I've had a Pinncale Akrose for a few years - it's been a great commuter bike, with rack, guards, bombproof tyres, sturdy wheels etc. etc..
At the moment I imagine it must weigh getting on for 13.5kg without a pannier. I guess without pannier and guards it would be 11kg or something like that
I'd love to buy a nice fancy disc road bike (Mason, Fairlight etc..) which would apparently weigh 8.5kg (assume without guards!), unfortunately the funds are not there for a 2-3k purchase.
Has anyone built one of these bikes up light? What upgrades?
Assume from my old weight weenie days it would be - seatpost, saddle, wheels, stem etc... It's currently 9 speed Tiagra so I guess a groupset upgrade would also make sense. Brakes are juin tech so pretty light for a cable/hydro
It would also need to work as a commuter - but I think a spare pair of wheels would work for this.
Pics would be good too :0)
What's your budget? What's the bike worth?
You might be able to sell it and with the money you were going to spend buy something 2nd hand or in the sale that fits your criteria?
Just buy a fancy light set of road wheels for it with nice tyres. Big chunk of rotating weight lost will make it feel much better and more sprightly. All other stuff is marginal in how it will feel. Calculate grams lost per £ on the rest of the stuff and go for the best value wins from there on.
The ultimate answer is whatever the lightest comparable bike is in the world, plus the difference in frame weight between that and yours.
On a practical basis that would obviously cost more than £2-3k, so it depends how much you have to spend.
I built some straight pull Novatec hubs on DT RR411 rims, which came to a real 1438g for about £250. There's probably a pound there. Thread [url= https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/lightweight-aluminium-road-disc-rims/page/2/ ]here[/url] with links and that.
Seatpost and saddle are easy wins. Tyres potentially.
It really will depend what you want to spend. I'd not bother with groupset, you're into marginal differences there really. Maybe try and get NOS Ultegra 9 speed cassette, should be cheap, and they're a chunk lighter than the all steel HG30.
thanks folks
what about handlebars? It's got basic alloy jobs at the moment - any recommendations for light bars?
In term of groupset, i'd heard that SRAM was light - Rival?
Personally I dislike the functionality of SRAM groupsets, changing groupset just to save weight is pointless IMO. If your Tiagra is dead and you really like SRAM then go nuts, but to save weight it'll be a long way down the priority list. A 1x11 Rival disc groupset is about £900. Do you really want to throw £900 at just the groupset?
A very quick Google suggests a Rival rim brake groupset is less than 400g lighter than an equivalent Tiagra one. Going 1x11 would help, but it's not going to be enormous.
Without knowing what your bars weigh it's hard to recommend. Chinese carbon? [url= https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/free-shipping-super-light-carbon-bike-parts-toray-full-carbon-bike-handlebars-HB002-for-road/607365_1986079207.html?spm=2114.12010612.0.0.2e4dbcf5qDfhfb ]these[/url] are light-ish without being terrifying. I'd say <200g is light for a road bar, but most will be £150+
My Arkose with Shimano 105 and the Ultegra style hydraulics weighed 20lb. The fork was full carbon including steerer so that probably saves 200g or so over the alloy steerer version.
Changes from the stock bike were Kinesis Crosslight wheels (which in retrospect probably didn't save much weight, maybe 100g), Conti GP4 Season tyres and a fairly light (200g) Bioflex saddle.
What tyres you running?
njee, just read that wheel thread - sounds interesting - I guess you can build a wheel? I've rebuilt wheels with new rims but never done it from scratch. I suppose if I had all the bits my LBS would stick it all together!
Wheels, tyres & tubes then finishing kit as said above there's bugger all weight difference in reality in groupsets and you can save the equivalent static mass with decent tubes & tyres; but it's far easier to tell the difference as it's rotating mass.
Current build has Mavic Aksyium wheels, Panaracer 32 ribmo tyres, Tiagra / Deore groupset, SLR Superflow saddle, seatpost from the sparesbox, big old rack, lights etc. etc..
I'd like it to be about 20lb - I have a rim brake road bike for speed & sunshine
I can indeed build wheels, but sure your lbs could do it, yes. Maybe check out Hunt wheels too - always seem to come out light, and less hassle.
25c GP 4 Seasons would be a chunk lighter if you don’t ride off road, and still durable for the commute.
