Buy some Octalink cranks of here for a tenner. Set to work with an angle grinder. And here you go. 400g excluding BB and ring obviously. I got my 19 stone mate to jump up and down on them and they didn’t break, so I reckon they’ll be fine for my 10 stone when playing about in the woods!

Accident waiting to happen.

*sets reminder 3 months ahead for “my cranks broke” thread*

My god, it’s the 90s all over again. That’s very resourceful, and they may not break, but you will feel very silly if they do. 😉

Edit: did I say “if”? I meant “when”. 😉

Did that to an old set of mine….they snapped.

Where’s that pic that Samurai posts up of the hollwtech cranks that snapped from heal rub?

How much weight did you remove? and why didn’t you make the hole central?

The hole is central, it’s a bit of an optical illusion. I’ve been off a half metre drop with them, but if (when:-) ) they snap, I won’t really have lost anything – assuming they don’t stick in my leg!

Why not drill your frame too?

Remember these three numbers

9
9
9

You’re gonna need them

but if (when:-) ) they snap, I won’t really have lost anything

excluding your bollocks, of course

fatigue failure

If I had a hat I’d take it off to you mate.
And if they break…so what.
Imagine what a dull place the world would be if nobody ever challenged convention…
Cant see them lasting long though. 🙂

Drilling out bike bits to save grams was lost in the nineties mate…! People came to realise that it’s more important to have reliable kit than super light damaged kit!

Someone will hopefully be along with a bunch of pictures with failed DIY ‘lightened’ parts soon

No guts, no glory. Fantastic 🙂

omfg.
why?
why?
why?
why?

How much weight was saved by making that slot?

is this for real?!

oooooh twisty nasty bendy work hardening snappy sharp aluminium spikes through Achilles tendon nastyness

thank god you’ve not been near my bike with an angle grinder.

Do you not think if they were strong enough like that, Shimano wouldn’t have done it already?

Still, it’ll make an interesting feature for Countryfile’s Air Ambulance pieces.

Love it, 90’s Polaris madness all over again – bet you’ve got a shortened drilled toothbrush and drilled spoon too for those overnight rides!! Off to take out every alternate spoke, should make me fly up those climbs 😯

If you actually wanted to save weight, you could ditch the chain guide (and run a deeper toothed unramped chainring?), take the plastic bit off the crank bolt, loose the chainstay protector ..

Of course when it work hardens/fatigues over (a short period) of time and it snaps off when you try another drop (maybe you’ll mess it up slightly?) and you land on the top tube you’ll know if it was worth it?

I don’t know whether to grin or hang my head……

Do you really need all four arms on that Spider? Why not remove two?

Wow! ….a couple of hundred grams is going to make all the difference isn’t it!

Surely not worth the risk unless you’re insane.

So, how much does a single speed XTR chainset weigh without BB?

You know, you could save even more weight by cutting slots in your seatpost.

Actually, don’t do that, no really, don’t

Shimano probably engineer the cranks to avoid 20 stone hambeasts filing lawsuits, so i wouldn’t be too worried about the mod.

Whilst on the weight saving thing…..Why don’t people just lose some weight themselves???? or is that too obvious?

A chap who comes out on our LBS rides is forever trying weight saving bits and bobs but does nothing about losing the fair sized gut he carries around!!!!

nickegg – he probably doesn’t realise so you need to tell him. Every ride. Also give him a suitable knickname to help get the message across. And steal his food.

but does nothing about losing the fair sized gut he carries around!!!!

Maybe he thinks the riding will help with that?

The more I look at it, the more that pic looks faked. Photoshopped.

Why don’t people just lose some weight themselves????

STW syndroma… If easier bike to carry uphill or skill compensator to go down can’t be purchase using a debit/credit card it’s not worth it 😉

Well, you’d think the riding would help but for the 3 years i’ve been riding with that lot it seems to not be working 😀

“Of course when it work hardens/fatigues over (a short period) of time and it snaps off when you try another drop (maybe you’ll mess it up slightly?) and you land on the top tube you’ll know if it was worth it?”

Remove the top tube for some serious weight saving.

You could get a load more material off them…

LOL!

Firstly, not photoshopped. Anyone near Kent is welcome to come and have a look at them.

Secondly, no the weight saving is not huge, but the Wanga was the heaviest bike I own – heavier than my two FS bikes so I thought it had to go on a diet. Changing forks (Rebas for Toras), grips, stem, cassette and the cranks lost 2kg and makes the bike noticeably nicer to ride. Total cost once I sold the old bits was about £120. Worth every penny at the moment.

Thirdly I do use a TA unramped chainring, but the chain still occasionally came off. I also took the grinder to the chain device… 🙂

And finally, my 20 stone mate has never broken a set of these cranks, having removed less than a third of the weight from the arms, I’m quite happy that my 10 stone weight will be fine!

[img]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/207/441827584_040601efdf.jpg?v=0[/img]

Remove half your brake rotor bolts or replace your heavy disk brakes with v’s! Lose your headset topcap, chop down your steerer and get rid of the spacers. Chop down your bars, replace the grips with some bar tape, get ultra thin tyres, remove all decals, sandblast off the paint, chop down your carbon seatpost, singlespeed.

Or just enjoy the ride as it is.

I see from the above picture that he’s cut away the thick side and left the thin side. Legend.