As mentioned before I’m considering a hard tail for the first time in a while. I’m looking at the trail sort of gnarpoon end of the spectrum rather than XC in either 650b or 29″ and made out of metal rather than carbon.

With this in mind I was shocked when I found out one of the short list was a smidge over 30lb! Is this normal these days or was this one especially lardy? If I was looking at full suss I’d expect to get something around that weight so expected a HT to be more like 27/8lb.

What am I missing?

My 650b steel P7 is just over 29lb with dropper, flat pedals, huge rotors, wide rims and not-very-light Maxxis Minion and High Roller tyres. It’s bomb-proof, but fantastic to ride and fine for long distances. I could lighten it with some carbon but there’s no need.

How much are you spending?

My Boardman Pro 29er is 11.5kg, which is less than 26lb in old money

I’m hoping the gnarpoon lite 29er I’m building will come in sub 30lb. Will report back in a few weeks (it is using an old drivetrain though.)

My steel 29er with 2.4 tyres, dropper, wide bars and 1×10 is 29 lbs.

Depends entirely on what you’re looking at.

Steel hardtail frame can easily weigh more than a full-sus frame.

My 26er BFe (Flows, Reverb, Marz 44s, X7/X9 drivetrain) comes in around 29lb but is a bit indestructible. Still fine for longer rides though.

Much weight in wheels and finishing kit, so a lot depends on budget and intent.

My gnarpoon is fairly light (25lbs) but then I built it with crest wheelset, didn’t go dual ply, run tubeless, Rev’s instead of Lyriks (showing it’s age), and had an eye on weight for the finishing kit.

It’s all in the mind though isn’t it 😉 is an extra lb or two going to make a real difference unless you obsess over it?
My new Surly Instigstor probably weighs in at 31/32 lbs, but it rides great and isn’t a slouch by any means (5 KOMs on some local trails today!)

My hardtail frame is heavier than my full suspension frame, doesn’t bother me.

Under £1k rrp, I doubt many will be under ~13Kg.

EN testing has maybe pushed frame weights back up a smidge.

is an extra lb or two going to make a real difference unless you obsess over it?

Yes. Cos it’s more than a lb or so. A 31lb hardtail is obese! My Patriot with 66s, big fat wheels and 3x XT weighs 31lbs! Salsa El Mariachi weighs 26lbs with rigid forks. Of course I’m not suggesting going rigid, but 30lbs is too much, and you will notice a difference between 30 and 26.

Big wheels and droppers haven’t helped, and I think people just stopped swallowing the “bikes must weight less than 30lb” lie.

It’d be nice to have the choice though.

There’s no getting over it – >30lbs is bloody heavy for a hard tail. Most full-sus bikes come in under that weight.
My 29er is ooh about 24lbs.
The Plus bikes in MBUK I was reading the other day were around the £1800 maek and came in a range from 26lb to 29-ish.

My Switchback is 29lb and that’s with a decent/light set of components.

It’s a good few lb heavier than my previous ti frame but I wouldn’t say its been a hindrance.

That said, if I could afford a ti switchback I would buy one!

Anyone know an easy way to weigh a bike, im justq mildly curious how much mine weighs so don’t particularly want to buy a luggage guage or whatever for a ten second “oh, ok then”.

Stand on your bathroom scales then stand on them carrying your bike. Simples!

mattyfez – if you just want a rough number make up a spreadsheet of all the parts on your bike then add the manufacturers listed weight against each. It’s probably as accurate as most folks scales on here 😆

Bird Zero 27.5 with xfusion sweep and reverb is ~27lb.

Weighed using the bathroom scales…

My cheap eBay luggage scales are only as accurate as the 8/9 airport luggage systems our cases have been through. Which still makes them more accurate than the Park ones 🙂

when a change of tyres can lose you over a kilo it gets a bit silly comparing things within a lb or so of each other.

ie: my (quite light for) steel HT can weigh 24lb with the light wheels and tyres on, stick the burly ones on and that changes to 27lbs immediately, but then I have another Steel HT that weighs nearly ~30lbs with a hub gear and coil fork so meh…

Things haven’t really changed in general trail HT land over the last 10-15 years, the weight has jsut moved around a bit and things have got better/stronger/longer for the same weight so the answer is still ~26lbs give or take 5lbs 😀

There’s no getting over it – >30lbs is bloody heavy for a hard tail. Most full-sus bikes come in under that weight.
My 29er is ooh about 24lbs.
The Plus bikes in MBUK I was reading the other day were around the £1800 maek and came in a range from 26lb to 29-ish.

And in the real world they’re all a lb or so heavier, due to optimistic quoted weights of small bikes without pedals. The look of disappointment when people put their ’26lb trail full suss’ on some proper scales is always a delight 🙂

My Ragley Ti was somewhere mid 20s, depending on what tyres it had on. But that took money and effort and some of the parts were a bit marginal in terms of strength

Thanks for the responses. The bike in question is the new p7 which Mbr quote in large at just over 30lb for RS spec. I’ll be looking at the boggo one so imagine it’ll be even more! For a £1500 bike that seems too much.

Will the Bfe, Bird, etc come out similar? I currently ride a Alpine 5 so know weight isn’t worth getting too hung up on but I’d expect a ht to be lighter than fs.

I might be leaning towards something a little less ‘capable’.

My Bird is a large with a mixture of deore and slx with dt Swiss e1900 wheels. Including the aftermarket reverb cost about £1350.

A PP Shan frame weighs 2.6kg (5.7lb) and I suspect that’ll be a small. That’s more than my large carbon Enduro

Not being funny mech but I think your scales are out as your frame won’t be more than half the weight of the p7 I wouldn’t have thought. People mocked me when I weighed my 5 that way.

Does seem like rugged steel frames are up to FS frame weight which is a shame.

My SAnderson Soloist SS is 28lbs. But it’s got burly rims and big rubber. I’m a big, fat heffer with no skills. I’d rather sacrifice a few pounds and have a bike that will last and give me confidence that it won’t fall apart.

Just for fun, weighed my two hardtails.

Ragley Marley, wearing Revs, a dropper and old 3×9 XT = 29.0 lbs

Custom Ti Pact with Rebas, Scrapers, 3″ tyres and 2×11 XT = 28.1 lbs

Not totally sure what you are saying? You think I am over or understating the weight? According to the Bird website a medium frame would be just shy of 2kg. Bathroom scales are certainly not exact but overall it compares similar to my mates pp shan.

Bird Frame Only

Thanks fdchris.. that never even occured to me, I had considered a far more complex solution using 2 bathroom scales, one under each wheel, but I don’t think that would work!

Does seem like rugged steel frames are up to FS frame weight which is a shame.

No, because they’re rugged, if they weren’t they’d be something else.

I had a Sunn hardtail from the 90’s. Columbus steel tubing and weighed something daft like 1300g. Rode like nothing else, but I’d be scared to leave the ground on it!

I’m more a fan of bikes that ‘work’ rather than lightweight, my fatty is 30 and something, my last trail bike was 35lb, my hardtail weighs something too but I’ve never found out. That’s not to say 20lb hardtails or S-works enduro’s don’t work as well, but I don’t lose sleep over spending several thousand less on a steel bike. Because somethimes they do things carbon bikes can’t (like being left outside in the rain guilt free, locked up at work or left outside a shop without attracting the attention of the local scrote-bags.

There was a good article on bike trends a few months back in STW (or maybe Cranked) with Whytes main designer. He said that they (as in the bike industry not Whyte specifically) no longer obsessed over weight as everyone was typically riding bigger trails and wanted more from their bikes and as such weight didn’t come out as a major factor.

My Bird Zero TR Medium with NX11 (apart from the cassette which is GX), Reverb, minions and x-fusion streat forks comes in at 28lbs.

Crikey BBS, my Soloist weighs 21lbs! But then pretty much everything except the frame is carbon.

Cotic Solaris (large) with Hope wheels, Reverb, 1×10 drivetrain comes in at 12.7Kg. Doesn’t feel “heavy”and I’d trust it to take some hammer.

He said that they (as in the bike industry not Whyte specifically) no longer obsessed over weight as everyone was typically riding bigger trails

Really? Are they saying the hills and mountains have shot up in the last ten years?

Onewheelgood

120mm RS Revs, Sun Singletrack rims, 2.4 Trail Kings, Hope everything, Renthals, big flat pedals.

But I can ride it like a trail bike rather than a XC rocket made of fairy wings.

😉

People will rediscover one day how nice light bikes can be to ride, and it’ll be the next fad. Again.