Women's MTB project - Pendleton Brooke

I was recently asked by a newly-retired family member to look out for a decent new or second hand women's bike for use mainly on light paths (at least in the first instance, having not cycled for many years). For better or worse, the frame had to be step-through, limiting my options for a fairly decent, lightish bike (for example, few step-through frames are high-end enough to be made of alloy and/or use threadless headsets!). Of all places, I found a suitable model in Halfords - Pendleton Brooke - in the recipient's favourite colour, and that was pretty much the end of the search. The new price of £230 seems pretty reasonable for an aluminium frame, but even better, I found a nice one locally and won it on ebay for a fraction of that price.

I was pretty happy with it when I picked it up. The stated weight was exactly right on my scales - 12.9kg inc pedals. Since its new owner had memories of heavy, clunky steel bikes and awful rusted gears, I thought I would try and put the record straight, setting about shedding a lot of the weight as cheaply as I could and sorting out a slick drivetrain, with decent parts picked up second hand in good condition, as cheaply as I could. Saving so much money on the original purchase gave me some budget for the upgrades. I'm nearly at the end of the process now so thought I'd start to document it here. Here's how the specs are looking:

Frame: Pendleton Brooke alloy frame, medium
Forks: Unknown steel
Wheels: XT M737/8 on Mavic 217. Actually these are only 250g lighter than the Pendleton's stock wheels, which were better than I expected
Tyres: Kenda Short Tracker semi-slick, 1.95" folding, 420g each - saving 620g in total off the stock Kenda slicks
Chainset: Shimano LX M580 22-32-44 & BB - saving over 600g off the original Suntour chainset & BB.
Chain: SRAM PC951
Cassette: SLX HG80 11-28T, saving 100g off the stock HG31 8-speed
V-Brakes: Left the Tektro models fitted for now, 180g/pr
Gear Levers: Shimano XT M770 (luxury purchase but it has lighter shifts than every model below it, especially on the front mech)
Brake Levers: Avid FR-5
F/Mech: Shimano XT M750, saves 60g off the stock Shimano unit
R/Mech: Shimano XT M770 mid-cage Rapid rise, saves 70g off the Shimano Altus model
Seatpost: Stock alloy post kept, for now
Saddle: Stock Pendleton saddle kept as it's comfy, also bought a Scott model which is 80g lighter.
Stem: Longer and higher rise alloy stem fitted
Bar: Kore X-Country riser alloy, 214g, not sure how much weight saved yet, probably 150g or so
Skewers: QRs replaced with allen bolt skewers for security, saved 50g
Pedals: Replaced with MKS MT FT, weight 260g/pr saving 270g off the stock pedals.

My best guess at the moment is that I've shed about 2.3kg (5lbs+) from the bike's 12.9kg (28.5lb) starting point, which I'm pretty happy with seeing as I haven't gone crazy with the budget or gone for any really expensive/superlight parts. Now I just have to put it all together... will update with the 'after' pictures!

Re:

have you taken it for a spin, pre-upgrade?

Yep, we both had a go on it. Seems just the job fit-wise (not for me of course, my knees were nearly against the bars!), though the current stem is very short with hardly any rise so I've picked up a slightly longer and taller one which might suit a bit better, especially considering the new riser bar is flatter than the old one.

It's new owner thinks it's great and is a bit bewildered why it's now broken up in many parts in my garage, but it will all be worth it

Re:

This will be interesting.

I've done something similar with my wife's bike. We bought a Claude butler hybrid but it came in the wrong colour (was expecting a blue one but got a brown/maroon one - basically the newer model).

So as I was having mine powder coated I stripped her bike n got it done too.

Its now burnt orange metallic and I've upgraded to a deore drivetrain with lx v brakes.

Looks loads better and is much lighter. She loves it.

Love tinkering.

Excellent. on with the upgrades chap!

Here it is, complete at last. Now weighs in at 10.64kgs = 23lbs 4oz. The upgrades saved 2.5kgs, in addition to the removing mudguards, lights etc. Very pleased with it.

Very respectable!