[Closed] Making by Trail bike lighter - its not easy

Wheels and tyres will give you the best returns for saving weight/making the bike more 'do it all' IMO

I should add that the next steps are: XT cranks for the SLX cranks, lighter flat pedals, lighter wheel set (Arch vs Flow), lighter chain device (MRP AMG for a E13 LG1)

Can I break the 33 lb barrier and make the trail come alive?

normally, i'm the first to wade in and tell you to stop worrying about it.

but Marzocchi 55 forks are very, very, very, very heavy.

(the crown is an open C section, so not at all suited to resist fork-twang, it's massively over built to compensate)

i'm not kidding, they're probably close to 2500g, if not more. maybe it's just the way i ride, but i notice fork weight, i guess it's because lifting the front wheel over obstacles is a more-or-less constant process.

ddmonkey - Member

I should add that the next steps are: XT cranks for the SLX cranks,

that'll save a massive 20 grams.

I'm doing this because I may as well while I'm getting a few bits to enable the Freeride bike build, not because I'm a weight weenie, but its interesting just how little return you get by upgrading and also just how good the cheaper stuff like Deore is these days. Those 55's are going nowhere but I know what you are saying, if I really wanted to drop weight I'd have to get some air forks but no way - the way the bike rides is the most important thing, not the weight 8)

they're coil?!

good grief, don't weigh them, they'll break the scales!

🙂

the way the bike rides is the most important thing, not the weight

So the reason for this thread is?....
😉

My Mega weighs about the same, but started off over 34 lbs, until I fitted slx cranks and Hope hoops on Flows.
It's a small frame too, but it still rides great so meh...
Would like to swap the Lyriks for some new Pikes at some point mind..

No earth shattering reason for the thread, just thought it was funny how little the weight moved.

make the trail come alive?

I have just done similar with my fat pitch as i like to call it!

knocked 622g off by swapping:

E13 xcx 60g Vs chain device
Stainless ring 150g VsWorks components 40g
Zee cranks 750g Vs SLX cranks 595g
Charge spoon 327g Vs Charge knife 220g
Superstar grips 160g Vs ESI 60g
pedals nanos 440 Vs mag lites 310g

If you looked at the before & after potential weight savings, you could have picked a whole lot more beneficial items in the first place.

For starters if you swapped that fat old 2.5kg lump of a fork for a new Pike you would saved ~1.5lbs alone...

It is easy - you just have to apply some common sense 😉

Tyres would be the first thing I'd look at - esp. going tubeless. What tyres are on it now?

"that'll save a massive 20 grams"

Basically I am going to make my bike look much lighter 😆

How very dare you call my lovely plush fork a fat old lump! 😆

Yes If I really wanted to save a massive amount of weight a set of the new Pikes would be great, but hey ho 🙂

33.5lbs isnt that heavy

I imagine that most peoples trails bikes weigh a similar amount, especially in xl (forum willy waving magic scales aside)

lighter wheels is probably the best bet assuming youre not running a super cheap n heavy cassette?

Not being funny but with changes like this...

I took off the 203mm / 180mm Hope floating rotors and put 180mm Ice rotors on

Changing some reasonable weight rotors for some of the heaviest available isn't going to lose you weight. Perhaps equal weights at best, more likely gaining weight?

So I took off the Deore brakes and put on some XTR Trail

The brakes themselves would have only saved ~40g per end as XTR Trail are also reeeaaasonably heavy, relatively speaking.

I swapped the 780mm Renthal DH bars for some 740mm Renthal Litebars

~60g saved?

The small weight saving sounds very plausible.

I think some more research on the weight of the components you have and what you plan to buy- real weight not claimed too will help. This is of course assuming weight is really important to you.

my Spec Enduro was 34.5lbs without a reverb

Fox 36 Vans weigh a bit 🙂

Without changing the frame, it's only ever forks, wheels, tyres and the cassette where you can make any truly significant difference unless you have truly shockingly heavy parts on the rest of the bike. There's just not all that much difference in weight between comparatively heavy gears and brakes and light ones. The only other significant savings are removing things entirely.
Look at the (real) weights of what you have and what you could get and calculate the saving per £. If it doesn't save you more than 1g per £ it's really not worth worrying about if you aren't a total weight weeny. SLX to XT cranks is a total fail on this front, particularly if you aren't running all three of the stock rings.

Get a narrow wide chainring for the front and go 1x10. The cheapest way of lightening your bike, as you'll be able to sell the front mech and chain device for the price of a chain ring. Prob save over 500g.

In fact, if you run a bash ring, get rid of that as well, by the time you get rid of front shifter too, I'd revise my 500g to 1000g!.

Going 1x9 cut a pound off my Reign X. Crazy heavy Roco Coil R shock on the back is going to be replaced shortly with an air shock. Lighter tyres also shed a fair bit of weight.

As was quoted to me from a contributor here " sod the bikes weight shed the pounds in body fat!"
But I ran a new set of wheels on pro2 evo hubs ad tubeless tyres, made a big difference.

especially in xl

Size is a red herring, half a pound or so.

Upgrade smarter, you need to look at things that have some weight in them 1st. The forks are the place for the biggest wins, then depending on what you have on there in the 1st place look at tyres (potentially half a pound and better rolling at the same time), cassette & chain (1/4 lb), saddle (1/4 lb) and going 1x upfront.

I'm in a very similar position in knowing fullwell that my all day/trail bike is getting a bit porky but I can't see much room to trim weight without either spending a fortune or compromising its capability.

I know exactly where the weight is but it's all stuff that I wouldn't want to lose.
Marzocchi coil fork.
CCDB coil shock.
Dual ply Minnion on the rear.
Reverb.

So I've basically given up worrying about it as I'm happy with the way it rides.

My only serious suggestion would be maybe think if you can swap the 55 for a 44RC3ti

Interesting point on the Ice rotor, I assumed they would be light because they go with the XTR brakes but as you say maybe not. The bike is already 1 x 10

I assumed they would be light because they go with the XTR brakes

If you are spending money with weight saving at least partially in the equation assume nothing! 😀

XTR trail brake are not light and Ice Tech rotors are not light. The do seem to be popular and work well though 😀 Very happy with my XTR Race brakes with all Ti bolts and Hope's lightest rotors. Tried KCNC rotors and the like but found the performance drops off in the wet so gained 15g per rotor with Hope

its not easy

you're not making it easy.

It's not a bad weight anyway. But you can't really save weight without knowing what it already weighs- scales and spreadsheet time!

honourablegeorge - Member

Tyres would be the first thing I'd look at - esp. going tubeless.

'tubeless' isn't a weight saver!

a tube weighs 200g.

if you go 'ghetto' - you replace the tube with 100g of butchered tube, and then add 100g of sealant, you can add less, but good luck sealing any punctures.

if you do it properly, you replace the tube with heavier rims and tyres, and then add 100g of sealant.

it's not a weight saver!1!1!111!!!!

🙂

And, while i'm ranting. unless you've got silly Dh tyres on your xc bike, lighter tyres are usually crap tyres.

If weight saving is a true goal, you need a spreadsheet 😉

Part, Weight, Replacement, Weight, Cost - then work out cost per g saved.

It'll throw up some surprises and allow you to spend money wisely.

Prioritise depending on the end result you want and compromises you want to make - or see how little you won't save without touching frame and forks!

My 08 Enduro weighs 28-29lbs, depending on pedals/tyres fitted. That's on a 5.5lbs carbon frame with Revelations and fairly light Easton wheels. You could get down to around 30lbs, but it'll need some major expenditure, starting with the forks and wheels.
30lbs seems to be good weight for a 6" trail bike with durable components.

Ha ha yes I was not scientific in my approach, I just assumed anything with XTR on it or Lite in the name would be a bit lighter than what I already had 🙂 Any big weight saving would require serious money (Pikes) and its not worth for me when the stuff I already have works so bloomin well. I think the new wheels should a bit of a difference, along with lighter pedals. I will report back once all done!

Aiming for that magic 33lb barrier...

ahwiles - Member

'tubeless' isn't a weight saver!

a tube weighs 200g.

if you go 'ghetto' - you replace the tube with 100g of butchered tube, and then add 100g of sealant, you can add less, but good luck sealing any punctures.

if you do it properly, you replace the tube with heavier rims and tyres, and then add 100g of sealant.

it's not a weight saver!1!1!111!!!!

And, while i'm ranting. unless you've got silly Dh tyres on your xc bike, lighter tyres are usually crap tyres.

I'd say pretty much everything you've said there is wrong. He's already on Flows, so no need to change rims for heavier, or any need for a rim strip, or any more than a scoop to two of sealant. Tubeless ready tyre like a Hans Dampf is no heavier than a standard tyre, and is probably lighter than what he has, guessing from the weight of the bike. Tubeless doesn't mean heavier tyres. Even staying with his existing tyres, if they're Maxxis or something else that works well, means losing the tube, and gaining 50-60g of sealant.

I wouldn't do tubeless purely for weight saving, but when you get all the other benefits, plus lose grams from he wheels, it's a win win.

Where do you ride the thing?

Wouldn't you be better swapping for a 140mm or something, unless you live somewhere boom gnarly.

ahwiles - Member

if you do it properly, you replace the tube with heavier rims and tyres, and then add 100g of sealant.

What a load of rubbish... stans rims are lighter than most of their non-tubeless competitors, tubeless ready tyres can weigh exactly the same (lots of people choose TLR with tubes anyway), and there's a pretty high chance that your existing tyres will work fine.

100g of sealant is a lot, too, that's about what I use for downhill tyres.

First dibs on the 55s!

I agree with Honourable - for me going tubeless shed a fair chunk of weight - my previous single ply DH High Rollers were 900g or so plus the weight of a tube where the replacement Hans Dampfs were 700g plus a bit of sealant.

My Easton wheels saved a fair chunk of weight compared to my previous wheels.

Pedals could be looked at too - my Azonic A Frames weighed loads compared to the Nano's that replaced them.

Any chance or posting up more of a spec list?

My Rune weighs in at 33lbs on the nose and could be lightened by ditching the 36 Vans, CCDBa and Reverb - but none of them are going anywhere. I can still climb reasonably well on it and didn't get destroyed too badly the other week in Swaledale by the mostly XC boys that I was with.

If you are already on 1x10, ditch the chain device and bash ring and run a narrow/wide ring. If you are really nervous about retention an E-13 XCX weighs 60g.
For interest to those suggesting 1000g by going 1x, I saved a bit over 500g off my bike by going from 2x10 with an E12 DRS and bash to a N/W ring and an XCX. The removal of the bash ring and mech / shifter etc was the big thing.

Pah! My steel hardtail trail bike is heavier than that!

Just get bigger legs.

33lbs isn't that heavy for a bike.

Ha ha the 55's are going nowhere, best fork I have ever used. If I can get under 33lbs I'll be chuffed, as you say for a DH capable 7 in travel bike its not bad at all!

I'd keep the SLX cranks, there's not that much weight saving to be had from switching to a set of XT, throw the money saved at the wheels and fork...

Maybe have a browse here: [url= http://weightweenies.starbike.com/listings.php ]Weighweenies[/url] just to give you a few ideas of what weighs what...

TBF ~34lbs isn't really all that heavy, considering your Enduro is a longish travel bike with gears, chuffing great coil fork and shock, and a dropper, if you won't give any of those parts up I doubt you'll get the weight under 32lbs without stupid money being wasted...

You already know you'll probably save more body mass by simply riding more, and maybe rationalizing what you stuff in that stupid great camelbak... come on you know you "over-pack" we all do it at some point...

Cha****ng I live in the French Alps by the way - so the bike has to be pretty sturdy as any almost big ride will involve some serious DH at some point. Not to say that a good 140mm bike with a slack H/A and built sturdy wouldn't cope quite well in most stuff but on the rougher DH it wouldn't be as much fun.

What valve caps are you running?

If you actually want to do this then post a detailed spec of your bike then it'll be very easy to see where to save weight. As everyone has already said, the fork is the easiest place to save weight here, a solo air lyric or 36 could be had for £300 or under second hand, or get a new X-Fusion Slant for £400ish new (they're just over 2kg) and perform great apparently.

Save weight on the wheels and tyres if you can, you will notice savings there much sooner than you do on other parts, I recently changed from my 1100g and 800g 'summer' tyres to a pair of mud ones (about 600g each) and the bike accelerates like mad now.

I managed to get a Yeti 575 down to 26.5 lb at one stage but I used those superlight supersonic Conti 450g tyres - had to swap them for something decent immediately! Final weight for decent sturdy trail riding was 27.5 lb.
I had 140mm Revelations, Answer Carbon flat bars, Easton EA90 stem (lighter than the EC90!), SLX cranks, Hope Hoops with Crests, Thomson seatpost, various alloy bolts, titanium bolts etc.

Go tubeless with something like hans dampfs.

Swapping the fork for something lighter would result in significant weight savings, but also would result in significant downhill performance degradation, so I probably wouldnt do that.

1x 10 would be worthwhile if you're fit enough/your hills are not that long/steep. I'm not fit enough for this though.

To be honest I wouldnt obsess over it too much, it gets expensive and if you're the sort of person that buys an enduro , you wont really appreciate the benefits being lighter brings , but you'll notice the compromises it brings. I speak as a 2005 enduro owner, and a 2010 Ibis Mojo HD owner.

I've just put a Marz 55 rc3 ti coil fork on the mojo, awesome fork, who cares its a pound heavier than a fox 36 float. Everything else on the Mojo is a careful balance between being light'ish weight, but not compromising downhill performance significantly.

I found 'cheap' ways of saving weight without sacrificing downhill performance are :-

- Tubeless tyres
- light weight pedals
- Carbon handlebars
- lightweight saddle
- decent cassette

Anything else either costs an absolute fortune (and some of the above are not really cheap), or impacts downhill performance

Final scores on the doors:

Weight before 33.6 lbs

Weight now 32.8 lbs

I changed the:

bars - from Rethal Fat bar 780mm to Fatbar Lites 740mm
cranks - from SLX to XT
brakes - from Deore to XT Trail
rotors - From Hope Floating 203 / 180 to Shimano Ice 180 / 180
wheels - From Hope with Flow EX's to Hope with Arch EX's
chain device - from E13 LG1 to MRP AMG
pedals - From DMR Vaults to Nukeproof.

I spent approx. 500 quid.

If I had only been doing this to make my bike lighter I would have been a bit miffed, but since it was mainly an exercise in freeing up some parts for a freeride bike build and making my trail bike a bit less like a DH bike while retaining its all-round capability then I am pretty happy with it.

My ibis mojo medium weighs 26lb with a dropper post
dt Swiss exc 150s
dt Swiss shock
Dt Swiss 5.1 s with nobby nics
Trutativ noir cranks and bars
Formula the one brakes
Xtr spds

Yeah just goes to show that all the weight is in the frame and forks and tyres really, tinkering doesn't change that. Quite a different bike though I think.

Want to get it right?

Here comes the sad advice... make a spreadsheet with all the parts on it and their weights.
swap out things you want to try out on paper and see where you get to.

I was going to do better shimano cranks for the missus but realised it's a waste of money, keeping an eye out for some cheap run out Carbon Sram ones.##If you want to do it without wasting money research the saveings.

Yes a different bike, but I also have a mojo hd 160 and that weighs 29lbs but starts off with a slightly lighter frame. The hd is probably be a better comparison but I reckon if I swap my bits over it would be close to 26lb and still be more of a comparative bike.
I think I save on the shock, the cranks and the wheels and tyres so it can be done .
What I would say is when I get on the non hd mojo after being on the hd it seems much more sprightly and nimble and willing but not at all flimsy or less tough, and I weigh 15 stone. Every week I think I should sell one but I just can't do it.
I enjoy the weight of the hd and the lightness of the other one equally as much

I think I'll stick with what I have now, I think it's pretty much ideal for the riding I do and I can ride it all day.