[Closed] £19.99 Chinese carbon MTB bars ? Anyone ?

won't loose much from the seat post but you could loose 120g from the bar. I wouldn't bother with Chinese bars, get something reputable.

I'd much rather have a Pressfit BB than an untested cheap Chinese bar!

For me it would be too much of a lottery for those components. There's probably some that are fine, but I'd think the risk would be greater at that price point.

johnw1984 - Member

I'd much rather have a Pressfit BB than an untested cheap Chinese bar!

Yeah but swapping the frame then makes things complicated like needing headsets, BB's, forks being too short a steerer, etc etc... It can end up being one thing after another to save some weight.

It's not that the Parkwood is bad, it just feels weighty, it's the same weight as my Whyte T130SX but it also feels quite back end heavy.

I was looking and the cassette only would be 20-50gr of saving it's a PG1020, so for the cost of £50 i'm not getting a lot of weight saving..

If it gets too much money, it would be cheaper to just flog the Parkwood and buy a lighter XC bike... So i don't want to be throwing gazillions of £$£$£ at it.

Cotic Solaris frame is about half the weight of the parkwood and has a threaded bb. Look for a decent second hand one of those.

interested - was hovering above the On-One Knuckleballs again yesterday, at £44 incl postage.

Was looking yesterday ADS, nothing at all about.

I certainly have a Solaris WANT in my life too....

If anyone reads and is looking to flog a Solaris in a M possibly an L, i'm your man 🙂

I bought one of the last yellow ones a few weeks ago, it really is a nice bike and feels so light. Although I am comparing that with a commencal meta am, and a ragley blue pig with old coil uturn pikes!!
I was looking on here, eBay and pb at second hand ones and they do come up. You've got a bike now so your not desperate, just keep scanning eBay and wait for one to turn up. Or a wanted ad on here.

4.2kg

Parkwood 29er is 4.2 lb not kg, it's a pretty good weight for the frame and its intended use.

Replacing the wheels with much lighter would be a hefty expense

what are your existing wheels? Is there anything in the Superstar wheel clearance +30% off code?

IMO bars and seatpost are last resort-ers for weight saving. On top of which finding light bars for cheap with the right sweep/rise or layback/clamp style for you could be tricky.

I know wheels are a much debated area for weight saving, but IMO the difference is far more noticeable than say the difference in lighter bars. Neither may make you significantly faster, but over the length of a full ride I find lighter wheels feel better. My theory is that because they are pretty much the furthest thing on the bike away from your body's core strength then you really notice the difference in handling.

I know a frame swap throws up a few complications with compatibility, but I'd rather get the bits needed than having to pick bits of carbon/gravel out of my face 🙂

Cotic Solaris sounds like a better bet though. I'd say try to put a bit of money away while you're looking for a second hand one, but if you're anything like me, you'll want to change things yesterday!

If you're looking for a name brand carbon riser bar, I noticed that CRC have Havens for £66

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/easton-haven-carbon-riser-bar/rp-prod125098

Would save you about 130g

Can't help but think the first thread you start after buying and using these £19.99 bars is "What dentist for smashed front teef".

I'd rather buy a known brand second hand bar than a cheap Chinese one.

WTB ST I25 TCS Rim On El Guapo Rattlesnake Hubs 29 Front 15mm Rear 135mm QR Shimano

Wheels above

Weight 29er: Front 990g, Rear 1.225 kg, Total 2.215 kg

So i could in theory drop 400/500gr from that i guess with spending a few quid... but it's really going to cost ITRO £400 to do that.

I do get that the Parkwood is spot on for it's intended use... but as with many times in life, i'm not sure it's purchased use has or will end up being it's long term use... It's more an XC bike than a trail beater that's needed for this year.

[url= https://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/57061/Kinesis_UK_Strut_F750_Carbon_Flat_Bar ]Cheap (in relative terms) and light. [/url]

There's a medium Solaris in the classifieds currently

Trying to shed some weight from the XC bike

feels quite back end heavy.

Handlebars are the obvious candidate! 😉

Thanks Lummox.

We have a problem here though...

Weight - 4.9lbs for the 19"

Now assuming the PArkwood is actually 4.2.... but even if it's not and heavier in the L, it's still not going to be any different at all.

Hmmmmmm

Merlin Chosen/Alex wheels - under 1700g, £170 delivered.

I can get this for £175 for cash, he's only 10 mins away from me.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cotic-Solaris-Frame-/252830134513?

Which is almost a no-brainer for a test risk. Arguably the S is fractionally too small comparing to my Whyte T130SX, it's 1" less TT length than the Whyte, which is a Medium.
The Parkwood is a bit of a barge and i'd argue too big, it's many many MM more on the TT length.

I'd change bars for feel or a different riding position but not weight. A few hundred grams is nothing. It equates to less water in your bottle, 1 spare inner tube rather than 2, don't wear a softshell, wash the mud off the bike etc....

Can't see a weight on them Core ?

https://www.merlincycles.com/pro-build-chosen-hub-alex-volar-trail-wheels-29-82077.html

+1 On One bars

I've both the 747mm softs on my HT and the 777mm hards on my FS.

Cheap, light, strong - rare to have all three.

Looking at those wheels, I think you could swap the rims for some KOM i25s. ERD is close enough that you should be able to reuse spokes and you'd lose something like half a pound for about £120.

[url= https://www.wtb.com/products/st ]st[/url]

[url= https://www.wtb.com/products/kom ]kom[/url]

swanny853 - Member

Looking at those wheels, I think you could swap the rims for some KOM i25s. ERD is close enough that you should be able to reuse spokes and you'd lose something like half a pound for about £120.

st

kom

That's getting into wheel building insanity which is deffo above my pay grade there.

Re the Solaris frame, is it not in fact heavier than the Parkwood (Cotic claims 4.9lb), as you'd expect from a steel frame?

Anyway, just to throw a spanner in the works, what tyres are you running? EDIT - ignore that, you've said already you're going to put lightweight tyres on.

The wheels might be a good part to upgrade if this is for XC race days, then you won't have to faff swapping tyres, just switch wheels over.

For XC stuff on the 29er i'm running Rapid Robs in tubeless. 2.25 and seem to be about 790gr according to a quick google.

The only problem with spare wheels discussions is that i've already got a 2nd set of wheels for the 29er along with a Whyte T130 and also spare wheels for that too ! It's starting to get ridiculous to have 5 sets of wheels then !

It's more for the White Roads 100 mile and the SDW double, rather than flat out XC racing... i'm never going to reach the XC whippet status as it stands, but if i can make the bike lighter for reasonable money then i'm up for it.

That's getting into wheel building insanity which is deffo above my pay grade there.

You'd be alright, I swapped some rims a while back:
-buy Roger Musson book
-tape new rim to old rim with spoke holes line up
-untape, realign rim so angled spoke holes line up the right way, re tape
-move spokes/nipples over giving a quick clean as you go
-them tension according to book
-build more wheels because it's addictive, thereby cancelling out any cost saving

That's getting into wheel building insanity which is deffo above my pay grade there.

If you want the building I'll do it for beer money (think you're not far away?).

But in reality I think this is probably going to yield the quickest results. Just pick up something uncool off ebay (Focus, Canyon, Cube, etc)

If it gets too much money, it would be cheaper to just flog the Parkwood and buy a lighter XC bike... So i don't want to be throwing gazillions of £$£$£ at it.

If it feels back heavy that's probably a geometry thing, you want something longer and lower up front to get your weight over the front wheel.

fwiw..29er frames I've had...
Parkwood - 1800g
Pinnacle Ramin - 1500g
Norco Team (carbon XC) 1250g

Steel in my experience is 2kg+ but its better because it looks nice 🙂

You could probably get a Ramin frame on ebay for < 100 ?
Basically swapping frames doesn't save as much as you'd think.

Hmmmm. It's all interesting isn't it... Well, it is to me anyway.

It seems like you can get say 400gr here from one bit, like the frame for example.... then 400gr from the wheels.... then 400gr from the finishing kit.... 400gr from the drivetrain.... But getting 1kg from the lot is quite tough...

Clearly i can throw £3000 at it and get a super lightweigh XC dream machine... But i'm not in a position to do that and don't really feel it would be the right choice anyway.

I'm probably going to stick today with the first plan then which is some carbon bars (probably the On-One Knuckleballs from above) and a cheap carbon seatpost, as i already need a seatpost anyway due to the other one being creaky as it is.

Thanks for all the thoughts/ideas though gents... very much appreciated.

Second hand big brand ones off here. £20-30.

Worked for me, wife and kids

I use cheap Chinese carbon on lots of my bikes and have never had a problem.
630mm 130g flat bars on both my fat bikes with nearly 10000 miles between them, I think they were about £13 each.
As with anything carbon, just give them a good test before you ride them.

Lock on grips?
Get rid, superstar silicones.

Look at the stem too.

On my first weight weenie campaign on a budget I shed a ridiculous amount of weight changing a Thomson stem with steel bolts, lock on ODI Grips and an Easton EA70 bar to MT Zoom flat carbon bars, KCNC Wing Stem and ESI Silicone grips.

But a back heavy bike has a heavy rear wheel and cassette tbh

What cranks are on it? Some of the lower range stuff is a serious anchor in the middle of a bike

First rule of weight loss purchases though... always weigh the part you are replacing before replacing with a known weighted item.

£18 Chinese carbon bar and no issues used on full suss. Also carbon saddle no issues, but my back side might disagree

Cassette isn't that heavy @ 395Gr

Cranks are Raceface Affect double @ 578Gr without BB weight

The single i've also got for non climby days is a Raceface Ride which is obviously lighter and i also get the lack of front mech, cabling and shifter... But there are certain rides where the last click is required 🙂
Considering the ride in question is for the SDW double, i'm going to be keeping the smaller ring and mech/shifter.

Parkwood is not exactly heavy. For what it is capable of and the price I think it's pretty decent.

Wheels, tyres, forks. Anything else is small rewards for big £ or dubious quality.

Mt Zoom bar will save you 200gr, seatpost is trickier but a KCNC Ti pro will save 80gr or so. KCNC SC Wing stem (as above) is also very light and I've run them on a couple of bikes for years with no problems.
But the best weight saving moves I ever made were always wheels. Hope Pro3/Crests on one bike and ZTR 3.30/Crests on another (with KCNC rotors, tubeless and relatively light tyres). Got both these wheelsets in sales for £300 each.

Lighter wheels, switch to 1X if you haven't already.
Seatposts usually don't make a big difference weight-wise (but some carbon ones are bendier so might be more confortable). You can save some weight with the handlebar, but I wouldn't bother with a Chinese one.

Oh and that 4.2kg typo... bit of a facepalm. You really wouldn't wanna ride a 4.2 kg frame 🙂

You can lose a load of weight by taking the springs and dampers out from inside your forks.

Wheels at that sort of money are just not in the discussion right now. If Merlin had them a few months back when i was buying a spare rear i'd have jumped on it, but i ended up with a Mavic Crossride as my spare, along with the i25 as my others... it's one of them two really only. There's only so many wheels i can justifty and 4 sets is enough.

There's only so many wheels i can justifty and 4 sets is enough.

sell a set then 🙂

Problem with that is... because of some of the crazy cheap wheels about these days, my current wheels are worth about £4.01

Take a dremel to the inside of your seatpost to thin it out. Ever noticed that expensive seatposts are just thinner and hence lighter.

I think the KCNC Ti seatpost mentioned above has an 85kg weight limit.

I fancied treating my FSR to some nice finishing kit & swapped out the branded Specialized stuff with KCNC bits. It was mainly a vanity purchase, but I also figured it would be nice to save a bit of weight.

Ahem. I barely saved anything, weight-wise. The Specialized finishing kit was either pretty light to begin with or weight saving on finishing kit isn't really worth pursuing unless you have cut weight everywhere else, or you know that your stuff is particularly heavy.

Ok, I'll be the the alter ego here. I am running a cheap carbon.

I'd like to stress at this point, I'm the kind of rider who's wheels never leave the ground, I'm also 90kgs.

I'm running one of these bars with no issues so far and have been for about 9 months. Cost me about £19 on ebay, and I have to admit I am happy with it, its light and so far, strong. I have the 680mm fitted and a 720mm one to change to when I go bike packing. I'm slightly nervous of adding another 4kgs to a stressed bar, but I'll be trialing it before I go to Belgium in August.

[url] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fasteam-Mountain-handlebar-bicycle-Seatpost/dp/B01H76OU2S [/url]

crazy cheap wheels about these days

so take advantage 🙂

5 is just a number... and it's only 1 more than 4. With Switch hubs and arch mk3 hubs from Superstar with their 30% code, ACI F1 spokes from sdeals... I get that lot to 245. a beer money build offered above would be a far wiser investment IMO than any carbon bars and seatpost. I'd save the bar/post cash and add it to more saving... then take advantage of superstar's Easter discount code 🙂 I'd only look at swapping bars as mentioned if you needed to change bar shape.

Or... spend it all on a weekend away biking somewhere with your existing kit and not worry about the weight 🙂

Already got a week in Andalucia booked and planned with the guys over there.. 🙂

Weekends away are harder as they're usually taken up by trackdays on the KTM, although tomorrow i'm riding Silverstone GP which will make a change from a weekend date... Rockingham after that on the 15th April...

Lucky git

Heard nothing but good about the Knuckle Bars 🙂

I bought a set for a tenner for the kids bike thinking that they would be strong enough for a kid. I then thought I'd test so for a tenner bought a second pair... with the intention of deliberately destructing...

When I actually got to cutting the kids bars down and then once i had some spare I deliberately destroyed the cut-off ends I decided that they were actually pretty strong!

I've had these on my XC bike over a year and wiped out plenty including a few OTB's on rock... (so has the kid) and usually leave the ground whenever possible... I haven't however put them on my trail bike....

I have a no-name carbon frame but I draw the line at bars- I've broken bars before and it's a proper ****-you sort of an accident, I was very lucky to just break my wrist. The big issue is, you get no real warning so you don't tuck, or roll, or anything like that, you just eat dirt.

Not that no-name bars are necessarily going to break. You have no reason to doubt them, but also no reason to trust them. And cheap branded stuff isn't [i]that[/i] much more expensive.

Knuckleballs are well priced, On One obviously aren't a reputable company but they're not in the business of actually killing people, just stealing from them. Exotic a good wide selection at around £60. RSP Ego isn't the lightest but I have the riser on my Remedy and the flat on my xc bike and they've both been grand (they come up about 20g heavier than claimed, but for £50, can't complain- I replaced a set of Enves with the riser ones...)

ads678 - Member

Cotic Solaris frame is about half the weight of the parkwood

Half a Solaris frame may well be half the weight of a parkwood.

Wheels and tyres, usually. And look for hidden weight- best thing to do if you want to save weight is nerd out and weigh everything, you can't effectively save it if you don't know where it is.

Parkwoods do feel a bit solid, even if you strip the weight down I don't think you'll find it a really zingy thing to ride.

I've been riding a Parkwood 650b & rigid carbon forks this winter, liked it so much I picked up a Parkwood 29er frame and I'm now moving over to that for summer, running 650b+ tyres and RS Recon shocks.

ads678 - Member
Cotic Solaris frame is about half the weight of the parkwood

Half a Solaris frame may well be half the weight of a parkwood.

yeah, er, the Parkwood is lighter. I had my medium on the scales - it was 1950g

I have a no-name carbon frame but I draw the line at bars

Wheels, tyres, forks. Anything else is small rewards for big £ or dubious quality.

There are good, reasonably priced bars at around 200g and you can go to 150g on bars [url= http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ritchey-superlogic-low-riser-mountain-bike-handlebar/ ]still rated for 'Enduro' use[/url]

Usually possible to save some weight on the saddle if you're running something cheap at the moment.

eg Selle Italia SLR ti is 145g, manganese railed version about 200g.

simons_nicolai-uk - Member

you can go to 150g on bars still rated for 'Enduro' use

Ehhh, for a given quantity of enduro- I'm pretty sure they mean the "endurance" type for the superlogic, considering they sell a beefed up version for trail use.

philjunior - Member

Hmm, what is harder to make, a frame or a bar? And what happens if the head tube rips off? I'd suggest your reasoning is inconsistent!

Not really. OK, the head tube could come off, but that's an unusual failure mode for carbon since it's not really a standalone part as in a metal frame. The head tube could fail, but there's massively more structure there and the stresses are very different, that's a whole different level of fail.

And ease of production? Low barrier to entry isn't actually an advantage here, you can make the easier product with less skill and capability. [i]I[/i] could make a carbon bar, that's not good news! (oh OK, I could probably make a carbon bike too, but it'd be obviously made in a shed)

My Raleigh RSP downhill carbon bars which were a PSA bargain off here for £30 snapped last Wednesday night.
[img] ?efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&oh=374bcc92f115aa5dc6cf5401db6c60bc&oe=595C9D22[/img]
15 months old and I got a good all round beating. Managed to miss all the nasty bedrock and find some soft boulders and earth to land amongst. Still got all my teeth so will take the knee, elbow, kidney and shoulder damage as a bonus.

So I'd rather not bother with cheap carbon bars again thanks.

Ehhh, for a given quantity of enduro- I'm pretty sure they mean the "endurance" type for the superlogic, considering they sell a beefed up version for trail use.

I did wonder about that - 200g is my 'feels safe' minimum but OP is looking for XC bars.

The head tube could fail, but there's massively more structure there and the stresses are very different, that's a whole different level of fail.

I'm far more wary of bars than anything else (see post above). Head tube frame failures *tend* to happen in crashes rather than JRA. Frames failing anywhere else isn't usually catastrophic for the rider.

My Raleigh RSP downhill carbon bars which were a PSA bargain off here for £30 snapped last Wednesday night

😮

Did they go at a clamp? I've been riding mine like the DH moniker meant they were good for it.

My Raleigh RSP downhill carbon bars which were a PSA bargain off here for £30 snapped last Wednesday night

Did you send them back to Raleigh? What did they say?

overtightened brake lever.

That's made me want to take my knuckleball bars off my bike. They didn't have any recommended torque settings with them, and now I worry that torquing the levers to shimanos settings may be too much.

They went about an inch in board of the clamp. Not sent them back, doubt I will bother.
Strangely the Wednesday before I was inspecting them and wondering if the lines running along them were from the manufacturing process or stress marks... Everyone on the ride thought they were manufacturing marks, but a week later and they are stress marks.
I have carbon trust issues now! I've broken alloy bars, seat posts and frames before, but they were all more gentle in their failure and started to creak first.

Lol I'm leaving it heavy after all this thread!

In that case, fancy a set of 650b+ wheels for the Parkwood? It'll make those rides on the Ridgeway more comfortable.. I'll even drop them round for a test ride 😛

I've got more 650b wheels than I know what to do with!

[url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Flite-Carbonio-saddle-Ti-Carbon-rails-mint-retro-160-grams-/262893296502? ]Flite Carbon Ti 160 grams[/url]

I'm selling the above...

Northwind
I've broken bars before and it's a proper ****-you sort of an accident... The big issue is, you get no real warning so you don't tuck, or roll, or anything like that, you just eat dirt.

Agree with Northwind, knocked the ends off my left wrist joint (4 fractures) and badly damaged the ligaments in my right wrist when a set of bars failed on me.
Worst crash ever, I've had bigger crashes and worse injuries but that was mentally the worst and really painful.

Cheap bars and 2nd hand bars are just silly.

Wonna save some serious weight?

Rectal stimulants (Bisacodyl, Pedia-Lax, Dulcolax) Trigger rhythmic contractions of intestinal muscles to eliminate stool.

I've got a carbon WTB saddle for sale at 191g mate if thats any good to you?

Given up on the weight idea now thanks