My cheap and cheerful road single speed based on a hi-tensile frame weighs 27lb.

Anyone got something sub 20lb?

As per title, photos for a bit of inspiration please….

Here it is…

I don’t have any pics of mine but it’s about 23 lbs and an old bag of a bike so sub 20 should be easy

langster is just under 20lb, going to replace it with an uncle john cross as it’s too hilly round where I have just moved.

Bit of a cheat – not being strictly road legal but I’ve never taken a photo of my langster ( one of the 2004 bikes, nice but jarring as hell with the straight aluminum forks)

my fixed wheel speed machine
‘robust’ build and I reckon it’s about 20 lbs, especially with the 36 spoke bombproof wheels.

Brakes – what frame is that? Looks carbon? Does it take a rear brake?

Kilo – are brakes really a legal requirement? Would the Dolan take a brake caliper or are track frames like that designed purely for track use?

21092012043 by cycleofaddiction 1, on Flickr

I’m sure it will be sub 20 when my new stans alpa’s & goltec wheels go on in the next couple of weeks

previous guise

current

I would guess that both are about the 9kg mark, the 32 front and 36 rear wheeels aren’t light but it’s an every day commuter so needs to be pothole proof and the alu track frame is comfy. I heartily recommend the Dolan frame, I got it for 200 quid !

Here’s my old 1994 Marin Indian Fire Trail mtb converted into a singlespeed road bike with my old 1994 Hope TI hub/freehub/axle, well under 18lbs with my light hutchinson tyres on it, with these specialized fat boys it’s about 18lbs, running 46 x 16 magic ratio and when the chain does get a bit slack i have a various assortment of chainrings and rear singlespeed sprockets to mess about and get the magic ratio back again.

Surprisingly nice to ride, very fast but not much forgiveness in the frame, a bit ugly to look at so i call it a fungrol which stands for F-kin Ugly moNGROL which i guess it is – a mixture of bikes and odd lightweight components i’ve gathered up over the years.

Dunno what it weighs, probably a fair bit less that 20lbs

no idea on weight, but it weighs less than my DB Alpine, but then again, it should!

Kilo – are brakes really a legal requirement? Would the Dolan take a brake caliper or are track frames like that designed purely for track use?

To use on the road yes, two brakes are required, with fixed, the mechanism of the fixed counts as one so you need one more. Some track bikes have a drilled track or road fork fitted so a front caliper can be fitted and that makes them road legal, you whip the brake and lever off for track use. The dolan in my picture has an undrilled track fork so isn’t road legal but is only a fork away from being the one in edhornby’s picture.

Now has an Easton carbon post and Ti specialized toupe saddle. No idea what it weighs but definitely under 20.

Brakes – what frame is that? Looks carbon? Does it take a rear brake?

cheap chinese eBay jobby (mycycoole), about £100 for frame, forks, headset, seatpost. made from ally, but I think it looks a bit like the British track frames.
it does take a rear brake.

TrickyDisco that Webbs is lovely 😀 Dare I ask how much that set you back?

Finally got the langster out of the shed and photo’ed it – no idea of the weight, 66″ish fixed, the only original bits left are the frame and forks and the seatpin

Weighed about 18lb, old 80’s French racer converted when I was a courier. Great bike, I wish I’d bought it back to the UK with me.

I no longer own these:

Track bike

Fixed

(And in SSCX guise)

Don’t have any pics of it but my Condor Pista was 19lb before I put Crud Raceguards on it.

TrickyDisco that Webbs is lovely Dare I ask how much that set you back?

Actually wasn’t that much.. £350 2nd hand off Webbs of warmley

Here is my new bike, cost £20 on ebay. Its not SS yet but I plan on converting it at some point in the next couple of months.

Its a mess at the moment, the brakes dont work and the tyres are 25 years old. I’m planning in the summer to strip it down and paint it including doing something with the lugs and make it look lovely.

IMAG0252 by i_ache, on Flickr

Steel frame, mudguards and 10 kilos/22 lbs dead on. 42:16 1/8 drivetrain. Fantastic ride. Will be replacing with a lighter and shorter stem and nicer bars. But sub 20lbs, even without the mudguards will require a new frame or carbon forks. For reference, I have a quote of £1200 from Burls to make the same frame in titanium. And I REALLY like the kona steel forks.

My 531c track/hill climb bike is 18 lbs. With front brake. But it is a small frame, runs tubs and has a very steep head angle, with no bottle mounts. It’s not exactly a relaxing ride!

To be honest, getting under 20lbs with something that 1) is not a track bike and 2) is made of steel is not easy. A langster with Al frame should be OK. The upgraded wheelset and tyres on my Kona still come in at about 2200g because track hubs aren’t that light.

Fuel on the fire indeed!!

I was struggling to find some wheels anywhere near comparable weights to ‘normal’ geared wheels.

I did used to have a Specialized Tricross which was around 22lb.

I Ache – vaguely had in mind somekind of similar project. That was the ‘cheap’ project option. The ‘pimp’ project option is the lightweight bling fixie….

my stock langster with bottle cages is 20lb. ally frame with crabon fork/ally steerer. it’s the poo brown one from 2008ish?

I’m surprised people are struggling to get below 20lbs. I have a stock Trek 1.2 (geared) and that was 19lbs. This is a cheap aluminium frame with carbon forks.

Hopefully going on my first ride on the Raleigh tomorrow. It was bought as a cheap roadie to get me fit while my ankle is recovering. I kept getting carried away on the MTB and trying to jump things. Not really a good idea when recovering from an operation.

This is a cheap aluminium frame with carbon forks.

Exactly… Now switch to a steel frame and forks and come back with the same conclusion.

I was struggling to find some wheels anywhere near comparable weights to ‘normal’ geared wheels.

The original wheels, comparable to the Weinmann ones on the nice Webb bike above, with durano plus training tyes, come in at about 3000g!! I wanted low flange hubs to avoid the “looks like a track bike” issue. This meant Miche Primato, which only come in 32 hole,and pairs. A conventional 24h 105 hub and a dura ace track rear would probably save another 150-200g. But overall I’m delighted with the wheels.

Not really very heavy – circa < 17lbs

My Burls fixed CX

fixed cx? are you mad???

have you raced on it?

Nah is a pure commuter (30 miles daily on and off road route) – just topped 6k miles on it. Not failed once.

I’m surprised people are struggling to get below 20lbs. I have a stock Trek 1.2 (geared) and that was 19lbs. This is a cheap aluminium frame with carbon forks

Indeed. But just about everythig shown so far is steel or very cheep aluminium.

There’s nothing to stop you using a Cannondale SuperSix Evo Black Edition frame (<650g), 300g forks, bar/stem/seatpost/headset at 100g each, 500g cranks and chainring, 200g chain, 1500g wheels (novatech front, WI ENO rear, DT REv’s, carbon tub rims and some tubs) and you’d be under 8 lb excluding pedals without even getting propperly weight weenie. It’d cost £2.5 – £3k though, most people build fixies as winter bikes which means trawling for discarded track frames or old road bikes and just removing the cassette which leaves you in the 180-20lb ballpark.