I've recently returned to riding after nearly a decade and have purchased a Commencal Ramones 2 (long travel hardcore hardtail effort).
The spec is as follows:
http://tinyurl.com/2whhzhd
At present the bike is unaltered with stock parts other than some DMR V12 mags and Rock Shox Pike 454 U-Turn. It's coming in at a shade over 32lbs and whilst it's a great bike and stacks of fun, I'd quite like to shave 2/3lbs off if possible.
From a component upgrade standpoint, how would you go about doing that? I'm doing a fair amount of freeride/North Shore, pissing about on trails, but some moderate distance xc too.
I'm willing to spend about £300 as I got the bike at a very good price and intend to use the parts I strip from it to upgrade my brother's ancient Hard Rock.
Many thanks.
Wheels and tyres are probably the obvious option to make the most difference to the way it feels.
Wheels and tyres would be the first thing for me and you could probabaly get lighter forks, but not much for £300. How far you go with it depends how rough you are with the freeride.
To loose that amount of weight you're looking at frame, forks, wheels and tyres.
Ruling out frame and forks I would get some new wheels and tyres.
£300 would get you some Hope Hoops with Stans Flow or DT X500 rims and some nice new rubber.
I'd get the wheels and tyres off and start weighing them. For my money it'd be pair of 521s with nicer hubs (ie, Deore or XT), and perhaps new tyres too.
I'd also rip the bash off it you're not using it - they weigh a lot!
The tyres are seriously heavy - 890g and 740g.
Once you've done that you'll have saved a fair bit of weight and perhaps have a bit of cash left over. £136 for 521s with XT hubs from Merlin, plus a pair of folding Rubber Queens from ebay for £60.
wheels tend to contribute a lot to weight, so it might take up a fair chunk of your budget but some new wheels (consider tubeless to save more I guess) will probably shave a fair amount off. and then things like post and bars will save a bit as well. Upgrading various bits of the drivetrain will save a bit of weight, and may improve the running, but will probably work quite expensive (although if your moving kit to another bike...might be something to consider as well!)
wheels will be the most noticeable due to rolling weight. the next probably be forks, and depending on how much you spend on wheels and whether you sell the forks you have currently, you could probably get some second hand Floats Or Revelations.
I would look 2nd hand but servicable, there were a set of XT wheels for sale on here for £125. Will probably knock off 1/2lb in physical weight but will feel more like a 1lb, cranks BB & rings will also be about 1/2lb heavier than say XT again you can pick up a decent set for about £60 - £70 2nd hand. If the forks are in good nick you can then sell them for about £180 - £200 and put the leftover cash with the cash from them to get yourself a decent air fork for around £300, you should easily save a 1lb off the pikes.
Two bikes required. Buy an XC bike. You'll struggle to turn what you have into an XC machine.
As konastoner says - trade in the Pikes for some Revs.
Check out some lighter wheels - they don't need to be bonkers tough, but some fairly standard Mavic EX... on something or other.
And things like stem, bars, seatpost can be swapped out for not too much cash if you're prepared to look secondhand.
Eat a few less pies - that'll be cheaper!
(Ignore that if you're 5% bodyfat)
Thanks for the replies.
I really like the Pikes, I was tempted by Revs, but was under the impression that they might not stand up to as much abuse. Additionally, I know less than nothing about fork maintenance so figured something coil based might be easier to keep in running order....just been on the Rock Shox website and yeah, the weight saving would be considerable.
Am looking at wheels/tyres now.
namastebuzz
A salient point re: pies, I could do with shifting a few pounds from my own frame!
nickjb
Point taken re: the two bike solution. Was considering getting a cheap and cheerful Marin or something like that, but I'm in a houseshare at the moment and my room is already jammed full of snowboards, surfboards etc so it's a non-starter for the time being.
Realise this particular bike will never allow me to compete with the racing snakes, but that's not really the aim. Just want to make it a tad lighter for recreational xc. Fitness wise I'm some way off entering Mountain Mayhem et al right now!