My current HT race bike is comfortable but a little porky because it’s set up for a bit more comfort and reliability.

Here’s the spec:-

Whyte 29C carbon frame – love the geo and handling – not weighed it but suspect it’s at least 1100g
SID RCT3 – run quite soft, stick it in platform and forget about it
DT240S, Revs, LB rims
KCNC rear QR
XTR M980 1x with 11-36 and RF 30T NW, stages.
CK BSA BB in PF inserts
Syntace P6 Hiflex – comfortable
Fizik Gobi Kium – comfortable
Hope Race brakes – 160s floating rotors F+R
MT Zoom flat bar
ESI grips
KCNC bar ends
80mm KCNC wing stem
XT pedals – comfortable.
Conti Xking Protection 2.4 front, Raceking Protection 2.2 rear

That adds up to nearly 22lb. As far as I can see the only way I can lose weight is to sacrifice comfort (seatpost, saddle, pedals, bar ends), reliability (tyres are heavy) or get really spendy on a 300-400g lighter frame eg Open Cycles that I don’t necessarily like the geo of.

Any suggestions other than live with what is a good compromise, train harder (can’t really) and lose weight (2kg more and I’ll look ill thin).

What cassette are you running? They can get pretty heavy!

It looks to me to be a fairly sorted build that you’re going to have to throw some serious cash at to make any sort of noticeable dent in the weight. <10kg is a perfectly acceptable weight, in my opinion anyway!

It was all sounding like quite light (not silly light but decent weight reliable light) until the tyres, must be at least a pound excess there, pedals aren’t that light but reliable pedals rarely are and if they work for you then better to stick with them

22lb is still plenty light enough for a big wheeler

Personally if I was hell bent on going lighter I’d swap tyres, but other than that I’d not bother sacrificing comfort or reliability for the sale of a few grammes

Scott scale frame would save a bit, I test rode a scale back to back with the 29c and over the same loop with the same HR I was quicker by a decent margin on the £2.5k scale vs the £3.5k Whyte. Not all about the weight….as I imagine the whites full build was lighter. Though the Whyte was definitely more fun downhill.

Pedals- Look at the Boardman (yes I know) MTB pro pedals, they’ll save a bit and they’re very good.
Tires-Lighter is very easy to achieve here, saves ~lb without going mad.
Rotors- Look on eBay for lightweight rotors and save about 60g per end.

Syntace P6 Hiflex – comfortable
Fizik Gobi Kium – comfortable
Hope Race brakes – 160s floating rotors F+R
ESI grips
KCNC bar ends
80mm KCNC wing stem
XT pedals – comfortable.

Out of that lot the places I wouldn’t go weight saving is the contact points.. If you like what you sit on keep it.
Getting rid of bar ends and replacing them with nothing would help 😉
On pedals the CB candy 11’s are nice and light and also a lot more reliable than previous versions.
The floating rotors would be my next step then obviously the tyres.

There was a great quote from Jarred Graves a while back that he doesn’t weigh his bikes anymore, he fits the parts he wants and rides it. Saving 50g and not finishing due to something failing isn’t worth it.

Any suggestions other than live with what is a good compromise, train harder (can’t really) and lose weight (2kg more and I’ll look ill thin).

Just ride it, if you took 1lb off my race bike I doubt I’d be much quicker without putting more work in.

Whyte 29C carbon frame – love the geo and handling – not weighed it but suspect it’s at least 1100g

Weighed a medium a couple of years back, was about 1150g. Personally I think that’s pretty bloody awesome, given how strong they are, and how great the geometry is. Wouldn’t want to compromise on the frame just to save 200g myself!

22lb is still plenty light enough for a big wheeler

It’s very light for a big wheeler! The Devil is always in the detail though…

As far as I can see the only way I can lose weight is to sacrifice comfort (seatpost, saddle, pedals, bar ends), reliability (tyres are heavy)

You can lose 50g at least off the saddle and another 50g off the seatpost pretty comfortably IMO. But how much difference will it realistically make?

Aside from the tyres, which are heavy for XC race tyres but I sympathise with the reliability aspect, there’s few areas I can see that you can really make significant weight reducations, except for the cranks and the pedals. You can easily save 150g over the XT’s without spending stupid money, and get yourself some Raceface Next SL cranks… They are stupidly light, yet still incrdibly strong, I removed an XX1 crank (in itself lighter than M980 XTR) and replaced with a Next SL and saved over 150g!

Oh, and go SRAM 11spd. XX1 cassette is lighter than most 10spd cassettes, and the 10-42 range will allow you to run a bigger chainring than your current 30T, which must be limiting on some more pedally courses!

Looks like you are at the point of very diminishing returns.

A change of tyres would return biggest save per £ and make the most difference (i.e. you could feel the reduction). The risk is you end up with tyres you are not as confident with and actually end up slower overall.

I’ve got Stages so xtr m980 cranks is a given really.

Will give tyres a go.