Help me to lose weight please.

littledove44

No, not a request for diet tips. I have that under control.

My question is though, where on my bike am I wasting weight? I am not that fussed about tiny savings, but having recently done a complete strip down I took the opportunity to weigh everything. I am interested to know if there are any areas where you think a significant saving could be made.

Not trying to draft a debate about how much faster I will go, or won't go. Just wanting to know how to prioritise.

Total just over 8kg.

tim_wand

To be fair they all seem decent enough weights, but as that's not what you want to hear.

I can remember and edition of Cycling Plus where they took a Specialized Tarmac Pro which was around 8kg down to just over 6kg. and it cost an additional £2900.

The best starting point would be your wheelset although if your including tubes, tyres and cassette yours is pretty decent.
Contact points such as Seatpost, Bar and Stem are another area where weight can be lost at not a massive spend, but it does little to improve ride quality as reducing rolling mass would.

If your really that obsessed by this than go have a look over on weight weenies.

imposter2.0

Change the frame. Ironically also likely to be the single most expensive part. Or alternatively, just don't worry about it.

darkhairedlord

Change the scales when your pissed. Reweigh when sober and try not to remember the night before.

Grill

Stem and bars are heavy as is the saddle. Easy to lose over 200g just from those.

imposter2.0

Is this the Roubaix frame in your signature? That's never gonna be a lightweight....

Miles253

I would say wheels are a good place to start, but easier than your frame.

markwb79

Is there much saving on the rear mech after changing to a smaller cassette? - 50 to 100grams?

Frame is heavy I think. But its hard to say as does it include the headset and a bottom bracket. Probably save at least 200grams there.

Wheels could save 200grams maybe?



Or another question? Why does it need to be light?

littledove44

Miles253 wrote:

I would say wheels are a good place to start, but easier than your frame.

The wheels are 1500g without tyres and tubes. Is there really much saving to be made here? What with?

littledove44

Grill wrote:

Stem and bars are heavy as is the saddle. Easy to lose over 200g just from those.

Thanks. That's an easy bang for the buck area as well.

rickeverett

That 1762g frame - Is that Frame, Fork, hangers, bolts and headset ? - If so 1762g for all that isn't too bad but you can still go lighter. Is it a full carbon fork?

Miles253

littledove44 wrote:

Miles253 wrote:

I would say wheels are a good place to start, but easier than your frame.

The wheels are 1500g without tyres and tubes. Is there really much saving to be made here? What with?

Hmm, pretty decent weight anyway, pair of handbuilts will get you lower if you really care. Durability might suffer though.

Grill

littledove44 wrote:

Miles253 wrote:

I would say wheels are a good place to start, but easier than your frame.

The wheels are 1500g without tyres and tubes. Is there really much saving to be made here? What with?

No they're not.

Wheels - 1500g
Tyres - 420g
Tubes - 140g
Skewers - 120g
Rim Tape - 20g
Total - 2200g

Where's the other 175g coming from?

littledove44

rickeverett wrote:

That 1762g frame - Is that Frame, Fork, hangers, bolts and headset ? - If so 1762g for all that isn't too bad but you can still go lighter. Is it a full carbon fork?

Yes and yes.

lewiskinch

You're better off looking at other ways to save weight if you are really that worried about it. I used to always end up coming home with a bottle or half bottle of drink because I over prepared, so started taking out as much as I need (can always find a pub to fill it up). A full large bottle adds 750 grams at least

Take a poo before you ride.

Are you carrying excess stuff in pockets?

ugo.santalucia

Just a few thoughts that won't break the bank

You can have the frame sand blasted and should shave about 200 grams. You can sand most of the rubber off your tyres and probably shave 50-100 grams. You can drill holes in most metal components, manufacturers don't do it as it's expensive, but it's worth considering... 30 years ago everbody were at drilling. You can sand down your spokes too, Mavic spokes are too big enyway. You don't need bar tape, just wear thicker gloves, so that's over 100 grams. You can cut the brake levers, they don't need to be that long, just work out where you hold them and cut the rest. Most people don't ride on the drops, just chop them under the hoods, so that's another 100 grams gone. You can shorten the chain by a few links and fit a smaller and lighter outer chainring. Most of the rear derailleur can be machined off, the bits that actually do any work are less than 50% of the total weight. Shorten the seatpost, most likely you don't need some of it, it's only sitting inside the frame doing nothing.
Do you need a rear brake? Most of the work is done by the front, that's over 200 grams you can save, including removal of the all lever blade and cable.
Machine the pedals, there is a lot of extra metal there, you don't need it all.
I think if you do all that you can go down to 6 Kg at virtually zero cost

littledove44

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I think if you do all that you can go down to 6 Kg at virtually zero cost

Apart from completely destroying the resale value of the bike

Some interesting serious comments elsewhere in the thread.

Confirmed my suspicions though. There is no significant low hanging fruit. I am happy staying with 8kg.
I carry about 900g of water and spares anyway.

markwb79

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Just a few thoughts that won't break the bank

You can have the frame sand blasted and should shave about 200 grams. You can sand most of the rubber off your tyres and probably shave 50-100 grams. You can drill holes in most metal components, manufacturers don't do it as it's expensive, but it's worth considering... 30 years ago everbody were at drilling. You can sand down your spokes too, Mavic spokes are too big enyway. You don't need bar tape, just wear thicker gloves, so that's over 100 grams. You can cut the brake levers, they don't need to be that long, just work out where you hold them and cut the rest. Most people don't ride on the drops, just chop them under the hoods, so that's another 100 grams gone. You can shorten the chain by a few links and fit a smaller and lighter outer chainring. Most of the rear derailleur can be machined off, the bits that actually do any work are less than 50% of the total weight. Shorten the seatpost, most likely you don't need some of it, it's only sitting inside the frame doing nothing.
Do you need a rear brake? Most of the work is done by the front, that's over 200 grams you can save, including removal of the all lever blade and cable.
Machine the pedals, there is a lot of extra metal there, you don't need it all.
I think if you do all that you can go down to 6 Kg at virtually zero cost

Some excellent tips there.

What about using speedplay pedals. They are a lot lighter than Look or Shimano.

Bottle in your back pocket, then you can run only one bottle cage?

ugo.santalucia

littledove44 wrote:

Apart from completely destroying the resale value of the bike

Jeeezz, superscrimper aren't you?... next thing you'll buy the 6 x 25 p wash up sponges at Tesco. On the other thread you said you were a millionaire who retired to play golf and sip long drinks at the age of 40 and now you worry about a couple of hundred quid worth of old beater? You have to decide where you stand... when it comes to weight saving there is no such compromise as money! :?

drlodge

Easiest weight saving is thin innertubes, Conti Supersonics weigh only 50g each

Austin316

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Just a few thoughts that won't break the bank

You can have the frame sand blasted and should shave about 200 grams. You can sand most of the rubber off your tyres and probably shave 50-100 grams. You can drill holes in most metal components, manufacturers don't do it as it's expensive, but it's worth considering... 30 years ago everbody were at drilling. You can sand down your spokes too, Mavic spokes are too big enyway. You don't need bar tape, just wear thicker gloves, so that's over 100 grams. You can cut the brake levers, they don't need to be that long, just work out where you hold them and cut the rest. Most people don't ride on the drops, just chop them under the hoods, so that's another 100 grams gone. You can shorten the chain by a few links and fit a smaller and lighter outer chainring. Most of the rear derailleur can be machined off, the bits that actually do any work are less than 50% of the total weight. Shorten the seatpost, most likely you don't need some of it, it's only sitting inside the frame doing nothing.
Do you need a rear brake? Most of the work is done by the front, that's over 200 grams you can save, including removal of the all lever blade and cable.
Machine the pedals, there is a lot of extra metal there, you don't need it all.
I think if you do all that you can go down to 6 Kg at virtually zero cost

Great advice I'm gonna do all those things right now.

Austin316

Instead of water in one of my bottles I put helium. Quick swig of that and the Strava KOMs beckon.

DiscoBoy

The best g/£ components are:
KCNC skewers. £47 to save 68g (110-42)
Planetx forged brakes. £45 to save 119g (344-225)
Latex tubes. ~£20 to save ~100g

Next I'd look at your bars. Deda superlegga and deda presa are both ~0.8g/£ when bought from ribble.

brettjmcc

Well PX when they have them in do the skewers for £20, but you can also get them on eBay for that price too.

As other have said, I'd go Race Light 28 over supersonic, as the Supersonics may be a bit too thin, and they are a bit cheaper again. Still a saving over the normal Race 28 for instance, 65 vs 105. Another option would be Michelin Ultra Light, which Decathlon have down to £2.99; they are 77g.

Change the casette to a the power of greyskull option and go 12-23

Agree with Grill on the stem, seatpost etc.

The OP may assist in his search if he posted the make/model of his items so people know where the baseline is Though based on my recent build with new 105 5700, I can say most of the weights you have posted are lower than that, so Ultegra or Force?

DiscoBoy

brettjmcc wrote:

Well PX when they have them in do the skewers for £20, but you can also get them on eBay for that price too.

As other have said, I'd go Race Light 28 over supersonic, as the Supersonics may be a bit too thin, and they are a bit cheaper again. Still a saving over the normal Race 28 for instance, 65 vs 105. Another option would be Michelin Ultra Light, which Decathlon have down to £2.99; they are 77g.

Change the casette to a the power of greyskull option and go 12-23

Agree with Grill on the stem, seatpost etc.

The OP may assist in his search if he posted the make/model of his items so people know where the baseline is Though based on my recent build with new 105 5700, I can say most of the weights you have posted are lower than that, so Ultegra or Force?

Based on his BB weight, ultegra 6800.

p.s. you just made me very unhappy by mentioning those skewers being on ebay, I ordered KCNC ones earlier today

brettjmcc

Sorry DiscoBoy

As for another thought. Go Speedplay, just Chromoly ones and then buy the Ti spindles for them off FleaBay as well rather than paying for the Ti ones.

I've just pulled up some of the photos I took when I put mine together and the spreadsheet too. My Cinelli Gel Tape is a whopping 40g lighter inc bar ends. KMC x10SL will potentially lose another 10-15g.

My build was just over 8kg in the end with peadals even with heavy training wheels

DiscoBoy

brettjmcc wrote:

Sorry DiscoBoy

No worries. I just emailed them asking to cancel, and if they do arrive I'll just return them. In the meantime I've ordered the knock-offs.

So, thank you

ugo.santalucia

I think my approach makes a lot more sense. Don't see the point in wasting money in inferior components just because they are lighter. Get a drill and start removing metal from the existing components... a lot more fun!

DiscoBoy

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I think my approach makes a lot more sense. Don't see the point in wasting money in inferior components just because they are lighter. Get a drill and start removing metal from the existing components... a lot more fun!

We all know how much of a "sensible cyclist" you are, no need to remind us

hypster

Deleted

MattC59

Have a baby, I've lost several pounds over the past couple of weeks !!!!