COOLWALL: Sub 20ib mountain bike? Weight saving gone too far

was gonna say about that site!! Looks like we all been there. Just don't go talking lightweight on stw or you get flamed alive :roll:

I used to really worry about it BITD and it is fun to try and have a lighter bike than your mates. I have drilled 10 shallow holes in each crank arm, slotted clamps, put alloy bolts everywhere, cut down bars, taken the springs off QR's, taken the O rings out the ends of X lite cam locks, used creaky BB's all in the name of weight!

I also love the feel on a light strong bike (Pace, Klein, Merlin etc).

I have had a go on a 19lb bike (Pace RC200 F1 rigid but geared) and it felt great!

I also like to 'RIDE' bikes and I am not that light a human (though quite a 'light' rider if you see what I mean) and by accident as much as anything else all my real bikes are round the 23lb mark. The Clockwork is a 23 1/4lb rigid build, the Pace is 22 3/4lb with boingy forks. My Dyna Tech Quantum was 23 3/4lb This is realisticly the lightest rideable build without going to extremes for me and my style.

I vote cool

orange71":kjan1i88 said:

Guess you've all been here too: http://weightweenies.starbike.com/

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Wow.. Another unproductive day at work.. :?

Maybe we should have a Light Bikes Thread on here? With a format you have to adhere to etc. for components listing or just complete bike weight? If you think Light Bikes are cool of course

I really wanted a light bike back in the day but could not afford to go nuts with all the pimpy bits or bolt kits. It was expensive enough to keep my bike going with all XT.

I bought the Trek OCLV bacause I was racing and it was super light - but I broke 2 in six months
I drooled over Aluminium and Titanium bolt kit but never bought them. I did run latex tubes for a while and always used DT revolution spokes, I even had alloy nipples on a front wheel :roll:

Due to the terrain I rode/ride running 2.1" Smoke and 2.2" Dart tyres was the way to go - I tried smoke lite's but 6 punctures in one ride was enough for me.

A few years ago I finally got a bike under 20lbs by throwing away all the gears, suspension, bar ends, etc and running silly light tyres. It's not my everyday bike so I can get away with such stupidity

Light bikes rule (but only on the right day in the right place)

mh1000":qqc3b93j said:

also didnt someone drill a frame as a showbike? Im sure i remember pics of that

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Yeah, the purple aluminium thing - I remember that.

I once drilled my DX cranks like on the titanium team marin bikes but that was just for a bit of fun .So I do think the Uber-silly-lightweight thing looks cool but I wouldn't want anything too light, or intensly drilled either.

COOL

For me this was the worst trend in MTB’ing. Well engineered lightweight parts are cool, drilling holes in your cranks or rims is not. Cutting your bars down to 20â€

Arguably though the trend created a market, the market demanded light weight affordable components, there were some hits and some misses, the manufacturers made components strong and durable but still a heck of a lot lighter than before the 'trend' and lo, here we are today with a 24lb fs xc machine you can ride all day and trust implicitly, off the peg for a grand.

It may have been a distasteful preriod for some but it did help the design of bikes evolve further down the path.

I have yet to find any link between running normal and stupidlight innertubes for numbers of punctures.

Cos I am so skilled at riding lol I rarely pinch*, and the thorns I get are always dobbers (had one go in one side of tyre and out the other :shock: ) so I am screwed with whatevers in there.

Best way to save weight is rims/tyres/tubes imo. This can be pounds on most bikes around these days.



*Except for the double pinch on the full suss in the peaks before I realised you can go a fair bit quicker = harder hits = pinch more hence + a few more psi needed

I used to get lots of pinch punctures riding in the lake district. Swapped to bigger tyres, wider rims and normal tubes and hey presto no more punctures
Don't get me wrong I like a light bike but so often people take it too far for the sake of a number on the scales.

I used to get loads of pinch punctures, but since going to full sus never had one yet (nor wheel buckles either)...