Why are bikes so heavy these days

foy

I took a friend to look at the specialized rockhopper retail price £1000, i warned him before we went how heavy the bike would be and when he lifted the bike up he just could not believe how heavy it was, and if felt around 31 lbs in weight. Back in the early nineties you could get a aluminium framed hardtail that weighed around 23lbs. I accept that suspension, disc brakes, and 29 inch tyres, and wheels, all add weight but in my opinion the components these days on bikes look far cheaper and inferior to previous years and are they far heavier as well maybe?

cooldad

You still can.

nicklouse

should not the heading be "Why are Specialized bikes so heavy these days?"

as most others are about right.

Huckfinn

I suggest he looks else where then, plenty of options out there for £1000 ish that are lighter. For a bit more he could have a FS which is lighter

The Rookie

31lbs would be heavy even for a Spesh Rock, that's heavier than any Voodoo HT for example, suspect it wasn't actually that heavy.

Spesh's are all priced at at least twice what they are worth!

Pretty much all major componets are lighter model for model than what they were 10 years ago, but yes discs add a fair few grams over V-brakes (hubs, rims, and the brakes themselves all heavier)

supersonic

I remember the GT Zaskar LE of 1996, cost £2600. Was well known as one of the best hardtails of the day, had a full XTR V brake groupset, Rockshox SIDs, Crossmax wheels. Weight? 23lbs. Which to be frank, was bloody awful!

£300 bikes back then often had steel frames and parts so weighed more than todays (or about the same).

The odd thing is that the weight doesn't often drop much from £500 to £1000, and I guess that is the deal with the Spesh.

njee20

Yep, in similar vain I had a 2001 Trek 9.8 hardtail - SID World Cups with 28mm stantions, full XTR (v-brakes), carbon finishing kit, Crossmax and it was 22.3lbs. My Top Fuel weighs 2.5lbs less with forks and brakes that work, and a rear shock!

At any given price point though bikes have gotten 'worse', hardly surprising though really!

I'd still rather ride a current generation Rockhopper than an early 90s 23lb thing!

supersonic

I think one thing to note is while we rarely see full XTR on bike of those prices anymore (so could argue modern bikes are downspecced on a hierarchy point), XT of nowadays is quite a bit better! And who'd ever thought we'd see 9 speed Altus? (and it's really good too!)

njee20

In what way is current XT better?

Outboard bearings and that are lighter, but generally agreed to be less durable. Elsewhere they've saved weight, but I think the quality of M950 XTR was superb - the shifters felt lovely and lasted forever. Not to say I'd swap back at all, but not sure I'd draw that conclusion - they were different, not better/worse.

supersonic

Stiffer cranks, I think the shifters are slicker and do like the multi shifts in both directions, and I'm even beginning the like the derailers more than my old M950! The 10 speed 11-32 cassette is only 30g heavier than the XTR950 11-32, and lasts longer too.

Don't get me wrong, I like (and still do!) the old M950, but I think the newest XT out performs it.

njee20

They do feel more plasticky though - the M980s just don't feel as nice as those from yesteryear with the metal paddles.

I know what you're saying, and you can't argue with the weight savings, but I do think it's different, rather than better/worse. More features for sure, but that alone doesn't make it better.

ilovedirt

1. inflation, a £1000 bike from twenty years ago is not equivalent to a £1000 bike today. (remove the word "bike" from that sentence and you get my point).

2. You still can get bikes that light

3. Bikes 20 years ago were fucking awful. Any £500 bike now will be considerably better than a £3000 bike from 20 years ago, and not be a great deal heavier.

stubs

ilovedirt wrote:

3. Bikes 20 years ago were ******* awful. Any £500 bike now will be considerably better than a £3000 bike from 20 years ago, and not be a great deal heavier.

Not all bikes were awful but a lot were. I had a Univega (I think) that was very slow to turn but at the same time would throw you over the bars. I spent more time under it than on top.

ilovedirt

Either way, they have nothing on modern bikes, even the cheap ones (obviously not including BSOs)

supersonic

I think I'd rather have an 'expensive' older bike (as long as least had V brakes) than some of the atrocious £500 monsters I have seen from today!

paulneenan76

I would love to re-own every one of my bikes, they were all brilliant in every way - particularly my first proper mountainbike, a Dawes with Deore LX black and silver top bar thumb shifters, Reynolds frame which was too big for me etc etc., I thought those 18speed shifters were amazing, and they were. However, whilst I'd love all my bikes lined up in the shed for me to gawp at, reminisce, or pass down to my children, I wouldn't swap my modern rig for any of them - things have changed, and mostly for the better I'd say.

Oh and I bet my Raleigh Grifter weighed a bloody ton by today's standards - I never fell off it as I wouldn't be able to pick the bugger up

ilovedirt

supersonic wrote:

I think I'd rather have an 'expensive' older bike (as long as least had V brakes) than some of the atrocious £500 monsters I have seen from today!

Aye, though I was talking more about your carreras, rockriders etc. I certainly wouldn't touch some of the low end crap that the likes of spesh sell...

The Rookie

supersonic wrote:

some of the atrocious £500 monsters I have seen from today!

Trouble is that £500 buys some reasonable bikes (with change) from the 'budget' brands or some right snotters from the 'premium' brands that are happy to prostitute their name to chase short term profits.

The Voodoo Bantu for example is amazing value and far from a bad bike and worth upgrading to a certain extent, whereas a Lardrock costs more, is poorly specced and massively overweight and is only really sold to those who read 'Specialized' and like the paint job and never actually find out if it's worth buying!

foy

Could not agree with you more, specialized have totally lost the plot and the rockhopper range is pathetic value for money. The cube range is fantastic value for money and the laughable thing is that all these bike companies have their frames manufactured in the far east in the same factories and their is defo a lot of brand snobbery out there.