[Closed] Make my bike lighter....

Spreadsheet time....

List all the components, get the weights and then work out what the best g/£ upgrade is

Hi mate

if you aren’t running tubeless that’s where I would start.   Roll of gorilla tape, valves and some stans sealant.

Ive had carbon bars and tbh they are only a few grams lighter than a good set of alloy ones.

Rotational weight is where you will notice the saving imo.

If you take your weight plus the bike and add it up then take away a few hundred grams it adds to nothing in the scale of things but take a few hundred off ya wheels and you will feel it plus no punctures.

Better, lighter wheels don't have to be carbon.

However, the best weight AND ride quality upgrade you can make is better, lighter wheels. The positive impact of faster acceleration, better steering, better braking, all can be had by reducing rotating weight. Far more benefit than changing cranks.

Thanks, yes been tubeless for a couple of years now.

I was looking at Blue Flow carbon wheels. I'd be tempted to buy direct from China but i like the idea of a uk ppint of contact and warranty.

take the new forks and dropper back off again.

simple.

*sounds like they weigh a 29er full sus off a metric tonne

Foam grips give a good gram to £ saving!

Spreadsheet time….

List all the components, get the weights and then work out what the best g/£ upgrade is

Yep, best way to do it including the wheels broken down into rims and spokes.  Yes it is good to save on wheels but getting lighter hubs is as noticeable as a lighter stem, whereas if you go to a lot of expense to save 30 grams on a rim it is not money well spent if most of the wheels weight reduction was in the hub.

You may get lucky and find you have the heaviest crankset available and be able to get a big reduction with a non carbon crankset or you may not.

I have a spreadsheet containing all the actual weights of my parts so I can make very objective decisions on what to replace.  Unfortunately the thing staring me in the face is a 700 gram frame reduction by swapping to carbon which will take my bike down 6.2kg as I have a heavy alu frame but I don't want to spend the money at the moment.

When I played the weight reduction game it was a pretty consistent £1/g. Work out how much weight have you added with the new forks and dropper, convert that to £s and you've s reasonable estimate of cost (assuming it's not all the very lightest kit st the moment).

As others have said google current weights and look up the range for parts.

i got lucky on a sc chameleon earlier this year, I wanted the frame only but got a cracking deal,

i subsequently sold off all the parts as new and bought what I wanted, basic brakes, alloy bars, saddle

all saved 100 grams plus, Tyres can make a significant difference continental seem to be really light compared to maxxis I run on other bikes,

as always it depends how you ride, also gearing yes we all like that granny gear, but a 11-36 cassette will be significantly lighter

you don't say what you weigh....generally the easiest way to stop weight is to start with yourself!

proper decent wheels will set you back a lot unless you pick up a second hand bargain.  I think my LB set were close to £800 all in a few years back.  (they are great though)

Rear wheel, front wheel, fork, Every bike is the same

Carbon cranks are shite 😁

First question is, what is the bike and how much does it weigh?

You changed the fork to something heavier. Why? My personal experience is that saving weight is a bit overrated. A fork with more travel and better damping is well worth a slight bit of extra weight, so is a dropper post. You can save a lot of weight by going to skinny XC tyres, but they will totally suck unless you are racing XC.

The obvious place to start is to price out a new bike that weighs about your target weight, then see whether it's worth upgrading your existing bike or just selling it and buying a completely new bike.

you don’t say what you weigh….generally the easiest way to stop weight is to start with yourself!

This. 1lb of body weight is 453g, so according to scotroutes £1/g cost calcs, a couple of pounds lost body weight is worth nearly £1K !!

Also worth considering what you are carrying. Do you always finish the water you take or could you carry less? Do you tend to pack loads of just-in-case stuff?

I'm guilty of all of the above, but I'm overweight and too tight to spend much money, so it's personal weight loss or just being slow for me 🙂

1lb of body weight is 453g

Amazing. How many grams is 1 lb of bike weight?

Lighter bikes generally ride nicer regardless of body weight!

Always the stastandard response to these threads is ‘why not lose weight from your body’ which is absolutely relevant but annoying a response none the less!  My view is lose weight from both!  There is no doubt in my mind having ridden the same bike built light and heavy which one feels the best.  So my view is always, I will make my bike as light as possible (for context my bike is just over 30lbs) and try to lose weight myself.

@kerley 6.2Kg seems very light! Is this you? https://www.mbr.co.uk/news/worlds-lightest-mountain-bike-373549

It has to be wheels and tyres. Not only the biggest opportunity to lose weight, but also it makes the biggest difference in feel. My giant XTC came with Giant wheels and heavy steel bead OEM Racing Ralphs. Swapping the wheels for ZTR Crests, the tyres for decent folding ones and going tubeless saved well over a kilogram and made the bike feel totally different. My Jeffsy came with silly light wheels (DT XMC1200) but with Onza Ibex tyres that weighed well over a kilo each. Swapping the tyres for 2.35 Nobby Nics again made the bike feel much more nimble with no loss of grip for the type of riding I do.

6.2Kg seems very light! Is this you?

Iirc kerley does away with a few of the unnecessary bits of an mtb, like suspension, gears and freehubs...

Foam grips give a good gram to £ saving!

Yes, and the lizard skinz ones actually feel really nice, decent amount of grip, and have everything you need to fit them and ride in the wet without grips falling off.

The bar end plugs that come with them are a bit fragile though if you ride wide bars through narrow gaps in the woods.

You might well find a stem could save a decent bit of weight, depending on what you're currently running. Really (unfortunately) the spreadsheet is the only way to go if you are actually after saving weight not just adding bling. You have to be prepared to save 50g here and there to add up to a couple of lb or even kilos if you're lucky.

I saved 350g from bars and stem by going for a basic forged XC/trail stem and some RSP bars. The stem I had before was an absolute lump though, even for its intended use (Truvativ Hussefelt).

To get a worthwhile saving you really do need to look at everything and change quite a few part, being honest about what your needs are (i.e. no point putting XC weight weenie rims on if you are going to smash them to pieces, but also no point in riding round with DH spec rims on if the XC ones would be strong enough).

Re. carbon cranks, depending on what you're spending, the XTR alloy cranks are lighter than some carbon cranks.

Also remember that you can shave a lot of weight from the rider by just riding more, which is a lot more fun than spreadsheets. (Well, maybe you can't, but most certainly can).

Rear wheel, front wheel, fork, Every bike is the same

Especially if for some reason you take the frame to pieces but not the wheels or fork...

So what I have gleaned from the wisdom offered above:

- Best place to lose weight is wheels/tyres providing the new ones are actually significantly lighter than the originals.

- Carbon cranks are expensive and don't add up to a big weight loss.

- Other components (stems, bars, seat posts, pedals etc.) all add up so a few grams here and are worthwhile but the costs ramp up.

- Lose body weight (but it isn't the same as a light bike).

- Spreadsheets.

Thanks all. I think I may get some new wheels and shave some extra grams off with a better chainset and pedals. Forks are heavier because I replaced the knackered Rebas with some Pikes. I shan't be going back again! New bike costs circa 3k. I reckon I can do the wheels and bits for around 1k and they'll be transferable to nearly all the other bikes in the garage too.

Time to get spendy!

This. 1lb of body weight is 453g, so according to scotroutes £1/g cost calcs, a couple of pounds lost body weight is worth nearly £1K !!

You wouldn’t believe the value of some of the shits I’ve had...

Obviously we have no idea of the spec of your bike but these items are genrally quite good bang for your buck:

Plastic pedals (Nukeproof Horizon Comps or similar)

Foam grips (Esi or Lizard Skin DSP)

Carbon Bars (RSP ones were cheap.)

I've been down this route with my bike but slowly ended up refitting the heavier, more sturdy, reliable parts back on. I don't really find weight makes a huge difference unless your going to be racing XC and it likely makes downhill performance worse.

Re. foam grips, the only downside I've had apart from the end plugs (which you might not need if your bars have them fitted) is that you have to cut them off if you need to change a lever that doesn't have a split clamp. This might or might not be a big deal to you.

My default Voodoo Wazoo was ~16.5Kg.

Replaced ~3.2Kg pair of Mission Commands with ~2.2Kg pair of Jumbo Jims.

Default ~1.5Kg fork for ~0.6Kg Carbon Fatty fork.

Default 1.1Kg pair of tubes with 0.8Kg pair of SV13F lightweight fat tubes.

Default ~0.7Kg stem/bar/grips for ~0.35Kg Corto/Knuckleball/foam grips.

Default ~3.9Kg fat wheels for ~2.3Kg Fatnotfat wheels.

~0.3Kg pair of 29er tubes instead of 0.8Kg sv13f tubes.

Currently using ~0.65Kg pair of 28mm Grand Sport Race instead of ~2.2Kg pair of Jumbo Jim's.

Yet to change the weighty ~0.7Kg saddle and post combo... All the little changes add up in weight loss, but as much as the replacements have made it versatile, they've almost cost the same as the bike! 😮 😆

Just be careful if you turn into a weight weenie. I've been there, spreadsheet etc.

I went for really lightweight stuff that turned out to be s&#te. Ti bolts that really shouldn't be used, I ended up getting the drill out. Grips that just didn't provide any comfort and over time hurt my hands, tyres that just ripped when they saw slate, rims that dinged, saddles that were painful etc etc.

Now when I buy something i am aware of the weight and make a sensible decision. A light bike feels amazing when you first pick it up or when you carry it over a gate but it doesn't make that much difference to times (my times at least)

IMHO its rotating weight that is important. Light wheels, tyres etc.

I carry far too much kit in my camelback that I could probably ditch. Fortunately, no weight to lose.

Aaaargh stupid flipping forum just lost my post showing all the weights and prices!

In a nutshell - I've compared all the claimed weights of my current parts with those of upgraded parts in my price range.

It turns out the cranks only offer me 100g but cost £249 whereas new xtr pedals give me 160g at just £64. The biggest surprise was the carbon wheels i was looking at (£800) actually ADDED 30g! Had I gone for the exact Roval carbon equivalents I would have saved 123g but they would have cost me about £1300 which works out at a over tenner a gram. So bugger that.

Glad I did that. Just saved about a grand.

Interestingly I weighed the bike using the bathroom scales (ie. I stood on them, picked up the bike and calculated the difference). It weighs 14.1kg (slightly less than a metric tonne). The claimed weight when new was 13.18kg. So I reckon I can spend about £160 on new pedals (160g), chainset (60g), and swap the bars for a carbon pair I have (70g) and sit pretty in the knowledge that there's nothing more I can sensibly do whilst spending my saved cash on malt whisky and trail centre trips.