[Closed] are we obsessing over bike weights (again)?

no we are not. The end.

I am and I'm quite enjoying it as well.

One of mine is going down. The other one's going up. It's all good fun.

people who care about the weight of their bike spend the rest of their time licking windows and stalking celebrities 🙁

Today's weight fact. SLX cassettes weigh 282g for 32T, XT is 256g. But the lockrings are interchangable,and the XT ring is about 10g lighter than the SLX one. So if you've already got a worn out XT one, you can combine the two and you're only gaining abut 16 grams!

Isn't that FASCINATING?

🙂

Isn't that FASCINATING?

not as fascinating as licking this window...

heavy bikes are good.

+1 ton, my mates giant glory is stupidly heavy 47lbs ish, but good, good fun on the downs which of course is all it does 😉

As some one in the trade mentioned to me the other day - it's the new purple. Just the industry's way of flogging us more stuff that we didn't know we needed.

Can't say I haven't done it though. 😳

we?

Us?

I used to think my bike was heavy and sluggish until I got some better forks (which are actually heavier than the old ones) and now it feels much perkier and is way faster. I can't afford really light stuff anyway.

To a certain extent weight makes a difference... a bike with sorted geometry can easily conceed a few pounds to a whippet and be much more rewarding to ride. Trust me...

I have just upgraded from a Scott Geniuis Ltd to a SC Heckler and the later fits me like a glove.
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I think weight has always been an obsession in all forms of cycling. In early 90s MTB it was at the expense of [i]everything[/i] else. My marin eldridge grade from that period was very light but rubbish in every other way. The wheels in particular were very fragile.

Now I think things are a little more sensible. We have got used to kit which actually works and we (well, certainly I!) are not ready to forgoe that for absolute minimum weight.

weight matters for racing, as a race can be won by a tiny fraction of a second or a few cm, and a few grammes of mass can make that difference, everything else being equal - however in non racing conditions the weight mainly seems to have a psychological advantage - if you [b]feel[/b] the bike is better you may perform better, or at least, think you are...

For those that want to add weight: I've sawed 70mm of my seatpost. I'll put it on classifieds, what price for 70mm of Thompson seatpost?

(it wouldn't go below the top seattube bolt)

Lightweight stuff's great, until you encounter rocks. Then it tends to bend.. 🙁

I've no idea what my bike weighs so wouldn't say I've got weight weenie

My Session 88 is 38lb and falling....

were we not told by some marketing blurb a while ago on this forum that a bike (which I can't remeber) had designed it's bike to be heavy to improve the sprung to unsprung ratio

or was that just marketing blub for dam it's heavy how can we spin this

I'll be honest, weight factors in my decisions on my full suss but I won't replace perfectly good components to shave off a few grams. I take it about as far as buying XT casettes rather than deore and buying kevlar rather than steel beaded tyres.

Envy is a terrible thing. Only poor people worry about this - the rest of us buy the best available and that is often governed by weight.

I like to buy light stuff, but not obsessively so; I won't be found in the LBS with a set of digital scales but will buy the lightest kit I think will cope with my hamfisted riding style!

Envy is a terrible thing. Only poor people worry about this - the rest of us buy the best available and that is often governed by weight.

Not necessarily. I could buy almost any bike I wanted, yet I choose to ride a 2nd hand Merlin Malt 3 with battered paintwork. Once upon a time I used to sneer at hardtails and think "Not a proper bike", but when circumstances forced me into riding this bike I found it was actually more fun struggling with its less forgiving ride rather than breezing over the terrain with full suspension. I'm also content to demonstrate that a cheap bike with cheap components will do the job perfectly well

I agree with Simon... and think that there is a certain amount of placebo effect with weight. We are all individuals with our own goals and requirements, but mentality is paramount. Unless you are a racer, where competetors are striving for the tinyest advantage often at the sacrifice of other areas. If the heavier bike (lets face it... in modern day terms this can be a marginal ammount) is very rewarding to ride and puts a smile on your face then you can afford to conceed a few pounds and still probably ride faster.

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This looks pretty light...

[i]Lightweight stuff's great, until you encounter rocks. Then it tends to bend[/i]

Light, strong, cheap - pick two - you picked the wrong two...

I'm a big believer in lightness, and this initially came for me from motorbikes - where you could treat it as [i]free[/i] power; free as in it didn't increase fragility nor fuel consumption plus meant the suspension usually worked better. And I don't see any real difference in MTB-land.

"Lightweight stuff's great, until you encounter rocks. Then it tends to bend.."

Lots of rocks at fort william, my 25lb Soul managed just fine 😉 Obviously that's not superlight but it's light for its purpose and strength. I did bust a spoke but only because I'm a clumsy idiot, the 4X track proved a bit much for me 🙄

For me it maybe is largely placebo effect... my Idrive was 30lbs and felt much heavier and less responsive than my Hemlock at 29lbs but that's not such a big difference. But there's things I can do on the Soul that I can't on the Hemlock, really steep explosive climbs, muscling the bike around on tight descents... Spent about 10 minutes yesterday repeatedly failing a techy section on the big bike which I can do every time on the Soul just because I can bully the Soul around more.

But then I'm not powerfully built, and I don't carry much weight, so maybe that's why I can't do these things with the bigger bike, probably if I was a bit stronger I could overcome thta.

My Beone is around 22lbs and I am around 200lbs - it's ridden regularly and fairly hard - I tend not to break bits...(touch wood!)

Buying quality pays off for me - it doesn't always have to be eye-watering expensive either, I just picked up a new XTR 11-34 cassette for eighty quid.

, I just picked up a new XTR 11-34 cassette for eighty quid.

[b]EIGHTY SOVS ??[/b]

I wasn't happy paying 18 for mine 🙁

i know the weight of every single component on my bike, including having the info in a spreadsheet and pics of each item being weighed 😀

I'm a weight weenie and couldn't care less what you lardy lovers like. In fact this will probably get most of you all excited as its got a big 2.5" tyres round the middle. 😉

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Lightweight= Lack of Fitness???
Or buy a road bike 😯

i keep one bike heavy so the other one feels light..

I have no idea how much my bike weighs, and the only ever thing I have bothered about the weight of is tyres, as lighterish ones do seem to make a nice difference to the ride.

"Lightweight= Lack of Fitness???"

I just end up going faster, and getting knackered at exactly the same pace A lot of people fixate on climbing when they talk about lightness but that doesn't bother me so much, I like how a lighter bike rides on the way back down.

I just discovered, while pottering around, that my heaviest bike is my rigid hybrid commuter At a mighty 30.4lbs.

If your'e that worried about weight then make sure you have a crap, a haircut & cut your nails before you go out. I'm about 2 1/2 clem overweight so I'm not really ar$ed about how heavy my bike is. (although I know it weighs about 27-28lbs)

I'm pretty light, and getting lighter, my bike is pretty light, and will likely get lighter. Light bikes go faster uphill, in racing that matters. Ergo I will stick with light bikes!

When I get fat and start breaking bits, or when I give up racing and want something a bit more compliant then so be it! I must admit if I had a 6" trail bike I wouldn't be fitting 2.1" tyres and such, but on a 100mm travel FS race bike it makes sense to make it as light as possible.

I have never done a spreadsheet though, don't see the point, as the sum of all the parts is never particularly close to the weight of the complete bike, same with weighing individual components. I know where I could save weight without writing it down!

I'm about 2 1/2 clem overweight

how much is a clem ??

I really like my 819 wheels and lightish tyres. But then I don't like pitch punctures when I forget to pump them up enough. I find I buy most of my bike stuff from the net when I am not going biking and don't really care when I am going biking as long as it works. Having a decent frame and forks is probably the most important thing for my as I am not into racing but raging down hills as quick as possible and up hills that are as technical as possible (For me) which having a light bike does not make that much difference more a challenge for me.

I am trying to do a light weight me though which is failing for a number of reasons. 1. I like cake too much, 2. I work in an office and sit around all day. 3. I started doing interval training and pulled one of my quads. 4. Tried skipping instead and boy do my calves hurt.

I did go out on my bike today for 5.5 hours today though and then rode my bike with two children on it to the river and back.... So I can eat loads of cake tomorrow and not do interval training or skip at all and probably stay the same weight.

Envy is a terrible thing. Only poor people worry about this - the rest of us buy the best available and that is often governed by weight.

I agree about the rock comment, with a pinch of salt, you need to had speed to it...

One the light/lack of fitness comment I am bound to bow and agree...

I've always tried to ride light bikes and in 15 years have never broken a frame or major component yet. I've had bikes that knocked on 30lb but they didn't stay long!! I just hate the feeling of a sluggish bike.