[Closed] New bike needs a diet- weight weenies assemble!

That looks a pretty sorted build why do you need to lighten it?

I’d spend the money on a holiday or a PT and getting fitter...

However, if money is no object...

Don’t bother with xtr pedals only spdsive broken, I stick to xt level these days

Carbon rims, lighter hubs and tyres are where you’ll save most weight but at a serious amount of £££ plus you will most likely be sacrificing some durability over your current setup

You'd save a chunk by fitting a normal seatpost. Cheaper too 🙂

Build is fine
I’d leave alone and just ride it

DT 350/EX471/Comp spokes = 1940g (assuming 32h)
DT240/XM481/Rev spokes = 1730g (28h build. I have 28h on a Liteville 601 and no probs at all)

According to DT spoke calculator. A decent weight saving & 481's are really good. Just confugured on actionsports.de and the 32h 240/481 build is 649 Euro's and 1791g.

Leave as is, you've already stated it rocks, that is due to the sum of the parts...

What does it weigh & what do you want it to weigh?

New 29" Pike is only available up to 140mm travel, so won't work on that bike.

Are the tyres DD or DH casing? Do they have tubes or tubeless?
If so fit exo tubeless (but don't run daft low pressures)
Swapping the charge saddle for a S/H SLR 135 will save 120gish
Swapping the lyrik to a pike will save 150g (and perform worse)
The rim swap you're considering will ADD weight. not save it.
what does the full bike weigh?
is the frame heavy?

Cut the bars down to 780mm. Saves weight, costs nothing. 🙂

As above really, its a pretty sorted build for a purpose. You are going to have to spend pretty big to get anything more than a couple of hundred grams saved in one area.

Are the renthals carbon or alu?
Plenty of lighter options than GX Eagle, but big money to replace it all/move up SRAMs heirarchy.
A DT swiss XMC 1200 wheelset is 1500g in 29". but is £1800.
Saints are pretty heavy brakes, but there's only ~100 grams to be saved by going really light.
Tyres arent the lightest, but for that sort of riding, i wouldn't go much lower.
Switching to XT pedals would prob save a chunk to be fair, even to the trail ones.

So yeah, throw 3k at it & you might save a couple of pounds.

edit, just read a couple of reviews and XO1, E13 carbon rimmed spec is 29lbs (and 8000EUR), whats yours at?

Pick the bike up, then take the saddle off and pick it up again. Realise that you can’t really tell a 300g weight saving and get on with enjoying the bike.
With a build like that, any significant weight drop is going to lead to performance or durability issues or be hugely expensive. Or more likely, all three.

That's a very similar build to my Offering. You're in the territory of deminishing gains. You'll need to swap out everything for a little bit of a gram difference, that you won't notice until you've done it all.

That's gonna be expensive.

It's a 29er Enduro Bike, it's not gonna be a lightweight XC bike. If you get your head around that, you'll forget about the weight idea and just love it.

However, the big ticket items on there are the GX cassette and crank, the wheels, and the bars if they're alu. The rest is gonna be tiny gains. You're looking at +£1000 for those parts, and saving less than 1000g, is it worth it to you?

Based on current spec I cant see how you can make any significant weight savings that you would notice, if your running Tubes then Tubeless is a cheap and good upgrade. What kind of riding are you doing?

is the frame heavy?

yep. Great to ride but evil's carbon ain't exactly light.

In my opinion you're on a hiding to nothing as it's never going to be a light bike, we did say on the other thread it's plastic but it's not light. If i were going to change anything though...

Sram gx eagle groupset
Shimano dx spd pedals
Saint front brake slx rear.

Change the gx cassette for a better one, possibly cranks too.
Then your brakes - different front and rear would upset me personally.
Swap to some light pedals if you're bothered about weight, the mallet dh are big platforms and 150g lighter, xt trail are 200g lighter but don't have much of a platform, eggbeaters have no platform but weigh sod all.

Much else and you're going to be ditching performance in favor of weight.

Change the gx cassette to x01
Change wheels to dt swiss 240 and a chinese carbon rim probably 27mm id.

Total of both of them 500g ish cost around £1k. So a total of £2 per gram.

Need to know how heavy it is in current form really. I have over the years spent big making some hefty bikes lighter. But there was always massive compromise. Consequently I constantly broke stuff. Yes they climbed a bit better but actually I think it made the bikes worse going downhill. So it’s always a trade off. I like my bike weight to be sub 30lbs, that has always been the number I have aimed for. But reality it means nothing. My Mojo Hd4 weighs 13.5kg...which tickled my OCD perfectly. Made bigger all difference when it was covered in 5lbs mud at Barry Sidings the other week. I find tyres make the biggest difference to any bike. Not just weight but rolling resistance. As soon as I can refit my rock razor the better😂

+1 on tyres being a double issue of weight and rolling resistance.

Have you put your backpack on a diet?

skills day

You’ll need to swap out everything for a little bit of a gram difference, that you won’t notice until you’ve done it all.

The OP will probably find taking half a kilo off himself a lot less painful than opening his bank statement after weight-weenying a few hundred grams off that build.

Wheels and tyres be the first place I start.

BUT
what type if riding do you do?
where do you do most of your riding? (rocky or smothish area?)
Do you go through/wear/cut tyres a lot in the past?
Do you buckle wheels?
Do you ride "light" or "heavy" on the bike (lift over things/unweight or bulldoze your way throu?)

Above might help you decide if you want lightnes over reliability.

Leave the bike as it is.

Put the money you would have been planning to spend on a lightweight XC/trail HT, and use that for those occasions you want to ride in a more lightweight way.

If you ride that bike anywhere near its capabilities, going lighter will compromise it's durability unless you are a flyweight. Even then there are no guarantees.

Here's a picture of my Prime. To make you feel better, it's 33lbs, which is 14.96kgs.

My Chromag Rootdown steel hardtail weighs 33lbs...

I have come to the conclusion that whether a bike is 30 or 33lbs probably doesn't matter but as long as the bike ride well.

Indeed.

These days, I build to intended use rather than some notional weight limit.

Sure I'd like my bikes to be lighter, but how far along the cost Vs diminishing returns are you prepared to go?

I think my hardtail is about 31lbs...

I reckon based on that spec list you could save about 1.5kg on it, or what, 3 pounds?

Along with lightening your wallet to the tune of about 3 grand.

I'm with greavo.Save two whole kilos by only taking 1 litre of water instead of the 3 that many hydration packs offer.Obvioulsy ride length dependent but emptying your back pack or ditching it all together cost nowt and saves more weight than you ever can by getting new parts.

Cranks, forks, wheels, tyres, cassette and saddle would save about 1.3-1.4kg or ~3.5lbs without too much effort. After that it's diminishing returns.

without too much effort

In that it’s a fairly simple job to change them? Or that it’s easy to hand over a debit card? Changing all that for same performance but lighter won’t be cheap.

Thanks for input all. Food for thought.

Been out riding hence not replying all day. Just did 3000ft in MEGA boggy conditions over about 24 miles... Think I might just change the back tyre for something that rolls better. Maybe cranks and cassette and pedals in a few months.

Appreciate all the input!

Buy a battery and motor for it? 🤔

sounds like your overbiked and need some with less gnar and weight. Put the money towards a light hardtail and ride the heavier bike when you need it.

Thing is you could end up with 5 bikes that way. It is way overbiked for a lot of what I do- but I've built it with a few Enduro races and an alps trip in mind. I've got a hardtail that is approx 20lb- probably why this feels like such a tank!

Thing is you could end up with 5 bikes that way.

Guilty m’lord 😜

Not using the singletrack magic scales?

I put my HT on a diet, lost a grand total of 450g or so (cost about £200).

You could get a much lighter saddle, you could run lighter tyres (I'm a Schwalbe fan, I don't seem to have many problems with sidewalls, and you can certainly get something grippy enough at a bit of a weight saving as long as you're not intent on flat out ploughing through too many rock gardens.). Definitely go tubeless if you're not, and if you want to be able to plough through rock gardens you can reverse that weight saving by fitting procore or similar to some faster rolling/lighter tyres. Carbon bars if they aren't, find a forged stem (it'll be a touch lighter than the, admittedly pretty, Renthal). Carbon wheels are a really expensive way of saving weight. Lighter alloy rimmed ones might be a decent plan. See if there are any individual drivetrain components that you can save weight at a reasonable cost.

TL:DR - you're not going to save much weight in one or two components, just make sure you pick carefully when it comes to replacing worn out stuff to avoid it putting on weight. Don't assume bling will be lighter.

I am not even sure that getting a lighter saddle than the 270g Spoon is such a great idea on long rides.

Don’t assume bling will be lighter.

Very much this.

Re light saddles, I think their comfort comes from flex in the chassis, owing to the lack of materials

I reckon based on that spec list you could save about 1.5kg on it, or what, 3 pounds?

Along with lightening your wallet to the tune of about 3 grand.

This really resonates.

I built it on a budget to save cash over buying one full (built my own wheels), bought a used lyric and used bars stem and brakes I had lying around.

Maybe as a lot have stated- perhaps just leave it then otherwise I'll be changing a lot of parts.

If you have a light hardtail maybe get a lighter trail fs as well. You're only have three bikes then.

Re light saddles, I think their comfort comes from flex in the chassis, owi? ng to the lack of materials

Perhaps but their discomfort comes from how hard they bloody are. Besides, the ones I had the displeasure to try flexed so much they hit the top of my dropper, not very comfortable either but perhaps I am too heavy.

Saving 70 grams (!!!!) would be a massive downgrade functionally and in terms of fatigue for me but lighter riders may have had a different outcome.

Bontrager evoke carbon tailed saddle for me. Comfy as hell and bloody light. Not sure how anyone gets on with bloody charge/fabric saddles. I find them horribly uncomfortable

I reckon it's fairly subjective. They're still the most comfortable I have used by a long way.

Well yeah, there is a reason a number of saddle makers make saddles different sizes and with different levels of padding. We are all different, fabrics saddles don’t work for me. But I love on Bonte evoke which is marginally padded. Weighs about half the amount of a fabric scoop or knife or whatever the cheap saddle de jour is called from them nowadays. But the point is you can run a light weight saddle and still have plenty of comfort for sure

As others have said it's never going to be especially light.

I'd look at the tyres, but I think rolling resistance will make more of a difference than weight. That said, do you really want such a capable bike compromised by sticking on rubber that isn't up for the job. I like a light bike but by putting on a much draggier front tyre on my trail bike it made it far more capable, albeit slightly more effort on the ups.

This collection of parts will save you quite a lot of weight, will probably save you some time on climbs but you'll need to ease up on rough descents or you'll break stuff. Which is more important to you?

Actually weight the bike, then look up the manufacturer claimed weight for each part and add it all up.

You'll save 3 or 4 lbs and it will cost no more than 30 minutes of your time.

Buy a road bike and get fitter 😉

you don't need to "buy" anything to get fitter.

I love the trolling on this forum these days- cheers to those who have made suggestions.

I own a road bike- rode it a lot, did the Fred on it last year. Doesn't change the fact I'd like to lighten this bike.

But the point is you can run a light weight saddle and still have plenty of comfort for sure

I certainly can't, that's for sure. And that's the point which I originally made : it might work, it might not.

Doesn’t change the fact I’d like to lighten this bike.

You never stated how much the bike weighs... Don't get me wrong, it's possible to lose weight, but it won't be cheap and it also risks compromising the intended performance!

I have gone the other way on my recent Offering build...

I used to run carbon cranks, not any more, too many warranty issues so I'll take the 120g weight penalty that alloy cranks give. I have run lighter tyres, saddles, wheels etc. too before, but they just compromise performance to such a degree, I'd rather the extra weight!

As it stands, my Offering, as pictured, is 31lb on the nose. I have since changed the shock to a Float X2, adding another 120g, and whilst it's 1lb heavier than I was hoping for, it is quite simply the fastest bike I have ever ridden! And it's still 2lb lighter than my Wreckoning was too, so...

yep. Great to ride but evil’s carbon ain’t exactly light.

For the unbelievers, the Offering is a good chunk lighter than previous generation Evils for its intended use. The frame inc. shock is bang on the same weight as the shorter travel Following MB frameset, and a full 1.5lb lighter than the equivalent Wreckoning! Yes... A Yeti will be a bit lighter still, but it'll cost 20% more and it won't be as fun to ride!