Im sure this topic has been mentioned plenty of times, but im riding the south downs way in a month on a steel hardtail. i will be fully loaded cause we are camping half way. now i want to carry as little weight up the hills as possible, so what is the best way to shed some weight off the bike? (the extra car tyre round my waist is being addressed as we speak!) cheers.

also any tips on where to camp along the way? we were thinking of going wild?

YHA at Truleigh hill near Brighton?

need to know more about the bike to say where to shed weight but you could drop suspension forks and go rigid, as an example.

[edit] other thign to do would be to stash all your gear the yha/campsite on way to start and not carry it with you (and leave there to pick up on way home)?

go the 1×9 route? wedge your mech open to the right position and you can loose the extra rings,bolts,front shifter,cables.

im riding the south downs way in a month

Three miles per day?

😉

1×9 won’t lose that much weight, really, and if on a loaded bike the lower gears might be useful.

I’d second losing the suspension fork and going rigid. That’s save you a lot of weight for very little money.

After that, tyres and tubes are probably the next cheapest to change for the greatest effect?

If the YHA is an option I’d suggest you go for it. You wouldn’t need to carry camping kit or cooking kit etc which will keep the total weight down.

If you want to camp en route then I’d suggest you spend time and money on getting your kit as light as possible and not worry too much about your bike. It will probably be easier to lose a few pounds from your kit than from your bike.

I did something similar recently. A few, relatively cheap, examples to save some weight from the bike:
KCNC foam grips (very comfy) – 20g v 120g for ODI lock-ons
Nobby Nics 2.1 EVO – 470g v 600g for Nevegal 2.1
Continental lightweight inners tubes – 125g v 200g standard ones
So around 510g (over a lb) saved without (IME) any performance loss.

I was already using 1×9, but that could save some weight too if you don’t already.
If you’re riding in a group, share out the bike tools you want to carry.
Also, think hard about how much camping stuff you actually need to carry.
SDW has lots of spots where you can pick up water (I think the taps are all listed on various websites), so you shouldn’t need to be carrying too much water at any one point – a litre of water is a kilogram, so there’s a massive potential saving there.

rigid SS will save KGs.

perfect for the SDW too. 😀

edit: taps

http://www.bikedowns.co.uk/Water%20taps.htm

I’ve always been an advocate of lightweight wheels, tyres and tubes.

But over the course of many years, I’ve been able to slowly accumulate lightwieght components for most areas of the bike now.

No point IMO, you’ll save a lb or so, not even 1% of the weight of you+bike+kit, spend ££££, and probably compromise the ride.

No point IMO, you’ll save a lb or so, not even 1% of the weight of you+bike+kit, spend ££££, and probably compromise the ride.

Yes, but it’s the cumulative effect isn’t it? OP’s already stated he’s losing weight from himself as well. Between a bivvy trip in March, and the WRT a couple of weeks ago, I lost 1 1/2lb from the bike, 5lb from me, and around 6lb in the kit I was carrying – mainly through more sensible choices. Total cost of around £85, and some of those things were consumables (i.e. tyres) needed replacing anyway. I certainly noticed the difference – I was riding much more strongly on the WRT.

Thanks for the input!

after chatting to an ex-soldier, his view was that every Kg you leave at home is one less you have to lift every step/ reveloution you take. so every little counts.

i bought some P2’s for another bike recently and that didnt even cross my mind to change those. so thanks! i will def be looking into tyres.

the idea of going SS makes me feel ill… but 1×9 is quite appealing.

This is the first time we have done an overnight trip with the idea of doing more in more remote places in the future. so i wanted to try out the wild camping as a test run to see what works with the option of a hot bath not too far away if it all goes tats up.

I’d be more focused on wind direction on the day and the water stops than weight, ditch the bladder and go for bottle cages. For camping I rode past this place the other day saddlescomb farm, if you’re heading towards Eastbourne save some energy for the last three climbs at southease, windover and jevington.

Edit: tubeless small blocks 8s are a perfect tyre for dry sdw conditions

IMO much of it i in your head, if you believe 1.5lb off the bike is worth it, it will help you, 11lb elsewhere will definitely be significant tho.

yeah i know what your saying, i just want to make my life as easy as possible!

im planning on getting the train to winchester then heading east to eastbourne, stopping around the river Arun, maybe further depending on how we feel.

Do it in a day and don’t take anything?

Took me 13 hours.

I’ve also done it:

Superlight with an overnight in a pub over 2 days
Light with wild camping over 3 days

How long you gonna take to do it?

was planning on 2 days.

BTW, well done doing in a day! that sounds pretty epic to me!!