thisisnotaspoon – Member

Then I ‘ruined’ it with coil lyrics. Which just proves that saving weight is a waste of time.

Does no such thing tbh- I removed the Pikes off my old Hemlock and refitted the coil lyriks they were supposed to replace, which added a buttload of weight, but the other weight reduction stuff was still there.

My current 130mm bike is the same physical weight as my last 160mm bike but rides a lot lighter. By that I mean it climbs better, has livelier handling and is more fun to ride. It’s also less tiring on longer rides. It does lack the total steamroller feel through rock gardens, but I’m not brave enough any more anyway.

What actually, really, shits you up are the descents though. I can keep ploughing up hills all day long – given the right gear. A day of braking bumps, rock gardens and hauling on the brakes means that by the end of it – I have to pry myself from the bike.

I’d rather have 160mm.

A day of braking bumps, rock gardens and hauling on the brakes means that by the end of it – I have to pry myself from the bike.

Depends on the objective really, for riding it makes sense, for racing it can be the quickest bike despite the downsides – did a race last weekend where day one was more XC, day 2 was a mix but mostly down, survived the XC bike down stuff and happy about what I could make it do, not perfect but possible.
If it comes to racing having the best pedalling bike that you can manage skill wise seems to be the best compromise.

These always seem to be a good option if you are ok with 720mm bars… Save 150g or so for £29.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/carbon-mountain-bike-handlebar-318x720mm-
id_8324399.html

I still think that chasing down grammes is a fool’s errand. It’s easy to end up spending several grand on removing a pound or so in weight and having to deal with the inevitable compromises involved – i.e. durability or in the case of bar width, bike fit and handling. I’ve been there and ended up with a bike that was light, but too delicate and compromised for the riding it was originally designed for.

That said, I’ve two bikes – one carbon, the other aluminium, both with circa 140mm rear travel and 150mm Pikes. The alu bike is a 29er and is a good four pounds heavier, but that’s the difference between a full or empty Camelbak. I try not to think about the weight on the trails.

Always seems better to me to replace the whole bike unless you’re in love the frame. Especially if the spec across the board needs a little work.

That said, I love my bike and also like doing all day rides on a 160mm. My conclusion was high end SRAM cassette and wheels. Check the pedals too – some of those flats can be very heavy 🙂

I got my 2015 carbon Jekyll 2 down to 29lb 5oz. That’s nearly three pounds heavier than the Jekyll team from the same year. Alright, that had SRAM XX1 and I’m using XT 1×11 but even so I can’t see how you could save that much.