Litespeed Niota Al - lightweight (10.08Kg) FS u/dates p2/3

The Rookie

Stans to go with the rims, got the Hope Hoops kit which was £17.50 with tape, valves and enough juice for two tyres.

njee20

Have considered egg beaters, but you hear a lot of tales of woe, and it would mean changing both bikes at once!

Mainly from people who don't use them or are regurgitating something they read years ago! I put new bearings in mine every year or so at most. The importers will do a full service for £25 if any other parts wear. Egg Beater 1s are dirt cheap. Fairly sure I've got an unused pair somewhere.

The Rookie

I spoke to a guy who races on egg eaters and said he went through a set of cleats every three months, I'll think on it once I have the rest sorted.

Shakedown ride turned into a battle of survival

That was after 300 yards!

The front mech chain gude that was previously seized solid decided to free itself so a piece of cable is now holding it in position going from stop, under the BB and back upto the bottom pull only mech, so a narrow wide ring is a priority as it's not really rideable to far like that as the swing arm rubs on the cable slightly.

Reduced sag to 20% to get the pedal bob to a sensible level, much better in short travel mode when climbing either way, that said even at 20% the suspension is very supple and linear feeling when seated and pedaling, not tried any real rough stuff yet though.

rockmonkeysc

Is linear suspension good for xc?

The Rookie

No idea! I'm only commenting how it feels, you never feel like the spring rate was ramping up, but then I only used about 50% travel as it was a gentle pedally ride, and it may change a lot when the shock is changed and it may need more air pressure to cope with trail centres.

rockmonkeysc

It wouldn't really start to ramp up in the first half of the travel anyway.

The Rookie

That's very likely true, this wasn't really as much of a ride as I was hoping as the two trails I use to the local woods were so muddy they weren't really rideable (grinding to a halt with mud accumulation on the from crown) and a dog walker told me the woods were even worse so I bailed out.

Narrow wide on order from on-one who have them on offer at the moment.

njee20

The Rookie wrote:

I spoke to a guy who races on egg eaters and said he went through a set of cleats every three months, I'll think on it once I have the rest sorted.

Mmm, yes, cleat life isn't great, worse than Shimano. Not that bad IMO though.

The Rookie

Finally complete, fifth element shock on with new bearings and spacers, on-one ringmaster (narrow wide) fitted with enough frame clearance, carbon bash (27g) in place, still need to go tubeless on the tyres.

Current weight is just sub 10.2kg, so will be knocking on the door of 10kg with the tyres tubeless. (Weight not taken with mud caked tyres!).

dirkpitt74

That's an impressive weight!
Do you think you'll get sub 10kg with it?
Do you have carbon bars/seatpost?

The Rookie

It will go sub 10Kg at some point I'm sure, I could do it now with lightweight tyres, but I only use the weight I actually ride the bike at.

Yes Chinese ebay special carbon post and Syncros UD carbon bars, aluminium bolts in the lever clamps (the older Shimano pinch bolt type so the bolt takes little load) and some fine tuning here and there. The light weight of this Shock helps, to go lighter the only option is the DT Swiss which don't come cheap!

Angus Young

The Rookie wrote:

Current weight is just sub 10.2kg, so will be knocking on the door of 10kg with the tyres tubeless. (Weight not taken with mud caked tyres!).

Wow! And I was feeling quite pleased with myself for having got under 30lbs! You've ruined my day! Lol!

The Rookie

Sorry to rain on your parade! Yours is a bit of a different bike though, no way would my frame (even in 5" travel mode) ride like the Process, even before it fell to bits, a Friend has a Knolly Endorphin which is more akin to yours, that comes in at just over 12.5Kg so a little under what your Process weighs.

10.184Kg with tubes in the tyres so I'm guessing about 10.06Kg tubeless when I get round to doing that conversion.

Full spec - sorry about the formating but its a copy and paste from Excel!
Frame
Litespeed Niota AL frame with shock bolts 2128
Fifth Element shock with bearings and spacers 244
Frame blanking bolts 0.5
Drivetrain
Deore XT (BB70) HT2 BB 87
BB spacers 4.1
Outer chainwheel retaining bolts 20
Carbon fibre bash 27
Deore XT HT2 RH arm 368
Deore XT HT2 LH arm 220
HT2 preload adjuster 3.5
On-One Ringmaster 61
XT SPD 349
Rear cable inner 11
Rear cable front outer 8
Rear cable mid outer 8
Rear cable rear outer 6
Deore XTR rear mech with alloy jockeys 200.2
Chain 244
Brakes
Shimano ST-M765 XT front 390
front calliper bolts 12
Shimano M800 saint/M965 XTR rear 276
rear caliper bolts 14
Seat
Chinese full carbon seatpost 183
USE plastic 27.2/31.6 shim 24
Cheap bolted seat clamp 20
Bontrager Inform RXL 197
Steering
Headset 72
Headset top cap 10
Manitou Skareb Elite forks 1445
Star fangled nut 0
Mt Zoom alloy/titanium top cap 5
Superstar 80mm stem with bikehut faceplate 122
Syncros UD Carbon 137
KCNC foam grips 15
Black bar end caps 6
Carbon Headset spacers 8
Wheels and tyre
A2Z hub, Sapim race spokes, alloy nipples and ZTR Alpine rim 634
160mm A2Z Teppen Yaki spade floating 89
Bolts 10
Continental tube 130
Rocket Ron EVO 2.25 Folding 479
Shimano XT QR skewer 58
Novatech 772hub, Sapim race spokes, alloy nipples and ZTR Alpine rim 802
Shimano M760 Cassette 296
Alligator rear disc 72
Bolts 12
Continental tube 130
Rocket Ron EVO 2.25 Folding 479
Shimano XT QR skewer 68


Total 10184.3

poah

so you've not actually weighed the whole bike then?

Chunkers1980

How can a SFN weigh nothing unless it's not there?

njee20

How can a SFN weigh nothing unless it's not there?

Guessing it's included in the weight of the fork. Is it a lightweight one though, they vary quite a bit!

You've got two headset top caps on there? A 10g one, and the Mt Zoom one piece bolt/top cap.

Seatpost looks quite heavy, particularly with the shim, that's over 200g. Mt Zoom seatclamps are 5g, and cheap. No issues with mine.

Nylon/alu bolts in the stop screws on your mech? (at least) 3 alu rotor bolts in each?

Chunkers1980

njee20 wrote:

How can a SFN weigh nothing unless it's not there?

Guessing it's included in the weight of the fork.

Good point. Guessing (actually pretty certain) they were second hand so it would have been in there.

The Rookie

Yes SFN is in the fork weight, I usually delete that line and forgot to.

There is a headset top cap under the spacers and the Mt Zoom compression cap, all correct.

Seatpost isn't amazingly light, but it was light for it's price, I may well cut uit down now I have a slightly larger frame which will save a bit more.

I haven't yet put lightweight bolts in the stop screws as I'm looking to go to a shorter cage mech soon.

POAH, not weighed the whole bike no, as it got very muddy out before the last few bits were added and I havent had time to give it a full clean, but there is nothing on the bike not included (I don't include the lizard skin or butt protector as no-one ever includes them in weights)

njee20

Grease? Cable end caps?

Sure there are cheaper ones, but 138g & £70

The Rookie

Grease included, cable end cap not fitted.

Thanks will be figuring out first whether to stay with an offset post or go to inline before I do buy, the original OE spec part was a Thomson layback with about the same offset as my carbon post.

The Rookie

First proper ride last night, really pleased.

Pedal bob isn't noticeable and putting a finger on the shock suggests its no more than 4-5mm of travel (2-3mm at the shock), riding over the frozen surfaces it was very smooth and comfy, watching 29ers having to come out the saddle due to the lumpiness while I was seated was a nice first!

I'd set sag at 25% but was using about 80% of total travel on what was a fairly mild XC ride so may lower the sag to nearer 20% (already have the pressure noted I need for that) if I'm going anywhere more adventuresome.

It's only lost a tiny amount of 'directness' versus the hardtail, about the same as dropping 2-3psi out the rear tyre.

How much credit should go to the frame and how much the 5th Element shock I don't know, either way I am over the moon at how the bike is working, it just felt like riding a hardtail on a surface smoother than the one we were riding over. In fact it's starting to show up the fork as a slightly weak link now.

Cockpit sizing is spot on (its about half a size bigger than my HT which always felt just a fraction to short) so the offset seatpost will stay leaving me less options for big weight reduction there, but that's a small detail.

Had one puncture last night leaving an old spare tube in, so the rear at least will be going tubeless very soon and I've also picked up a later Shadow rear mech (XTR) with a shorter cage better suited to the 1x application so that will be going on as well along with swapping the Bonty saddle for what I think is a more appropriate Knife.

The on-one NW ring was faultless in use, although there was little (no) gnar in the ride last night.

The Rookie

Quick update...
I've now gone tubeless, very very easy, the hardest part was getting the rim tape to sit in the fairly narrow Alpine rims, once done I simply put on the tyres, inflated them (one went straight up,the other needed a little extra soapy water and a little more vigorous than normal pumping, then stuck 60ml of stans in each one and sloshed it around, topped up the pressure after an hour and all still good the next day.
The saddle has been swapped to a slightly better (for off roading) Charge Knife and the rear mech has been updated a bit with an M772 shadow with a shorter cage.

Total weight is now 10.081Kg, so looking at some way to shed the 82g to make it a 'sub 10Kg' bike, still really happy with the ride, although the forks are showing up as a bit of a weak point as they are fairly flexy and I'm riding this harder than the old HT, so that may add a few g's!

dirkpitt74

Nice work!
Carbon Fibre stem?

The Rookie

The stem is already pretty light at 122g, lighter than many CF although lighter (CF and Al) are available it's getting into exotic pricing, Ti bolts would shave a bit though.

The Rookie

Just a quick update, the flexibility of the Manitou's was starting to become an issue now I'm pushing harder, so the 28.6mm stanchions have given way to some 32mm stanchion SID's. The crown has been re sprayed black as it had a lot of cable rub and they have had a full service with new seals and foam rings. Have added a little weight (22g), although for pure XC use I could lose the compression damper saving about 60g.

rockmonkeysc

Isn't it better to keep the damper for better pedalling and less dive under braking? Would you really notice 60 grammes ?

bob6397

I suppose when you are measuring the weight of your bike to .01 of a KG then you might notice 60g.. I prob have a few hundred grams of mud on mine at the minute though..

Nice build though - a bit different to most of the other builds on here

The Rookie

Lots of XC racers loose the compression damper such as our own NJee20. I will probably try it and see at some point, meanwhile sag is set at 20psi to hold the front end up (as I prefer) but the dual air second chamber is set to +15psi to offset that over smaller bumps. Only had a quick spin so time will tell how I like it.

njee20

I wouldn't go as far as lots FWIW, I know a few who have!

rockmonkeysc

Forks with no compression dampers are just horrible. Even it it lost a kilo off my forks I wouldn't consider removing mine.