I would guess mine is around 33lbs but I have no idea really. It’s a Pitch with 36 vans, dhx5 and a reverb. Feels awesome and I don’t mind riding/pushing it up almost any hill including some big uns like Ben Lomond and Helvellyn. Mostly ride in the Lakes and do the odd uplift day/trips to Europe in summer.

I never usually ride more than 4-5 hours though and I wonder if I would on a lighter bike.

About 9.8kg as pictured – including pedals, but not the seatpack – has had a few changes since and got a little heavier, but should still be <10kg. Not what you’d want for throwing down Fort Bill, but perfectly capable on normal trails. There are a few on here with lighter sussers though.

Oh, and I’ve never wished it was heavier – have done events which involve significant amounts of bike carrying, and for that a lighter bike really does make a difference.

Metric is a much more sensible system to use for measuring stuff, granddad.

My Pitch is 32lb, wouldn’t want it heavier but the geometry is more of a hindrance uphill than the weight.

I’ve ridden <25lb FS bikes and they’re awesome, well built bikes don’t feel fragile, but I couldn’t afford to get the Pitch that light!

Mine got to 19.7lbs IIRC (real weight, on my scales at least!) by fitting a Furious Fred:

It’s since got about 0.5lbs heavier – a better front rotor; I found the KCNC a bit lacking in power. I generally use larger tyres now; tend to go for 2.25″ rather than 2.1″ Schwalbes now. I changed the I-Links to normal Shimano cable, although I’ve got some Quaxar stuff to try that is really light, hopefully will last well!

I love it frankly. I’ve got two sets of wheels, but prefer how it rides with the lighter ones, the heavier (which are still DT240s on Alpines, so it’s relative) ones just make it seem a bit sluggish.

I don’t ride too many rocky places, done Afan and Brechfa (on the 1246g wheels) and Haldon and Dalby and various other places on it with no ill effects though! It’s never going to really excel on technical rocky sections, but then neither do I frankly!

My main bike is a ’98 steel XL Rockhopper. It has had everything changed over the years except the frame and cranks and comes in at 13.6kg (30lb). Not bad for a 20.5″ steel framer…

I got my whippet down to this although there’s a question over the accuracy of the scales. This was for the bike built up as below

Loved riding it, took it to Lee Quarry and used it on the pump track, did trail centres and raced it (badly) at the nationals.

Within limits, there must be a relationship between rider weight and bike weight?

Aside from buying technological advantage (i.e. carbon wheels) like as not, there is a relationship between stiffness, strength and weight.

I’m 91kg, not the heaviest, but some of the light bikes here would behave like a spastic bambi under me, because they’re going to flex much more than with a 65kg racer boy.

I’m never going to get a 19lb bike to feel great under me in rough terrain.

My scales are very cheap (2.99 from the petrol station) and therefore can’t be garaunteed to be accurate but for my large ragley Blue Pig with 150mm rev’s on front it cam in at 11.3kg (has a reverb as well).
I think that it might be a bit higher looking at the comparatives but tbh I’m 125 kilos so therefore i could probably go to the toilet and lose a whole chunk of the difference.

Personally I like as light a bike as possible. Carrying it over stiles, putting it in the boot, hanging it on the wall in the garage, turning it up side down to fix a puncture all much more pleasant with a light bike.

I’m never going to get a 19lb bike to feel great under me in rough terrain.

I disagree – I was a similar weight to you and the only issues I ever had were forks flexing a lot. Specifically SIDS which were then swapped for Magura’s which cured the issue. The only other issue I had were the Reynolds wheels which would frequently snap spokes but this was down to the spoke themselves (those rubbish super lightweight ones which I can’t remember the name of) and the rim never went out of true.

I wouldn’t suggest taking it to a DH track, but I had no issues hitting fairly rough rock gardens on mine and due to the lack of weight, jumping it was lovely.

I think if you’re happy to run 1×10, not have a dropper post and run some decent light’ish wheels you can easily get bikes down to a decent weight. I’d rather have a light bike than a dropper post/granny ring/big tyres but thats just me.

Ohh and I lied in my post above. That weight was with a set of Storck carbon forks in, not the Maggies. think it was just over 18lbs with sus

37lbs Giant Reign X with coil Lyriks and a coil Roco R on the back. Can pedal it up and down anything, although I do have legs like tree trunks

Not bad for a 20.5″ steel framer…

People get too hung up on frame weight, doesn’t make much difference at all.

Maybe flange, its entirely subjective, which is of course the problem.

I learned recently how variable riding skills and styles are, despite the ‘talk’ and equipment on display. Your ‘barrelling through rock gardens’ could be my ‘tootling over a couple of rocks’ or vice versa.

You have kind of proved my point by mentioning your broken spokes too – they are,after all a very integral part of the wheel.

The lightest I ever managed that I was comfortable with was a 456ti, rebas and crests, run as a single speed. It weighed 22.3lbs, but the crests couldn’t take it, even with big tyres, so I ended up with arches and a bike that weighed 22.5lbs instead.

My Kona Explosif 650b was 26.8 lbs stock- I took some weight off with the pedals, stem and went tubless on the front. Then added a chunk of weight by adding the new bars and a dropped post. Not sure what it weighs now but I was happy enough riding Swinley and the Ridgeway all day. More heavy than I’m used to but once riding you dont notice. I have noticed that the rear wheel isn’t as easy to kick out because the back end is heavy- not sure if that is down to the dropouts or bigger cassette !?

Your ‘barrelling through rock gardens’ could be my ‘tootling over a couple of rocks’ or vice versa.

Absolutely – and with everything there are compromises. When I had the rigid Storck fork in it was at its lightest. I did a 2 hour xc race in Suffolk (so flat singletrack) and I couldn’t open my hands properly for a few days afterwards. The course was dry, for the most part smooth with a few rooty bits thrown in but in a quest for light weight I decided against plugging in the sus fork. When I took the bike to Lee I was fully expecting something to break with the way I was riding it but to my surprise it didn’t.

The spokes in the Reynolds are not something I would have used had I not bought the wheels second hand and I ended up rebuilding the wheel with something more appropriate. After that they were flawless and not noticeably heavier.

Njee’s bike is probably a better example. Full sus so you could pretty much ride it anywhere but bloody light too. However I’ve seen Nick (:stalker:) and he weighs about as much as my left leg hence maybe why he hasn’t snapped it yet.

I think if you’re willing to accept that light bits will break at some point and probably sooner than sturdier parts then it isn’t an issue. Light, cheap, strong – pick two…

However I’ve seen Nick (:stalker:) and he weighs about as much as my left leg hence maybe why he hasn’t snapped it yet.

**waves**

I definitely agree with Scienceofficer’s point, I don’t pretend to be any good technically, and I don’t really garner any pleasure from really technical riding, so I’m happy having a bike that doesn’t excel at that sort of thing. I do really enjoy fast flowing singletrack, and love riding in the Surrey Hills, and find my bike fantastic for that.

Every now and again I think some more travel would be good, but I certainly don’t wish it was heavier. I can imagine that heavier riders probably wouldn’t enjoy it – since I’ve not been riding much the last 6 months I’ve gone to about 75kg, and I do notice my Podiums flexing when cornering hard, I’d fully expect someone of 100kg+ to find the whole thing noodly and horrible, but I certainly don’t.

Technology has changed so much, 10 years ago I rode a Trek carbon hardtail with 28mm SID Carbons, v-brakes, Crossmax, full XTR etc, and it was still 2.5lbs heavier than my Top Fuel.

Whilst I’ve never worried a lot about weight, its always nicer to have a lighter bike.
However given im 16st (100kg) in the ‘suit. Im more concerned about strength and reliability. Psychologically im happy knowing that things like bars etc aren’t going bend / snap when im riding. Having had a set of cheap bars snap in the ’90’s its not a nice experience hitting the grass at 25mph (20 yards further on it was rocks 😯 )

27lb Gyro – but tbh the Wheels required hold it back a bit. Fine for covering ground but if you try to unleash it a bit on the descents it pushes back. So I’d say that’s too light in this case…

However, I normally run the All Mountain version of the wheels with a Hans Dampf and a Nobby Nic, plus a dropper. Much more inkeeping with the whole bike and very, very fun. 29lb dead.

Those are real weights, verified on two sets of hanging scales (one of which are Park Tool) and with XT SPDs on.

I’ve found that you really need to have a better class of wheel on 29ers – I suspect its the extra size allowing more flex. Your Gyro is pretty similar to my Sultan, which comes in at 29.8lbs until I bashed a KS lev on it anyway.

Absolutely, and the American Classic All Mountains are mind blowingly good for this. 1750g and I’ve done some tame-ish DH tracks on them.

The race versions are good, but they’re 1450g and it’s a 120mm FS with an eye on hitting things hard – it’s not there’s anything wrong with them, they’re just not a match for the bike 🙂

I have a set of Sun Ringle Black flag Pros on mine – same weight as your AC’s Pretty much spot on for it, I’ve just completed a week in Spain on pretty rocky stuff and the bike was superb all round.

Some of the hair-pins were so steep and tight that I folded the tyre completely over (although the bead held) so I’m thinking about getting something a bit wider to stabilise the tyre in those conditions. Most things wider seem to come with a bit of a weight penalty though.

I find the snakeskin versions of the Schwalbes make a big difference in terms of roll over, but I’ve not ridden spanish haripins 😛

The Hans Dampf is bonkers hard and very good – the weight is very fair all things considered (930g verified). Doesn’t fit in the back though so a snakeskin 2.25 Nobby Nic has done an admirable job as rear gunner.

Yes, I seem to have (temporarily at least) settled on schwalbe snakeskin tyres – they seem to have the right balance of weight and toughness without being dual ply heavy. I managed to roll over my Hans dampf twice, so it wasn’t too bad really.

Luckily, on the turner a Hans will fit in the rear, although I more often run a racing Ralph locally. Good weight and very capable – more capable than it looks.