Saving weight on my Trek 4300 or swap out?

yukka

Hi All,

I have just come back to cycling after several years and have recently purchased a board man road bike however I've got a few local trails that are off road and thus will need to use my 2007 Trek 4300 Disc for these excursions.

As most of the rides will be on semi rough trails and have a fair share of climbs I'd like to remove some weight from the 4300 which weighs circa 15kg...

A couple of options considered are swapping out the frame for something cheap off eBay (maybe a carbon Chinese job) or maybe switching such components such as the wheels and swapping the suspension fork to a rigid one.

Would a wheel/fork change make a drastic change in weight or indeed perceived weight in transit?

Not ready to buy a new mountain bike just yet as those that would interest me are circa £2k so would like make a couple of quick changes.

Cheers in advance

xtremedash

Hmm, cheap chinese frames are something to try at your own peril!

Your easiest way to to improve the feel is to shed weight from the wheels and tyres, these will also effect the acceleration and braking more as they are a rotating mass.

The forks would also be one of the heavier items. Beyond that you really should consider replacing the bike. Also as you get more into riding your own fitness level and potential weight change will have far more effect on how easy/hard you find it to ride the bike.

supertwisted

Swapping out the RST fork you have now for a rigid fork will save you over a kilo for about £65.

Try this one:

http://carboncycles.cc/?s=0&t=2&c=92&p=201&

Daz555

Cutting down weight on the spinny stuff makes the biggest difference. Weight off the wheels/tyres/tubes are good places to start.

As above - cheap forks weigh a ton and if you can pick up a cheap pair you can save some serious kg for little money.

yukka

Thanks for the feedback here guys,

Would it be worth me investing in a lighter front suspension fork? I'm advised by someone I know that suspension forks aren't really needed unless you are riding on some really serious off road terrain - which I won't be...

Essentially I'm dumbing the bike down to use as a hybrid of sorts.

FYI This is the bike in question http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/20 ... e/4300disc

Rims are: Bontrager ranger rims, random google brings up:

Front: 939g
Rear: 1136g

Looks like some potential weight saving here...

The rest can come off me :-)

phal44

My 2008 4300 (21") is down to about 25 pounds total now Not because I went out specifically to lower weight but just as a side effect of replacing almost everything lol

yukka

Hey,

What did you change?

ThanksBye

*Where immature coment by coworker was*[/code]

cooldad

tomatoevousparlour wrote:

Flog it and buy a proper bike. But not a boardman, they're for bummers.

Edited

getonyourbike

cooldad wrote:

tomatoevousparlour wrote:

Flog it and buy a proper bike. But not a boardman, they're for bummers.

What a d1ck.

I'll second that, on every post of his he always comes across as a t***er.

ThanksBye

Sorry, as said on the other post i left it logged on at work and a friend got bored so answered some posts, if you back in my posts part from todays there normal and hopefully not coming across as a t***er

getonyourbike

tomatoevousparlour wrote:

Sorry, as said on the other post i left it logged on at work and a friend got bored so answered some posts, if you back in my posts part from todays there normal and hopefully not coming across as a t***er

fair does, give your mate a slap from us. sorry about calling you a t***er then

ThanksBye

No worries, i choose to ball bearing his bars instead
And to the OP if you say choose to get some new wheels, you could go for something like hopes, there very easily converted so would be a good investment

cooldad

tomatoevousparlour wrote:

Sorry, as said on the other post i left it logged on at work and a friend got bored so answered some posts, if you back in my posts part from todays there normal and hopefully not coming across as a t***er

And again

ThanksBye

Its now been edited

phal44

yukka wrote:

Hey,

What did you change?

Almost everything so far lol

Wheels/Forks probably saved the most but I also fitted a whole new drivetrain of brakes/pedals/cranks/bb/derailleurs etc