Orange Clockwork 2013 - 29'er

gbredneck

Hi All

New to this mountain bike lark, and picked up an Orange clockwork 29'er, now i know mountain bikes are not like road bikes weight wise but it feels like a tank, here's the spec:

Frame Sizes S,M,L,XL
Colour Clockwork Orange
Tubeset 6061-T6 Custom Butted OS Aluminium Tube
Fork Rock Shox XC30 29 TK Coil 100mm QR
Bottom Bracket Shimano UN26
Front Mech Shimano Acera
Rear Mech Shimano Deore 9 sp
Shifters Shimano Acera
Chainset Shimano FCM430
Brakes Shimano 395
Wheelset Shimano 475 Disc/Mavic TN119 29er
Tyres Continental X King 2.2 29er
Headset Cane Creek 5
Stem Orange Stalk +
Seatpost Stick Up
Saddle SDG Falcon Orange Edition
Handlebars Orange HotRod 700
PedalFlat
Cassette Shimano HG50-9 11-34T

Am looking for upgrades to lose some of the weight, any ideas guys?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

cooldad

How much does it weigh?
Nothing stands out - it's all serviceable but bottom end stuff. How much do you want to spend?

kajjal

I have a road bike and a reasonably light weight XC mountain bike. On road compared to the road bike the MTB feels like you are wading through treacle. The reason is it is heavier, has big grippy tyres and suspension. Off road my MTB really flies and is a great handling bike. I would just ride it off road for a while to get used to it. Try some trail centres for easy navigation and a variety of levels of technical (rough/twisty) trails.

To lose weight I would be looking at changing the forks to Reba's and upgrading as things wear out. Better to be durable and in one piece than too light for mountain biking.

gbredneck

I should have mentioned i previously had a 2000 stump jumper FSR with full XT on it, loved it, but fell for the 29 spiel, so sold the stumpy, although it wasnt road bike light, it was pretty light. Different class of bike, i suppose.

I was thinking of replacing chain set first, which i guessed would drop the most weight.

cooldad

Tyres generally most cost effective, depending what version's on there now.

The Rookie

If they are wire bead tyres they will be heavy and have very poor grip, so decent tyres as CD says.

Fork is also pretty hefty.

It's a well balanced bike, so to make inroads you will be changing almost everything (bought the wrong bike scenario).

CitizenLee

Tyres, wheels and forks are where you will notice the biggest weight savings.

Start with new rubber and see how it feels from there.

rockmonkeysc

Theres some heavy components on there. Forks, cranks, wheels and tyres are the most obvious.
Tyres are the cheapest way to loose weight but I think the biggest weight loss could be had by swapping the fork for something like a Rockshox Reba.

Thewaylander

Return it and get your specialised back?

gbredneck

LOL i wondered how long that comment would take to come.

Thewaylander

it's a sensible comment in reality,

Budget 29ers tend to be a bit of a lump the wheels are large and you can really feel that weight when riding, its deminished greatly at high end as more expensive wheels are used.

the only real advice if you are going to keep it if you like how it rides, is tires, wheels forks that will get rid of most of the unwanted slug like feeling from it.

poah

gbredneck wrote:

Am looking for upgrades to lose some of the weight, any ideas guys?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

sell it or return it and buy a lighter bike - all the parts on that model are bottom end, you would have to spend loads to get it lighter.

gbredneck

Is the frame not worth keeping and building on? Am not after a quick fix, if long term thats a reasonable frame it would make sense to upgrade the parts.

poah

no idea

rockmonkeysc

The frame is ok but nothing special. Unfortunately Orange bikes are just terrible value for money.

Thewaylander

Pretty much what rockmonkeybum said,

Orange have a cult following i find, but in reality most people find them to be overpriced mediocre bikes at best.

kajjal

Orange bikes are starting to get good reviews again. I have a 1996 Orange Clockwork which is a good steel framed hardtail bike and it was the last one where you chose the groupset at the point of order which was good at the time.

gbredneck

After doing some sums on the weights of things, i ended up replacing the group set with SLX kit, which saved about 1kg on the total weight of the bike, not a lot i know, but it now makes the bike a lot more enjoyable, and the brakes stop on a dime now. Am enjoying the Clockwork a lot more now.

Next plan is replacement forks, then wheels when funds allow.

I guess i just like the Orange, you don't see a lot of them around where i ride.