[Closed] How to lighten an Enduro bike

The bike wont ride itself, so your weight has to be added to the bike.

So its a valid and rational suggestion for you to loose weight.
Its cheap and easy.
Then go and buy a lighter bike, someone has already pointed out you will spend £1900 buying lighter components.

But dont forget, the guy who won the last Enduro/DH/XC race didnt do it on the lightest bike.

Rorschach - Member

£1300ish then.Bargain
(am disappointed it took a full 7 posts for someone to reel that one out).

again the OP wants to loose weight from his bike no one said it would be cheap.

The most cost effective way would be to sell it and add whatever extra cash you have to buy a used trail bike which is a higher end model to start with. An even better solution if you can is to keep it and also buy the trail bike.

The word "trail bike" don't make things any lighter either. The Remedy was officially a trail bike til they accidentally started winning EWSs with it, then the exact same model became #enduro. It's not a real difference, you end up using much the same parts on either for the same use- Pikes, Yaris, 34s, XM471s, Reverbs, or whatever all weigh the same regardless of how you market the bike

Indeed, most trail bikes are also coming in a bit on the porky side unless spending big ££ for top of the range models.

Its all compromises at the end of the day though - the component choices that make a bike stable, grippy and fun to ride downhill also make them lethargic misery wagons uphill.

The Remedy was officially a trail bike til they accidentally started winning EWSs with i

the KS drop at the national champs 2 weeks ago claimed a remedy, TMOs mechanic bent it back together for the guy after practice , im not sure if it made the whole race

I think a slash might be a wiser option for enduro if you are a bit heavy/ rad to the sick etc

the top dollar carbon slash 29er still comes in at >14kg tho

In my mind a trail bike has a Pike or 34 rather than a Lyrik or 36, Arch rims rather than Flows, no chain device, Exo tyres rather than Super Gravity on the rear.

All that might add up to 1kg.

Not sure you can drop any significant weight anywhere without compromising on the intent of the bike.

Wheels are normally an obvious one, but quick bit of googling your wheels are 1940g, not light, but not heavy. Realistically, you could drop 300gish with a bit of cash, 150g per wheel, less than a tube, is it really worth it?

You'll notice fresh, new smooth wheels, really doubt weight will help.

LX cranks, on one carbon bars both bought on offer for <£100 total saved me 200g

Just to clarify I'm 6,1 tall and weigh 13 stone. The heavier bike has improved my fitness but I want the bike to feel a bit more playful and less sluggish. I don't want a road bike as I have a turbo trainer at home and would rather be riding MTB at the weekends and evenings.

From some peoples responses I can see that the wheels would be a good start.

Thanks all.

lethargic misery wagon

That's going in the STW dictionary along with 'fun sponge' and 'mince tank' 😆

I honestly can't tell if i'm carrying 2 water bottles (>1kg) on my bike unless I pick it up and carry it over a fence or something.

I'd start with an additional set of lighter set of wheels with some fast rolling tyres (Conti X-Kings if they'll survive the peaks?) for XC rides. Hang on to the old ones.

or...just get an XC 29er with the money you would have spent on weight saving.

Fork - pike 200g> £800
Handlebar - change to carbon 100-150g >£100
Wheels - quite a few will save 250-300g> £500
Crank - xt or slx arms ~50g> £200
seatpost - 150-200 grams depending on model >£300 (dropper)

So saving the weight of a can of coke and some flapjack.

For the cost of a 4 week riding holiday in Spain (or 3 weeks and that road bike).

Make the easy savings (anything that saves 10's of grams per £1 like grips, saddles, pedals, shoes*). Then stop worrying. Buy lighter bits as and when heavy stuff wears out. Spend the money saved on going riding somewhere.

*has anyone mentioned those yet, trainers weigh a ton compared to disco slippers.

Just wanted some advice to try and lighten the bike to help on all day rides in the Peak District over 40/50km

Oh so you are riding XC.

Ditch the gnarr bike, embrace lyca, SPD's, 29 wheels etc etc you wills be aswomes just you like you are riding your enduro gnarr machine (although the marketing and hype might not back you up the same) 😉

My friends are certainly starting to wake up to the fact that pedalling 29-32lb 160mm travel bikes on trails that are not Enduro World cup level sucks... most trails it seems 100-120mm is fine for mere mortals

I'd love to have a Gnarpoon (again)......only it'd be a complete waste where I ride,how I ride and why I ride.

[url= https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/bikes/mountain-bikes/cross-country-mountain-bikes/top-fuel/top-fuel-8/p/2136600-2017/ ]Lose 4.5 pounds.[/url]

My friends are certainly starting to wake up to the fact that pedalling 29-32lb 160mm travel bikes on trails that are not Enduro World cup level sucks... most trails it seems 100-120mm is fine for mere mortals

Having gone from a (real) 29lb carbon 650b 160mm Enduro bike (fun sponge) to a 25lb 29" with 130mm travel it's a lot more lively and fun to ride on 95% of stuff.

The other 5% it's a bit rowdy, but it's still fine.

I've raced a couple of enduro's on it, i've now raced DH on it (and copped a load of stick!) - i'm taking out to the EWS in a couple of weeks & it will go to Morzine in the summer.

On the spec you put up, you can save weight basically everywhere. How much depends on how much you want to spend.

Will it make you faster up or down saving 2/3lbs? Probably not.

Thinking about it, somewhat disappointed that no one has mentioned [url= http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/the-picolax-thread-returns/ ]pickolax[/url] as a sure fire way of dropping weight.

My friends are certainly starting to wake up to the fact that pedalling 29-32lb 160mm travel bikes on trails that are not Enduro World cup level sucks... most trails it seems 100-120mm is fine for mere mortals

I have both a 29er trail bike (Smuggler) and a gnarpoon (Reign). Build spec is near identical (Lyriks on Reign, Pikes on smuggler and X2/Reign, Smuggler/Monarch).
Smuggler was bought for long days in the peaks, local xc rides and the flatter trails (e.g FOD, trail centre) . Reign was for the rougher tracks (eastridge), mega.
Smuggler is 30lbs, reign 31. The weight of the bikes doesn't bother me, for me its performance/durability with an eye on weight, hence proper brakes/wheels/tyres. The smuggler is a way more efficient pedaller, the reign prefers to dawdle up the hills. Smuggler has a second pair of wheels for midweek xc rides with faster rolling tyres.

Its interesting riding them on the same tracks (Staunton/Shutcastle), times are the same, yet the smuggler feels like you are going a lot faster, whereas the reign is a lot more composed. At the end of the day my legs are more tired on the reign, smuggler its the arms/hands!

My advice for you would to be think about the terrain you are riding and pick the bike that suits the majority of your riding and not the minority. If you deem your current bike fits, then by all means go ahead and lighten it up, wheels and tyres will make the most difference.

26" wheels are lighter than 650B. What?

Get some ESI grips, some lighter rubber and some Rsp carbon bars. Not much money and nice and light.

Otherwise I stripped my Pitch down to nuts and bolts and weighed everything. Put that in a spreadsheet, then look at what you can afford to change.

😯

Ok, that's dedication.

I imagine it's already been covered, but as a rule, wheels, tyres, bars and pedals are all good places to start. That fork could be swapped out too. How much do you want to spend?

My advice for you would to be think about the terrain you are riding and pick the bike that suits the majority of your riding and not the minority. If you deem your current bike fits, then by all means go ahead and lighten it up, wheels and tyres will make the most difference.

This. A 120mm bike would be ideal in this part of the world, but I have a hardtail and a 140/150mm trail/enduro bike. The hardtail gets ridden more (well, it did but it's currently on holiday) but the bigger bike is the one that gets lugged to Wales etc.

Lighter wheels as others have suggested, and now it's a bit drier I'd be looking at tyres with better (lower) rolling resistance, minion SS and the like

Having gone from a (real) 29lb carbon 650b 160mm Enduro bike (fun sponge) to a 25lb 29" with 130mm travel it's a lot more lively and fun to ride on 95% of stuff.

Can you post some pics or the spec hobnob? Interested to see what a 25lb 29'er looks like.

Lighter wheels as others have suggested, and now it's a bit drier I'd be looking at tyres with better (lower) rolling resistance, minion SS and the like

Also going back to the 'where you ride' comment, do you need sidewall protection? If you're riding somewhere where rocks aren't a huge feature then you may be able to go with lighter tyres. A lot of companies offer different 'weights' – if you're not hitting Fort Bill regularly then the chances are you won't need dual ply walls and treads that would put a tractor's to shame.

26" wheels are lighter than 650B. What?

29 are faster 8)

and now it's a bit drier I'd be looking at tyres with better (lower) rolling resistance, minion SS and the like

Minion SS rolls a little quicker than a normal minion, but the centre tread is a lot lower, so you are dragging the side knobs along the ground. Rockrazor is quicker, but you have to really lean the bike over to engage the side knobs (and when you do, they fall off....)

I'll re-iterate what a few people above have said.

You can spend a fortune on chasing grams, as people did back in the 90s.

Or you can slim down. It costs nothing (in fact, negative cost if you actually start eating less). It's far cheaper than buying Gucci parts for your bike that will likely fail before their more robust counterparts.

Once you hit a target weight then by all mean buy some carbon wheels, titanium bolts, helium-filled tyres and so on.

Or you could just go out and enjoy yourself.

Can you post some pics or the spec hobnob? Interested to see what a 25lb 29'er looks like.

It's basically a 2017 Fuel EX 9.9 with with a few lighter bits on it.

Right now as i've put Super Gravity tyres on it to get used to them for the EWS it's going to be heavier, probably 2lbs difference from the normal Maxxis EXO's I run.

To be fair though, the weight doesn't make the difference (4lbs in the grand scheme of things) it's the travel that makes the bike feel more lively. The geometry on the Fuel is way out from Treks advertised numbers, it's very slack, low & long but the short travel keeps it fun.

I thought the fuel was an xc bike, no clue at all about treks.

Top fuel 100mm
Fuel Ex 130mm
Slash 150mm

My current 130mm bike is the same physical weight as my last 160mm bike but rides a lot lighter. By that I mean it climbs better, has livelier handling and is more fun to ride. It's also less tiring on longer rides. It does lack the total steamroller feel through rock gardens, but I'm not brave enough any more anyway.

I know it doesn't answer the original question though. Having been there and done that before, I'd say cassette, carbon bars, then wheels. Consider grip changes carefully. ESI are very light, but not for everyone. I like them on the fatbike but feel a bit vague on full sus bike. Be careful of second hand carbon, you don't know what's happened to it. My mates perfect looking barely used carbon railed saddle folded its rails on its second ride.

Rather than making it lighter, you could swap from a 32t to 30 chain ring which will improve the pedalling efficiency by reducing bob.

I think you do have to accept that riding the Peak requires stronger tyres and wheels than smoother places, especially if you don't want to get stranded on the far side of a big loop.

Not sure what the current full list of parts are but perhaps?

Lizard skin DSP grips on about 30g for the pair.
Nukeproof Neutron evo 354g
Lose the dropper if you want a cheap 350+g out of the bike
Got to be able to find a strong stem lighter than the Bontrager one?
Carbon bars?
Not sure but this lot will prob cost less that £200? before you start to get to really expensive parts.

At least you will have saved a bit of weight and bought some new bike parts, win win isn't it?

Ok, that's dedication.

By the time the OEM headset and BB had worn out (ride number 3 probably) there wasn't much more to strip off! And with a big box of spare bits it was easy enough to work out what to swap.

It works though, often it's the sum of many small cost savings by the manufacturers that add up to a significant weight. Steel chainring bolts, steel backed brake pads, OEM bars/stem/post, truvative crank, cheap chains and cassettes, saddle, all weighed considerably more than stuff that I had lying around without spending a penny.

Then I 'ruined' it with coil lyrics. Which just proves that saving weight is a waste of time. Adding 750g more fork made it a far better bike than saving 2x that elsewhere!

thisisnotaspoon - Member

Then I 'ruined' it with coil lyrics. Which just proves that saving weight is a waste of time.

Does no such thing tbh- I removed the Pikes off my old Hemlock and refitted the coil lyriks they were supposed to replace, which added a buttload of weight, but the other weight reduction stuff was still there.

My current 130mm bike is the same physical weight as my last 160mm bike but rides a lot lighter. By that I mean it climbs better, has livelier handling and is more fun to ride. It's also less tiring on longer rides. It does lack the total steamroller feel through rock gardens, but I'm not brave enough any more anyway.

What actually, really, shits you up are the descents though. I can keep ploughing up hills all day long - given the right gear. A day of braking bumps, rock gardens and hauling on the brakes means that by the end of it - I have to pry myself from the bike.

I'd rather have 160mm.

A day of braking bumps, rock gardens and hauling on the brakes means that by the end of it - I have to pry myself from the bike.

These always seem to be a good option if you are ok with 720mm bars... Save 150g or so for £29.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/carbon-mountain-bike-handlebar-318x720mm-
id_8324399.html

I still think that chasing down grammes is a fool's errand. It's easy to end up spending several grand on removing a pound or so in weight and having to deal with the inevitable compromises involved - i.e. durability or in the case of bar width, bike fit and handling. I've been there and ended up with a bike that was light, but too delicate and compromised for the riding it was originally designed for.

That said, I've two bikes - one carbon, the other aluminium, both with circa 140mm rear travel and 150mm Pikes. The alu bike is a 29er and is a good four pounds heavier, but that's the difference between a full or empty Camelbak. I try not to think about the weight on the trails.

Always seems better to me to replace the whole bike unless you're in love the frame. Especially if the spec across the board needs a little work.

That said, I love my bike and also like doing all day rides on a 160mm. My conclusion was high end SRAM cassette and wheels. Check the pedals too - some of those flats can be very heavy 🙂

I got my 2015 carbon Jekyll 2 down to 29lb 5oz. That's nearly three pounds heavier than the Jekyll team from the same year. Alright, that had SRAM XX1 and I'm using XT 1x11 but even so I can't see how you could save that much.