX ones were £70 new.

Shaggy_Dog

supersonic wrote:

I have to say 30lbs seems to be some magical/psychological number for me too.

Yeah, I know a lot of people in the trade who find anything more than 30lbs a handful. My '06 Enduro was usually between 33 and 37 lbs and was an absolute nightmare on longer XC rides. By the end of it your soul was destroyed along with your legs, abs and upper body!

My various 120mm trail full sussers and 29ers have been between 23 and 27 lbs and been spot on for everything, tough enough for the descents but light enough for extended climbs. Makes me a better rider too as I have to finesse the bike if I want to ride fast rather than point and shoot. That said, the best bike I've ridden is a Rumblefish which came in at a fairly hefty 29lbs (ironically, as it also had 29" handlebars) but the wheels helped to mask the extra weight on climbs and the ride character was more of controlled MotoGP style lean rather than "chuck it around" SC Chameleon/Zaskar style aggro.

Anonymous

Hmm. Curiously, I find anything under 30lbs to be too skittish, but I'm by no means an XC rider, more of a brain-off-pleb.

Shaggy_Dog

Do you ride your bikes uphill before riding them down?

Northwind

30lbs is just psychological, just buy some less accurate scales and you'll be fine

Anonymous

Shaggy_Dog wrote:

Do you ride your bikes uphill before riding them down?

Me? Yes.
I am that most annoyed of creatures.
The DH rider, who lives for crazy descents, and high speed, but lives nowhere near an uplift.
Well, I was, there are a few uplifts closer to home now, but I basically rode my bike to the to pof mountains, because that would then let me tear back down again at breakneck speeds.
So, a sturdy bike suits me fine. I've tried a few lighter ones, like I said, but they feel a bit skittish, and don't give me much confidence.