Just finished up my FF29 build, first ride and i’m pretty pleased with it, it’s quick and a lot less tiring to ride than my full suss.

Comes in at 25lbs on the nose (proper weight – pedals, bottle cage, mud on the bits i’d not cleaned properly etc)

I was hoping it would build up to about 24lbs, as I want to do a bit of racing on it this winter but get out and ride it everywhere without actually making any sacrifices to the ride/durability.

Spec is:
FF29 large
XT group set with one up 42t and rad cage, cranks with xt trail pedals
Works N.W 1×10
XT brakes 180/160
SID RCT3
Kinesis Maxlight wheels, Xking 2.2 tubeless protection
Reverb
mid range SRAM chain
Fatbar lite, race face basic stem superstar grips
SDG carbon saddle

Looking at the list the obvious places are the front end was out of the spares box – 100g easily knocked off with bar, stem & grips, more if I go carbon but I really don’t want to. 24lb would be pretty easy to achieve knocking off the reverb, 42t rear, 180f brakes and a pair of carbon bars but i’m trying to not go there.

What’s going to be the best lb for £ next? Cranks & brakes seem the obvious contenders as they’re fairly robust and i’ll get a decent bit back for them to put towards the replacements. Any ideas? Not much money to spend on it either!

Probably just a case of cumulative small savings? What forks do you have on there? Not a cheap weight saving, but could be room. Other end of the scale – worth weighing the stem and checking out alternatives.

You won’t get all that much out of the brakes without spending big money, and there’s not really a performance advantage associated with that. Unless you can get some XTR Race brakes or something, may find folk changing to the M9000 ones shortly.

I’d look at wheels – yours are claimed 1780g, whilst it won’t be a cheap upgrade you could go LB carbon on American Classic for c1400g (mine are 1370g with Revs) for £500 or so.

As you say, grips/bar/stem will yield some quick wins. Egg Beaters with ti axles will save a chunk for about £80. Depends how wedded you are to Shimanos.

Probably a few bits that’ll shave weight on the cheap – lightweight rotors, headset spacers, top cap etc. You’ll be surprised how much can hide in those.

What forks do you have on there?

He said:

SID RCT3

25lbs isn’t bad for a bike you want to “do everything” and you suggest your on a budget. My FF29 comes in at 25.5lbs with XT and double chainset + Rebas.

Winter is coming. Wear some stuff out and buy lighter in the Spring.

Normal grips not lock on. Replace when they slip as they are worn out.
Stem and bars by the sounds of it.

Would you consider a lighter seatpost/saddle for racing? You’d save a pound in that alone if you’re unlikely to use the dropper for racing, although that’s the million dollar question.

winter=rigid forks

big weight saving to be had there

Wheels I was going to leave as is at the moment, I originally was looking for something a bit lighter but at shy of 90kg i’m wary of light wheels. American classics were what I wanted but I was struggling a bit to find them in the UK, LB were also on the list but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted and the resale value wouldn’t be great if I got it wrong. The maxlights were a nice width, in-between arch and flow and weigh less than either, and should be able to sell them on pretty easily and upgrade. Hopefully getting out more should see me down to about 80kg and I can look at it again in the new year. Probably end up with LB.

A couple of bits I hand’t thought about there cheers – the cockpit is too high so once I sort that out I reckon i’ll have about 20mm of steerer and spacers off the top, and the on one cheap spacers & top cap probably aren’t that light. Rotors must be an easy saving, they’re ice tech now which must weigh plenty. Will look at pedals too, always used shimano but open to a bit of change.

Lockon grips – always used them but will try a pair of foam/silicon ones as they’re a dirt cheap way of saving a bit.

Forks def. not going they’re brand new but I will be trying a pair of the maxlight carbon’s when funds allow. Don’t think I can get much better on the saddle @ 166g but a carbon post i’m not sure on – it makes sense over the reverb for racing but I think i’d get more out of the reverb, I find it hard to not use one these days! Even out on XC/trail centre rides where i’d just leave the saddle up high quite happily years ago I drop it all the time now.

American classics were what I wanted but I was struggling a bit to find them in the UK, LB were also on the list but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted and the resale value wouldn’t be great if I got it wrong

Got mine from AEBike in the US, came in about the same price as Hope in the UK, and they sell all the permutations off the shelf – as I needed 15mm front and 142×12 rear with XD body. A lot of shops seem to want you to buy XD bodies separately and such like. You’re very unlikely to go wrong with the LB rims, look at the threads on here! Their built wheels aren’t as light though if you go Novatec hubs.

Don’t think I can get much better on the saddle @ 166g but a carbon post i’m not sure on – it makes sense over the reverb for racing but I think i’d get more out of the reverb, I find it hard to not use one these days! Even out on XC/trail centre rides where i’d just leave the saddle up high quite happily years ago I drop it all the time now.

Plenty of lighter saddles than that, particularly if it’s for racing only – SLR @ 135g, even less if you remove the cover! Speed Needle @ 85g (not cheap though) etc. But yes, if you want to use the Reverb it’s an entirely moot point!

I bought a FF29 as a winter frame to give my Spesh Epic a break for the winter, that was 11 months ago and I haven’t bothered to rebuild the Epic.

Similar set up to yours with a 1×10 but mostly SRAM/Avid, main difference is an Absolute Black direct mount chainring. Comes in at 22lbs with race wheels on (Crest/AmClassic 1550g custom builds), 24lb ish otherwise.

Hmm knowing there’s similar FF29’s subbing 24lbs isn’t good! Frame, forks, reverb & wheels are the only new bits on there so everything else is game to be changed either now if I can sell it or when it wears out. Mooching on xcracer shop is a bit of an eye opener, not sure i’d be happy riding some of the lightweight stuff they have on there.

Would have preferred to use sram shifting, especially as I’d like to try grip shift but when it’s only cost £75 to put the 42t and cage on there and reuse an XT group set it’s hard to justify replacing the whole lot.

Well all you’d need to replace is the rear mech and shifters to go Grip Shift, which are also lighter.

As you say, chainset is an option. Next SL is the cheapest of the very light options – THM M3 and Cannondale Hollowgram SI SL2 are even more expensive.

X10 SL chains are light, but that’ll depend on your cassette life. You can’t use the lightest SRAM cassettes with a range expander, so no point changing that, XX ones are hideously expensive too.

Looking at the spec, I’d say after the obvious (lose the Reverb) the biggest loss lb for £ will be to go to carbon bars. Carbon bars aren’t cheap, sure, but you’ll be talking roughly a gram per £ saving over your ally renthals I’d say, and lighter grips and stem will also help. Though of course, will you actually notice it is another question entirely!

25lb for an FF29 with a Reverb, pedals, a cage etc is a good weight. The frame is over 4lb to start with, it’s not the lightest starting point (though it is very robust and a bloody quick ride to boot), and given it’s a 29er, it’s always going to be a lb heavier than a similar build on a 26″ HT cos of the weight of the wheels and tyres.

If you’re thinking of changing the brakes, I’ve got some Formula T1’s (incredibly light for what they are) I’d consider swapping for some M785 XT’s to be fair, that would save you another 100g roughly I’d say.

If the bike were mine though, I’d just ride it. At roughly 90kg you need more robust kit than the 60kg racing snakes can get away with running, and the bike is light anyway. I’ve got a medium sized Kinesis Sync for reference, and even with a pretty expensive build it comes in at over 26lb, but then it’s running beefier rims and tyres than your FF29 and it’s got a Revelation not a SID fitted.

As far as your cranks go, you’ve got to spend a lot of money to get anything significantly lighter than XT, so I’d probably not bother. Unless someone offered you a deal on a SRAM XX1 chainset and ring say, you’re looking at spending hundreds to maybe save 80g or so over XT.

Rigid carbon fork for the winter makes sense though, and the Kinesis fork is rather good. Will save wear and tear on the SID too.

All depends how far you want to go, there’s plenty of sub 18lb race bikes out there, even ones with big wheels, but rideability/durability is seriously compromised at that kind of weight for all but the smoothest/lightest of riders. I borrowed a sub 1600g pair of wheels for my 29er for Bonty 24/12 last year, combined with silly fast/light Maxxis Ikon’s with paper thin sidewalls, they were so much lighter than my own wheels. They were also a lot flexier, and had to be retrued twice during my 12hr solo as I’d knocked them about quite badly!

You aren’t realistically going to gain much in losing a lb though (you’d notice most on the wheels)

I rode my FatBike for 3 weeks then finally rebuilt the back wheel (heavier as the Revs + Crests didn’t last) on the FF29 and it was amazingly light even though I’d added 150g to the back wheel ;0)
If I were going to race it regularly I’d rebuild the light rear wheel and keep it as race only.

the biggest loss lb for £ will be to go to carbon bars. Carbon bars aren’t cheap, sure, but you’ll be talking roughly a gram per £ saving over your ally renthals I’d say, and lighter grips and stem will also help. Though of course, will you actually notice it is another question entirely!

Carbon isn’t inherently light, some lightweight alu bars out there and some heavy carbon bars! But yes, principally you’re right.

As far as your cranks go, you’ve got to spend a lot of money to get anything significantly lighter than XT, so I’d probably not bother. Unless someone offered you a deal on a SRAM XX1 chainset and ring say, you’re looking at spending hundreds to maybe save 80g or so over XT.

XX1 isn’t that light, but it’s also not hugely expensive, also lighter (and cheaper) to pair with a spiderless chainring – Absolute Black is the lightest. X.0 and S2200 cranks are the same.

dont think about the absolute weight. think about it as a % of your bodyweight. 90kg rider and 25lb bike = very light. just get out and ride it and look for lighter parts as things wear out.

Definitely not going to have carbon bars! Found just about the lightest pair of alu 720’s I could and got those on their way, going to get them on and rummage through the spares box for a few stem lengths before ordering a lightweight stem.

No faith in carbon at all, it scares me. Had a frame which I wrote off in a small crash, a bottle cage I snapped and put a carbon saddle on this bike. I think it’s got a crack in the rail after 1 ride. I’m done with it as a material for bikes, maybe low risk areas but not a chance would I have a carbon bar/steerer.

23.1lb FF29 here. Your spec doesn’t look too bad, but you could save a bit by going with a normal 11-36 cassette rather than the one-up! It’ll make you stronger too = win, win.

Otherwise, I’d just replace things as they wear out. As above, there is cheap weight to be saved with foam grips (KCNC are cheap and nice).

I tend to run second hand SLR saddles now (150g – 180g in reality), which are a good weight for the money (and comfy to my cheeks). The claimed 135g seems optimistic though.

I tend to go for mainstream mid range stuff, (XT level) as it is a good balance of longevity, price and weight. Whenever I use other slightly more niche stuff, I almost end up coming back to XT or similar which it wears out prematurely (like the Token BB I had recently which sounded rubbish compared with a standard XT).

Me neither.

Now have carbon steerer road forks.
Carbon bars on the FF29.
Carbon bladed forks in 2 flavours on my oddity bike.
I suspect I wouldn’t bother with carbon railed seat mind due to the cost and the stress in that area.

This amuses me specifically at 5minutes in.
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/santa-cruz-bicycles-test-lab.html
Fair enough it’s not an uber light bike frame.

I wouldn’t have gone carbon seat normally – but I wanted another SDG circuit and the carbon one was £50 on offer compared to £60 for the Ti! It does feel very nice. I kind of figured even if you have a catastrophic failure you’re only going to snap rails front or back so it wouldn’t kill you.

I split the rear stay on my c456 10k into a ride and did another 10-15k without really slowing down – wasn’t that bothered, but anything like that in the cockpit area freaks me out, having seen what happens when a steerer snaps! Bars would be not much better… Seen a few of those carbon is better videos and i’m sure it is, I just can’t get comfortable with the thought of it.

Road bike has carbon bladed forks but I can just about cope with that.

The thing’s going to get ridden whatever the weight, but everyone’s gotta have a goal 😉 Wait for the ‘what tyres for my 20lb rigid single speed knee abusing FF29’ thread in a months time!

How much do the tyres weigh? 700g? Use those for training and then replace with some lighter ones for race day.

cut the steerer, slam the stem and ditch the spacers.

As above do you need a reverb for an xc race?

Also chainset is a good place to start. A carbon sram spiderless one if you have the funds.

On one have just started selling carbon bars. £50ish for 777 wide and 220 grams.

On one have just started selling carbon bars. £50ish for 777 wide and 220 grams.

That’s about 100 grams too many for a bar though for someone looking to drop some weight, its also bloody wide for a XC/race bike, however each to their own.

Loosing weight on the tyres is a good call though.