Fiber Seat
On a road bike what ways to lower the weight of the bike with out buying a new one?
the WHOLE frame of my raod bike is made of Cro-Moly, with a carbon fiber fork. along with shimano tiagra/ sora derailers. right now it is about 21 pounds. the seat post is not carbon fiber.
While I agree with some guys above, you asked about lightening your bike and there are things you can do. 1st it’s a balance of cost vs utility. Basically, think to yourself: is the cost worth it? And cost must be an issue seeing that you bought an entry level bike and not a high end one. To see significant weight change is very expensive so you must shop wisely. The most important place to save weight for performance gain is on the wheel – the rim, tube and tire.
The items that can affect weight on an entry level bike the most excluding the frame are: wheels, tires, tubes, fork, crank and bottom bracket, pedals. The post, saddle, bars and stem to a lesser degree. Your brakes, derailleurs and shifters yield even less an can be very costly for the weight change. Finally realize light weight can be limiting. For example, super light weight tires like Conti Supersonics will save weight BUT they wear fast and are racing, not training tires. If your roads are not smooth and clean you will puncture easily. Also, super light weight parts sometimes have weight limits. If your 150 lbs no worries, but if you are 180+ lbs be careful what you buy.
1st you need to know what your parts weigh to make a decision on replacing them. You can look up specs on the web (this can be difficult if you don’t have name brand items) or buy a small electronic mail scale. These can be found on EBay for about $20 shipped.
The 1st and cheapest item to replace would be tubes. Extra lightweight tubes can weigh 70 grams or less. You can buy tubes even lighter but I’m not convinced of the reliability. Mine weigh 65g and replaced standard 100g tubes saving 60 grams for a cost of $10. Everything else gets more expensive.
Here’s a few things I’ve done:
Replaced my Cannondale Carbon Slice fork (525g) with a Reynolds EC90sl fork (270g) for $190 off EBay. Dropped 1/2 pound there.
Replaced the 105 bottom (265g) bracket with a DA (175g) one for $35 EBay again.
Replaced the Ulterga 6500 crank (640g) with FSA Superlights (530g) Got the crank used in A+ condition for $125 on EBay again.
Bought American Classic CR420 wheels, used on EBay, (1425g) replacing Spinnergy Xaero wheels (1760g)
Tires: I run Conti Supersonics, Mich. Pro2 and Kenda Keliente Pros on 3 wheel sets. Tires in the 220g range are about as light as I’d go for high mileage riding on good roads.
I did this and much more as a weight weenie project. Got my Cannondale CAAD 5 bike down to 15.8 lbs (from about 19 lbs) with the lightest wheels.
It was fun to do and I documented the whole thing. But it also cost quite a bit. I re-couped a portion of the cash buy re-selling the parts I replaced.
Now for the bad news. Previous to doing this I had owned a ’94 Trek 2200 road bike since I bought it new. 105 equipped, 7 speed, Matrix wheels 21 lbs – a little on the heavy side. Even though my new build was 5 lbs lighter, road better, accelerated faster and worked better in general I was only marginally faster when doing 10 mile flat TTs. I’d assume the wheels made 95% of the difference too. So don’t think dropping a pound on your bike will make you faster. While I love tinkering with my bikes but I know it’s the rider that makes the real difference.
Check this site out for lots of fun info: http://weightweenies.starbike.com/
A 21 lb bike that fits you well with a good set of wheels will get you 1/2 way there, the rest is all you.
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