Brother Big Bro needs to go on a diet

[retroJIM]

So I have a 'modern' 29er in the form of a Brother Cycles Big Bro that I bought as a frameset in April last year. I built it up using whatever components I could find at the time. Some 2nd hand some brand new. The result is a bike that I'm pretty happy with but it is heavy and I think it needs to lose some weight. Much like me in fact.

So here it is in its current form.



The first thing I'm going to change will be the steel forks, they weigh around 1.4kg so I'm going to replace them with carbon.

I've picked up some Selcof Carbon forks which weigh a rather scary 656 grams. So in theory I've saved 1.5lbs already!





I'd welcome suggestions on what else I should swap out. I'm thinking next for the chop will be the Brand-x dropper post. The riding I do on this doesn't warrant one and it's a heavy lump.

After that it'll probably get much harder and more expensive. Anyway let me know what you think, even if it's to tell me modern bikes are supposed to be heavy.

 

[coomber]

What's the cassette? That might be hiding a fair bit.

I'd keep a dropper and take the weight hit. Just love them.

Otherwise tubeless will save weight if its not. Those bars maybe? Are they fleagles?

Got to say I love the look of these bikes. Great build you've done. I went budget version in lockdown with a nos 2017 pinnacle ramin frame which is a great bike

 

[retroJIM]

The cassette is a 10 speed Deore so I'm sure I can save some weight there. Good shout.

The bars are On-One OG v2, they were an experiment and meant to be temporary but I quite like them.

I do like Pinnacle stuff, I nearly bought an Arkose gravel bike at one point.

 

[coomber]

Yeah, early arkose were quite cx orientated but later ones look more stretched out and fun.

The bars here look good so I say keep them.

Planet x selcof forks should be good once you fit. Otherwise probably just going to be wheels isn't it. But depends what you want to spend

 

[Takingabreak]

what does the bike weigh in it's current guise?

 

[retroJIM]

what does the bike weigh in it's current guise?

I've not weighed it yet but it's definitely one of the heaviest bike I've owned. I'm going to order some bike scales to find out. I would imagine it's around 30lbs.

 

[Takingabreak]

That seems to be a standard weight for anything modern that isn't staggeringly expensive. Everything is heavy, beefed up 700c wheels for off road, huge tyres, boost spacing so the hubs are bigger, huge cassette (though offset by not requiring more than 1x up front), even modern shifters seem big and bulky not to mention some frames having more fixings than a mechano set due to the various bottle / rack type mounts.

So weighing them... I've found that luggage scales work quite nicely

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Portable-D...ds=luggage+scales&qid=1643280253&sr=8-13&th=1

And I look forward to the sub 25lb build

 

[retroJIM]

If a jobs worth doing

 

[velofrog]

Was looking at those before choosing my next steed, it won’t be light either!

Quality work on the chart though!

 

[novocaine]

here you go, I modified your table for you.

honestly, there isn't much point to shaving grams off it on the whole and it's going to chage the ride of it much. the forks are worth it, the seat post, sort of, the rest isn't enough to make it worth while on the type of bike it is though.