This weekend marks the start of the proper racing season. CX and hill climbs.

I’ve been hungry since the middle of July and am now at the weight I raced the HC nationals at back in 2013 so not much more I can do there. Going to take a look at the bike tonight and start removing bits that aren’t required for going fast uphill (or safety).

This is mainly for physiological advantages as I believe any actual gains will be marginal at best. But, are you taking part in any hill climbs and what weight weenie tips do you have.

I’ll be weighing inner tubes to make sure I fit the lightest, and will almost certainly be racing without gloves and helmet since those grams will make all the difference ;). Might even see if I can remove a link from the chain.

Lightest wheels you can beg/steal/borrow, and for the Gibbet… a motor!

Big ring and front mech off, you probably won’t be needing them. Gut the left shifter, you’ve not got a front mech now.

Alloy bolts unless its safety critical then go Ti.

Latex tubes.

Strip the paint off everything.

Can you get away with only having one brake?

i know 2 hillclimbers (top ten at the bec and catford)
one drilled everything and sanded down his brake pads and got rid of anything superfluous and did it all on power output, i.e knew the wattage he could sustain for 1min 7 seconds and matched it all the way up. the other just used a light bike with some fancy wheels. both trained a lot, were lean and fit as ****
i think the latter is of more importance

Cut your bars down, you won’t be on the drops to why carry them.
Cheap carbon saddle with no padding, you’ll barely be sat down so why carry the weight there either.
Silly light tub wheels and tyres.
Don’t forget kit either, shoes particularly can save weight.

Just train on a really heavy bike.

Pre-race picolax. Remove all that dead weight from your system.

ride naked, full body wax including face and head. Chop off your nose, excess weight and you’ll get better air intake if you can drill your septum at the same time.

Amputate c0ck and balls, excess weight and detrimental to pedalling efficiency.

Don’t be concerned when children run away screaming ‘Voldemort’ 😆

I think you have to have 2 working brakes now under the rules.Chopping down handle bars seems very popular.Superlight tub wheels with track/tt tubs.
Dan Evans (2014 winner) just took off his f-mech + big ring and had some <1kg wheels.
Then you need to average 540watts for 3 and a bit minutes.
Some good stuff at http://cyclinguphill.com (I would’nt suggest being as thin as him though!)

Don’t be concerned when children run away screaming ‘Voldemort’

😀

Same here, loose the big ring and f/mech, lightest wheels you can get hold of, old shoes with the carbon sole drilled out a bit around the heal.
We were/are told to keep both brakes on otherwise the rear would/should have been taken off (incl cables and shifter)
We have to wear helmets too.

You have to have two brakes, but a fixed wheel counts. So fixie and front brake is an option.

I wonder what the winning margins are.

Saving 500gm off a 8kg bike and say 72kg rider will give 0.375s per minute at most.

8 seconds over 3minutes 15sec(ish) last year.