Fancy spending a bit of cash on some decent parts for my road bike. I reckon new seatpost, bars/stem and saddle. Any other bits anyone would change? How much weight do you reckon i could loose easily????

Battaglin S12 Comp Veloce 2010

Frame: S12 Alloy 7005 DB HT
Fork: Battaglin Alps 1 1/8" alloy/carbon T800HM 3K
Headset: FSA Orbit IS CC
Rear derailleur: Campagnolo Veloce 10 speed
Front derailleur: Campagnolo Veloce 10 speed
Levers/Shifters: Campagnolo Veloce 10 speed
Brakes: Campagnolo Veloce
Cassette: Campagnolo Veloce 10 speed – 12-25
Chainset: FSA Omega compact (megaexo) – 50/34
Bottom Bracket: FSA Omega
Chain: Campagnolo Veloce 10 speed
Wheels: Fulcrum Racing 7, black
Tyres: Vittoria Zaffiro
Stem: FSA OS190LX alloy
Handlebar: FSA Vero compact alloy
Handlebar tape: Battaglin
Saddle: Sella Italia Q-BIK flow white
Seat Post: FSA SL280 alloy
Weight: 9.170 kg

tell me your budget….I am resident weight weenie.

Wheels and tyres for the biggest weight saving. Something handbuilt like Ambrosio.

I am resident weight weenie.

You'll have to give credentials – you have quite a bit of competition on here!

My instant reaction would also be wheels and tyres – those bars, stem and seatpost aren't exactly boat anchors.

get a fixe 😛

doesn't really matter till you get man gears first. ( 12-25, 50/34) WTF!!!!

haha i can name the lightest components for road mtb and cross in the world.
ALL OF THEM.

haha i can name the lightest components for road mtb and cross in the world.
ALL OF THEM.

Go!!!!!

Google on a go slow?

woop he can name a whole host of useless componants – lightest isnt always the best 😉

not only that "the lightest" anything will cost more than that bike likely …..

I reckon a new frame would be the way to go – something in carbon.

There we go – <800g.

20.2lb is on the chunky side for a road bike but on yours I think it's a sort of sum of the parts rather than any one component in particular. They're all averagely decent bits without being stunningly light or anything. What's your budget anyway? Sure you could probably knock a lb or so off there but it begins to get into the realms of lessening returns and gets to the point where you may as well just sell the bike and buy a new one.

And +1 what radoggair says, put some proper gears on it!

Oh and having ridden with bikerbruce I can confirm that yes he's a weightweenie but he does actually have the legs to back it up!

"Proper gears" WTF???

Just because someone doesn't use race gears they can't have a light bike?

Oh yeah here we go…

Oh and having ridden with bikerbruce I can confirm that yes he's a weightweenie but he does actually have the legs to back it up!

Lets see all your palamares then?

Oh and OP wheels are the best place to start, but if you get serious about it then it costs a lot of money and a new bike is the best way to do it.

If you don't care for flash brands change your wheels for some planet X model Bs, fantastic wheels for £120 a pair and you'll knock 300g from the most noticeable area of the bike.

Personally I wouldn't throw too much cash at it it was a £750 bike at full retail so I'd guess the frame will be on the heavy side for a weight weenie build. Save up and buy a new bike there are fantastic deals from people like Focus and Planet X.

If you don't care for flash brands change your wheels for some planet X model Bs

i concur – they get slated on here as "flexy" but i have them on my TT bike and they have done a sterling job havnt even had to look at them !- im almost loathe to change but im keeping an eye out for a set of 50/90mm aero rims . but they have served me exceedingly well

cheers for the replies guys!

20.2lb is on the chunky side for a road bike but on yours I think it's a sort of sum of the parts rather than any one component in particular

this is what i had wondered about. it looks like the best plan might be just to save for a new one as eventually i would have replaced all of the parts to make it a little lighter.

As far as the comment about gears goes- im perfectly happy with the ratios, and quite often use the smallest gears going up hills (its pretty hilly around here). does that make me a girl??

However, those planet x wheels look like a good purchase. when they come back in stock i might get some as the difference between selling the fulcrum7's and those would be minimal i reckon.

As previous posters have said the wheels are the place to start. You can easily knock a lb off with a lighter wheels set. Apart from that I wouldn't bother replacing anything else.

People get illogically obsessed by bike weight. 19 lb is decently light for a road bike and unless you weigh 8 or 9 stone dripping wet you'll be unlikely to notice the the effect of a bike another couple of pounds lighter.

I recently tested a couple of road bikes around 18lb mark against a Scott Addict which was stupidly light at 15-16lb and there was no difference in the apparent effort it took me to get up hills- hardly surprising as 2lb as a % or my body weight of 12.5 stone is insignificant.

As far as the comment about gears goes- im perfectly happy with the ratios, and quite often use the smallest gears going up hills (its pretty hilly around here). does that make me a girl??

Use what gears suit you best, don't worry if you can't use a man's gear, just change your name to Wendy and all will be well. 😉

unless you weigh 8 or 9 stone dripping wet you'll be unlikely to notice the the effect of a bike another couple of pounds lighter.

That's rubbish.

That's rubbish.

No, it's true.

Bicycles do not operate outside the laws of physics, so saving a couple of pounds from a total weight of 70-80-90 kgs isn't going to have a noticeable effect other than in your head.

Drifting off slightly, I wouldn't agree with that, certainly not for a mountain bike (which this topic isn't about I know :P).

You can't add it all up as a "total weight", the bike isn't attached to you. For example, if you went for a jog with a 20lb pair of shoes on, it'd slow you down a lot more than a 20lb backpack would. Your shoes are accelerating in different directions, your torso is moving in a fairly straight line.

It's too early on Sunday for a physics argument, but I'd sure notice after a few climbs if my SS was a couple of pounds heavier.

No, it’s true.

No. Heavier wheels = slower ride, no matter how heavy/light the rider is.

As far as the comment about gears goes- im perfectly happy with the ratios, and quite often use the smallest gears going up hills (its pretty hilly around here). does that make me a girl??

Yes it does, although the comment wa aimed at the other end of your gears. 50/12 will have you spinning out about 35mph ish. Get a 53/11 on there and you’ll be spinning out about 50mph ish

I should probably have put a 😉 after my comment about the gears, it was all a bit tongue in cheek.
It might be worth putting a nice lightweight set of wheels on there and seeing what the difference is – keep the ones you’ve got as ‘winter’ or training wheels.

Otherwise as I said before, it’s all good workaday parts without being spectacular. If you start changing anything it will be a case of a few grams here, a few there which just gets silly expensive.

Enjoy riding it then, when you’ve got the money get a nice new road bike in the sales. 🙂

light weight = nicer to ride, but the difference in speed is minimal.

No. Heavier wheels = slower ride, no matter how heavy/light the rider is.

but if those heavier wheels were a pair of aerodynamic mavic cosmic carbones at 1740g
and the lighter wheels a pair of mon chasserals at 1450g

and you were riding over typical english rolling countryside which would be quicker?

Wheels/tyres first

FSA Omega compact is very heavy (BB is steel) plus use a fork with a carbon steerer.

Vero bars are also very weighty.

No. Heavier wheels = slower ride, no matter how heavy/light the rider is.

You are right but only if you are worried about knocking a couple of minutes off your time to get up Alpe D’Huez

How much time does extra weight cost on Alpe D’Huez

While that test is interesting, in some respects it’s pretty irrelevant.

Most of the water in the wheels will remain static as the wheels rotate.

WHY OH WHY do they run such STUPID research?

OK its not the last word in scientific rigour but I don’t think it can be dismissed out of hand. The power used was pretty constant between tests. At the end of the day knocking a couple of pounds of a bike will result in very small and probably insignificant speed increase in the real world to anyone other than a racer who’s worried about seconds.

I think crazylegs is right, the spec of that bike is pretty consistent. I don’t think that swapping from the fulcrums to the model Bs would make that much of an impact – if you were going for the wheel upgrade, I’d be looking at carbon rimmed something like the planet x 50mm rim clinchers, but we’re in the £300 range which is a fair chunk of money

stick with the gears, they work for you.

If you do go for a new frame, remember that you’re current one has a english standard BB, some frames are starting to use BB30 or variants thereof so check with the place that you buy from that your stuff swaps over

If you can’t afford a new bike then upgrade the wheels – I like Ksyrium Elites – then get a new bike next year, swap the wheels over and use this one as a winter bike. That’s more or less what I did anyway.

Try one of these for value:

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/bikes/q/drop-bar-road-bikes/sl-pro-carbon

Most of the water in the wheels will remain static as the wheels rotate.

No it won’t – it will rotate with the wheels. What forces do you think are acting on the water to prevent it rotating with the wheels?

50/12 will have you spinning out about 35mph ish

That’s a major problem for you? Shouldn’t you be in Madrid?

aracer – Member
Most of the water in the wheels will remain static as the wheels rotate.

No it won’t – it will rotate with the wheels. What forces do you think are acting on the water to prevent it rotating with the wheels?

Gravity. Capillary action isn’t that strong.

Gravity

Is that acting stronger on the water at the bottom of the wheel than that at the top, so that they can’t swap places?

oh em gee (as I overheard someone on the tube say yesterday).

oops, inertia.

ANSWER THAT!

heh. I WIN!

Sorry pc problems….
I top ten in the country junior mtb and cyclo cross.?
fair few top 20’s in international cross races

go for wheels to start as people say then get some squewers and a light saddle