Cheapest way to get a 6.8kg race bike

GGBiker

Interested in opinions on the most cost effective way to get a super light weight race worthy bike, aiming for 6.8kg including pedals.

This is just a little exercise to pull together the expertise of the many. For amateur racers it makes sense to have a cheap race rig given the risks of damage in a race, I wouldn't want to wipe out a £5k bike in a crash. There is also something appealing about having a bike that is all function over form.

The proviso is that the function has to be adequate also so that performance is not hampered in the interests of cost (i.e. no noodly wheels or frames).

iPete

Buy one from a team at the end of the season?!

guinea

My Canyon came in under 6.8kg with a few grams to spare including pedals.

It cost £3,200 with full Super Record and Mavic R-SYS SLR wheels.

You can do it cheaper, but as you said, you will run the risk of having crap parts.

Grill

6.8kg is hardly super light...

Source a Planet X Nanolight HM (such as this one: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-planet-x-nanolight-pro-carbon-hm-road-frame) and add old SRAM Red. After that all you need is wheels and you're pretty much sorted.

maddog 2

what's the cheapest Canyon/Cube/Focus that hits the target?

guinea

About £3k.

You can get 6.8kg + pedals for £2.2k though.

diamonddog

Look at the Dolan Tuono , full Sram Red 22 & Ksirium Elite £2500, approx 6.58kg so you will have to weight it to UCI limit or fit Sram Force 22 which I think would do the trick and save some money.

trek_dan

Buy second hand. My Dolan Hercules SL is 7.3kg all in including pedals, K-edge, bottle mounts etc. and I built that for £1300. Frameset was second hand off classifieds on here, wheels off Ebay, groupset a mix of second hand old style Dura-Ace and sale Ultegra. Could easily get that sub 7kg spending a few more £££'s or if I went tubs.

bigmat

Use tubs I guess. My bike is 7.2kg and that's with a fairly heavy frameset. If I swapped that for even something like a Planet X SL Pro it would be close to 6.8. Some light weight tubs and it'd be well under.

rolf_f

BigMat wrote:

Use tubs I guess. My bike is 7.2kg and that's with a fairly heavy frameset. If I swapped that for even something like a Planet X SL Pro it would be close to 6.8. Some light weight tubs and it'd be well under.

Elsewhere on here someone added the numbers up and the difference between tubs and clinchers wasn't much. The tubular tyres weighed more than the clinchers and if you account for three tubulars on the bike against two clincher tyres and three tubes, the clincher option actually came out lighter. Though of course, the clincher had heavier rims (but that's a whole different argument!).

Obviously, the bike weight doesn't include the spare tubular but in practical terms it doesn't appear to be an honest weight saving!

I'm aiming to save another 200g by getting some very light alloy clinchers (mid 1300s as opposed to mid 1500s for the current wheelset. I don't think tubulars would gain me much though open to suggestion!

DiscoBoy

Rolf F wrote:

BigMat wrote:

Use tubs I guess. My bike is 7.2kg and that's with a fairly heavy frameset. If I swapped that for even something like a Planet X SL Pro it would be close to 6.8. Some light weight tubs and it'd be well under.

Elsewhere on here someone added the numbers up and the difference between tubs and clinchers wasn't much. The tubular tyres weighed more than the clinchers and if you account for three tubulars on the bike against two clincher tyres and three tubes, the clincher option actually came out lighter. Though of course, the clincher had heavier rims (but that's a whole different argument!).

Obviously, the bike weight doesn't include the spare tubular but in practical terms it doesn't appear to be an honest weight saving!

I'm aiming to save another 200g by getting some very light alloy clinchers (mid 1300s as opposed to mid 1500s for the current wheelset. I don't think tubulars would gain me much though open to suggestion!

The thread asks for a race bike. You wouldn't necessarily need to carry a spare tub in a race because if you puncture then you're out anyway. Having a spare might avoid a walk home though

Cubic

For a budget race bike I'd say get a cheap but functional groupset, old Tiagra maybe. It would be heavier than SRAM Red, but you could put the money you saved into some better wheels, which would be more beneficial for racing.

Grill

Red is over 700g lighter than Tiagra...

700c

The cheapest way to a lightweight bike is probably not going to give you the best bike.

You could probably build something with cheap Chinese carbon, with flimsy components which would ride like a pig but it'd be light.

So not sure of the purpose of the exercise in getting a bike as light as possible, regardless of other factors also remember its cheaper to lose a few lbs from your self!

But the cheapest way to a quality light bike would be canyon I guess, as per other posts here

maddog 2

Canyon reckon the Ultimate CF SL 9.0 is 6.75kg and comes in at £2209 (not sure if that includes pedals, prob not)

https://www.canyon.com/_en/roadbikes/bike.html?b=3242

tomb2100

Be cheaper to lose weight

Well someone had to say it !!

GGBiker

700c wrote:

The cheapest way to a lightweight bike is probably not going to give you the best bike.

You could probably build something with cheap Chinese carbon, with flimsy components which would ride like a pig but it'd be light.

So not sure of the purpose of the exercise in getting a bike as light as possible, regardless of other factors also remember its cheaper to lose a few lbs from your self!

But the cheapest way to a quality light bike would be canyon I guess, as per other posts here

Tip: Always read the original post first.

GGBiker

tomb2100 wrote:

Be cheaper to lose weight

Well someone had to say it !!

Yes but I might die as body fat is only 3%

antfly

A lighter bike won't make you any quicker anyway, so what's the point ?

mfin

Here's some ways...

1. Steal one.

2. Get one that's just heavier that has a lovely paint job and then get a couple of quids worth of sandpaper and sand the lovely paint job off.

3. Get a bike that would be too heavy but cunningly buy it in a size that's too small.

4. Get some cheap scales that lie and buy a bike that's heavier.

5. Believe manufacturers published weights.

GGBiker

Thanks all, interesting range of opinions, the Canyon looks great for the money.

I was thinking really budget, maybe a planet x alu race frameset for about £250, like the idea of supelight SRAM red to keep weight down and light wheels, might be possible to do it all for £1500 or less.

Although at that price stretching to the canyon may make sense.

Camcycle1974

Ribble r872 frame&fork for about £500. Force groupset with light wheels and light finishing kit would be about 7kg and less than 2k.

Cubic

Grill wrote:

Red is over 700g lighter than Tiagra...

True, the point I'm trying to make is that building a budget race bike needs compromises. I'd rather compromise on the groupset than the wheels.

If it were me, I'd get the best frameset I could afford, then the best wheelset and then a functional groupset. It might be a net couple of hundred grammes heavier than if it had SRAM Red, but it should perform better.

Grill

If it's for racing then PX carbon tubs are cheap and light enough. Saving substantial weight on wheels requires a massive outlay.

Camcycle1974

Grill wrote:

If it's for racing then PX carbon tubs are cheap and light enough. Saving substantial weight on wheels requires a massive outlay.

Exactly. The £549 tubs look good (probably get shot down in flames by Ugo for saying that!) A budget race bike doesn't need 2 grand wheels. ARC carbon wheels look spectacular and are "only" £1300 a set. Based in Kent, might be worth a look for the OP.

jordan_217

Camcycle1974 wrote:

Grill wrote:

If it's for racing then PX carbon tubs are cheap and light enough. Saving substantial weight on wheels requires a massive outlay.

Exactly. The £549 tubs look good (probably get shot down in flames by Ugo for saying that!) A budget race bike doesn't need 2 grand wheels. ARC carbon wheels look spectacular and are "only" £1300 a set. Based in Kent, might be worth a look for the OP.

Agreed. I paid the price of some Aksiums for some new Token T50 carbon tubs, for racing. I don't think I would of paid their full price as I'd be devastated if I trashed them but I can get them rebuilt as they appear to be rebadged Gigantex/Novatec.

In reality they're no better than my Mavic Elites but I like riding on tubs and they are just over 2Kg with tyres, cassette and skewers. Fitted to my largely standard CAAD10, the weight is just over 7Kgs. Complete build was less than £1300. Great for racing on. Will be even better once I've ditched BB30 and fitted a 53/39 chainset.

I reckon I could get it sub 7Kgs with some choice upgrades. Would add zero difference though and I'd rather spend the money on bourbon creams.

Cubic

I certainly not suggesting spending £1000s on a wheelset. I'm just saying that I'd focus my attention on the frame and wheels, before the groupset.

How much is an old Red groupset? If he went for the £250 PX frame with the £550 PX tubs, that'd leave him with £700 out of his £1500 to get the groupset, bar,stem, saddle, tyres etc. Would Red fit into that?

carrock

I bought a 2nd hand s works from a guy on eBay, who arranges sponsorship for race teams and flogs bikes off at end of season. He is a police inspector and I collected from his station so was quite reassured it would be legit, and he is a decent chap.

This is the sort of things he sells.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6300-Pinarell ... 7675.l2557

bigmat

Rolf F wrote:

BigMat wrote:

Use tubs I guess. My bike is 7.2kg and that's with a fairly heavy frameset. If I swapped that for even something like a Planet X SL Pro it would be close to 6.8. Some light weight tubs and it'd be well under.

Elsewhere on here someone added the numbers up and the difference between tubs and clinchers wasn't much. The tubular tyres weighed more than the clinchers and if you account for three tubulars on the bike against two clincher tyres and three tubes, the clincher option actually came out lighter. Though of course, the clincher had heavier rims (but that's a whole different argument!).

Obviously, the bike weight doesn't include the spare tubular but in practical terms it doesn't appear to be an honest weight saving!

I'm aiming to save another 200g by getting some very light alloy clinchers (mid 1300s as opposed to mid 1500s for the current wheelset. I don't think tubulars would gain me much though open to suggestion!

Forget spare tubes, spare tyres etc, this is about what the bike weighs which is the only concern for many disciplines - TT, hill climb, crit race, hell even a road race I don't bother carrying spares as you don't exactly have time to change a tyre. A tub wheel is lighter than the equivalent clincher as far as I'm aware and would be a relatively easy way to save a couple of hundred grams on a bike build.

bendertherobot

Canyon ultimate al is 7.3 kg. 1350 quid. Will be all the bike ever needed.

6.8 is easy to achieve but do you really need to?

markhewitt1978

antfly wrote:

A lighter bike won't make you any quicker anyway, so what's the point ?

If there are any climbs involved, then all things being equal it will be quicker.