Trek Superfly race bike - now under 19lbs, pics page 5

njee20

I've not really ridden a 29er in anger - just had a go on friend's bikes a few times frankly. As the Fuel broke and they didn't make 26" bikes any more it was a moot point though! They did offer me a Superfly FS frame, but it would have cost far more to fund wheels/forks etc. Similarly I could have got a complete FS bike at a reduced cost, but the 9.8 is fairly heavy, and a lot more expensive than the hardtail. Sure it'll be fine, only a cheap build after all ;-)

I loved the Fuel though. I had two - a 2010 one, then the 2011 one. This was the first one (apologies if the link doesn't work, Flickr blocked at work, but think it's the right photo!):



Did prefer the 2011 one, and it was lighter. Great bikes, sure the Superfly (FS or HT) will be just as good, can't deny that 29ers are becoming overwhelmingly popular in XC racing these days. Shame I'm fat and unfit!

May even get a chance to finish building mine tonight, then I will stick some photos up! Sorted the fork at the weekend, got a 'before' shot on the scales, be interested to see how much is saved by removing the MoCo.

njee20

Fork pics, before and after:

Before, with MoCo and remote:


After:


They've made MoCo dampers a good chunk lighter - the one I took out of a 2006 Reba World Cup was over 100g.



A few finishing bits to save a few grams, 9g from headset top cap and bolt:




Was surprised to find that the carbon headset bearing cover from the Top Fuel was about half the weight of the stock green one I wanted to change anyway:





Anyway, threw it all together and took a quick snap:


And then stuck it on the scales...


That was before I fitted the bottle cage and bled the rear brake, now comes to 19.24lbs, which I'm pretty chuffed with. Will take some photos tomorrow in daylight, and not on my phone! Out with a friend tomorrow who's a hell of a lot quicker than me, may have to engineer a problem as an excuse to cry off!

Full spec:

Trek Superfly 9.8 frame
SID RL fork, no MoCo
XX1 groupset 32t ring
American Classic hubs, Light Bicycle hookless rims, DT Revolution spokes (1370g)
2.25" Rocket Ron tyres
XTR brakes with alu lever bolts and ti caliper bolts
Avid/KCNC rotors with 3 alu/3ti rotor bolts in each
New Ultimate seatpost
Bontrager Evoke Carbon saddle
Mt Zoom ultralight seat clamp
Mt Zoom headset top cap and bolt
New Ultimate stem
Mt Zoom Ultralite low riser bar
Egg Beater 1 pedals with ti axles and green alu end caps

Had a quick spin up and down the road, tyres didn't explode, which was my first worry! Feels good, odd being back on a hardtail, have to see tomorrow.

Be good to get it below 19lbs - will probably switch to Thunder Burt tyres in summer, which will do it! Got a Mt Zoom 110g flat bar on order, will probably get a 90mm stem, embrace fashion and all that.

Otherwise pedals - may switch to 'Beater 3s with the ti axles. If someone does a better value lightweight thru-axle I'd consider changing, but not paying £80 each end for the Tune ones. Shame they are expensive as they come in pretty colours, but just not worth the weight saving!

Perhaps new cranks in the long term as there's a chunk to be saved there, not sure what though.

WindyG

Looks good, be interesting to see what you think of a 29er once you give it a proper ride. What are you going to be racing in?

njee20

I was surprised how nimble it felt riding it around the block. But then I've only ridden a mountain bike once in last 5 months, so it probably just felt different to a road bike!

I'll be doing a few of the Nationals, plus the Southern XCs, Gorrick 100, Are You Tough Enough and Torq 12:12, plus a few other bits along the way I imagine! Expert category.

minley1

Looking good, some nice components. interested in the wheels, would I save much weight over my Mavic XC 717 with Xtr M975 hubs, could I build up a set using these hubs?

njee20

These are 29er wheels, dunno what yours will weigh, but XC717s are 395g each, Stan's Alpines are c320g, or Podiums are c290g, so you cold lose over 200g just in your rims.

I think the carbon Chinese 26" rims are about 330g, but are much stiffer.

njee20

Managed to take a few pics after I cleaned it earlier. Amazing how much the paint gets scuffed in one ride.
Looks like this:



Gave it a good 4 hour blast round the Surrey Hills yesterday, tis good. Impressed with the 29er-ness, didn't miss the rear suspension at all, bags of grip, would've been sliding around a bit more on 26" Rons.

Light Bicycle hookless rims seem good, tyres went up perfectly, and I didn't suffer an ignominious death of exploding tyres and latex at the first corner. Running about 25psi.

XX1 just worked. More chain noise on the stand than I'd expected, but outside it was flawless, Grip Shift was a bit odd after 5 years of triggers, but the shift is really positive. 32t ring seems about right. Left the chain long so I can go for a bigger ring.

Got a new Mt Zoom flat bar on order to get the front end a bit lower, probably combine with a shorter (90mm) stem. Ought to get it below 19lbs somehow, perhaps with Thunder Burt tyres in the summer!

The Rookie

Looking really nice there!

Those SIDS are a bit heavy though? My Manitou's (2006) are 30g lighter

pnev

The Rookie wrote:

Looking really nice there!

Those SIDS are a bit heavy though? My Manitou's (2006) are 30g lighter

And I bet they perform just as well :roll:

I reckon I'll be treating myself to a superfly this summer...

The Rookie

Pnev wrote:

And I bet they perform just as well :roll:

Perhaps you should try some before adding the sarcasm!

Mine are 26" anyway, so the longer lowers on a 29er would add more than that by themselves....

njee20

Yep, they're only the basic SID too. Contemplated changing to a World Cup, but the saving is only 110g for a huge amount of money. Don't like the Xloc either.

You'd have to pay me to use Manitou forks anyway ;-)

minley1

Cheers for the info on the wheels, what stem are you looking at?, the KCNC Wing Stem is pretty light, 90mm comes in at around 98g.

njee20

Be another New Ultimate one. More expensive than KCNC, but slightly lighter, and much nicer looking! That 100mm one is 5 years old, so done well.

minley1

I have a similar age Ec90, it's 130mm and I'm finding that since swapping from the Rock Lobster to a Carbonal frame I'm quite stretched out.

njee20

I can imagine! I've used 100s for about 10 years, 90 seems very short!

stubs

njee20 wrote:

Managed to take a few pics after I cleaned it earlier. Amazing how much the paint gets scuffed in one ride.

My Vitus looks like it has been rubbed over with a kitchen scouring pad after 5 1/2 months. Dont think the laquer they use on carbon frames is as scratch resistant as paint on metal frames. I know a guy who does Vinyl Wrapping for £80 a frame so might be sending him the frame in a month or two.

njee20

After 5 months one expects that, I didn't particularly after 4 hours! That said the Top Fuel was worse, had some weird lightweight paint on it with a satin finish, that scratched if you looked at it wrongly!

JMcP92

Very impressed, lovely build and wasn't convinced you'd manage below 20 pounds, good effort mate

njee20

Thanks!

I wanted to get below the weight of the old Top Fuel, so pleased to have done it by half a pound considering the heavier forks and wheels.

The Rookie

The Rookie wrote:

I'd be very surprised if you can't get down to that target.

Call me Mystic Meg!

njee20

Indeed! Didn't manage it by a colossal margin though! Normally there have been a few more 'quick wins' when I've built a bike, there aren't too many places I can shave anything now without quite a lot of money!

The Rookie

Hmmm, whenever I think that, I find somewhere!

Do you have a spreadsheet with all your weights on?

njee20

Nope, just in my head!

The thru-axles and cranks are the obvious place. Front rotor was 99g, so not bad for totally dependable braking, may try an Ashima one sometime, but the KCNC definitely wasn't as good.

The Rookie

I have put a A2Z Tepen Yaki on mine, 89g from Halfords for less than £20, has a 'full size' braking surface unlike the Alligator on the rear (68g).

Nylon bottle cage bolts (or ally if actually holding in a cage!) are worth a few g. (have some nylons spare for the cost of postage)

Replace the second air valve on the damper side with a plain cap, suspect one off a cheaper fork will fit. (My daughters Revs have a plain plastic cap). Damper oil at min fill is a cheap option, plus as you have no compression damper you can almost certainly run less than stated, you only need 10-15mm above the rebound damper at full bump.

Just a few thoughts!

njee20

Second air valve serves a vague purpose, and the additional weight is minimal! Oil duly removed in the absence of a compression damper for it to fill!

Already done alu cage bolts, plus rotor bolts/brake lever bolts and ti caliper/stem/groupset bolts.

Good suggestions though.

The Rookie

Right gone through the thread, apologies, this isn't meant to be knit picking, just helpful suggestions feel free to ignore me! (I know some has been mentioned before in the thread)
Grips, 55g is heavy, I appreciate function is important, but (as an example) my KCNC are 20g, the Bontrager large style have a good rep and are sub 30g.
Chainring 50g is heavy, my 32t E13 (not narrow wide which probably adds about 5g on the teeth) is 26g, or you can save more weight by using a spiderless chainring on your cranks.
Not sure what vague purpose the airvalve gives, I know I saved 30g on my Manitou by replacing the SPV variable volume valve (which was just a gimmick really) with a plain valve (off some scrap forks - the SPV is still operational), so would expect a similar saving. (I've resisted the temptation to file the V-brake bosses off!)

njee20

Right gone through the thread, apologies, this isn't meant to be knit picking, just helpful suggestions feel free to ignore me! (I know some has been mentioned before in the thread)

No no, not taken as nitpicking, thanks!

I've used the KCNCs (as Pork Rinds), and the Bontrager Race X Lite and XXX Lites before - whilst I liked the XXX Lites they were slippery without gloves and they're very thin - not an ideal match for the Grip Shift as you end up with a step under your hand. The Race X Lites were better, but the ESIs do feel really nice, so will probably stick with them for now. Didn't like the profile of the Pork Rinds, quite a narrow area to actually hold.

Chainset is a very obvious place to save. Spiderless ring is something I'm considering when I've worn this one out or if I change size, considering a 34 anyway. A change to Lightning cranks with any of the narrow/wide rings would save up to 200g I reckon.

The airvalve allows you to vaguely tune the compression damping, not sure on the effectiveness, but it only weighs about 20g, so minimal saving, - it's just a completely plain air top cap. I did wonder about one of these, but barely seems worth it!

The Rookie

I can't see adding air pressure changing the compression damping without a pressure sensitive valve (like the Manitou SPV) in the stack, but willing to live and learn.

I use the Avenir version of the KCNC/Rinds on my commuter cut to match the twist shift, works for me, but we all have different hands, they are quite slim for sure.

Have you got Ti or Al backed pads in the brakes, not a huge saving, but every little counts! The Uberbike Al backed are very little dearer than steel, organic only though.

I've made a fair few small savings on mine just by going through every nut and bolt (so to speak) and looking for the little savings (like your top cap and headset top cover) which is why i find a spreadsheet useful.

If you can live with it, continental style levers (front on the left) saves a few g as it shortens the front hose.

njee20

I can't see adding air pressure changing the compression damping without a pressure sensitive valve (like the Manitou SPV) in the stack, but willing to live and learn.

Me neither, it was something someone at one of the tuning companies observed (I'd just used an air valve top cap for symmetry). Sort of makes sense, I think, all the MoCo does is slows the flow of oil through the shim stack, changing the air pressure has the potential to do the same. I doubt it makes any difference whatsoever, but what matey boy said made a modicum of sense!

The Uberbike Al backed are very little dearer than steel, organic only though.

That's a good shout! I used to use the Kool Stop and Superstar alloy backed pads, but they stopped doing them. Will check out the Uberbike ones! Been running organic lately anyway, so not worried by that.

Swapping levers would just lead to a swift OTB when I swapped bikes I reckon, and I can't be bothered to re tape the bars on both road bikes to swap them round!

The Rookie

Sorry, have to ask, what is this 'road bike' of which you speak? LOL

OK, it may have an effect I guess!

Uberbike readily available on fleabay as I'm sure you know.