You can get quite well below that weight, for quite well below that price, especially from the German direct brands.

So

mid range

is

(£5k ish)

is it?

Blimey.

It’s doable, but you might have to compromise (although arguably having to spend £5k is a compromise!).

My road bike was almost down to 6.8kg (If i cheated and weighed it without pedals, cages etc). And cost <£1k. But it had rim brakes and wasn’t aero. The forks did still have an aluminium steerer so if I’d bother to swap those it would be about 6.8kg.

Spreadsheets and lists are your friend, there’s probably ~50 parts on a bike, find a bit 20g lighter than normal, repeat 50x times and you’ve saved a kilo (and have to answer to the internet who will say “your bike has a similar spec to mine, there’s no way it weighs …..kg”). It also lets you work out where the budget should go, no point spending £3k on the lightest frame and forks, if it means that you skip the £200 titanium chain which despite being an eye watering cost is still a better £/gram saving.

Mine wasn’t anything special,
CAAD4 frame
DA7800 grouptset + FSA carbon chainset
Fouriers forged caliper brakes (NOT the CNC ones)
Stans Alpha rims, powerway hubs, KCNC skewers (1250g for <£300)
23c Ultremo tyres and supersonic tubes
Canyon carbon seatpost
Ritchey WCS alloy bar and stem
Selle Italia SLR gel flow carbon saddle.

Nothing particularly great there, most of the lightness was in the wheels and brakes.

I assumed that all Grand Tour bikes have to be production road bikes available to the public

For 5k ?

More so in days gone by some of the grand tour bikes were not even the bikes they were labeled up as …

My 3k aero disk roadbike is 8.3kg in the scales.

Could know a kilo or so off it without difficulty but is need a blank cheque book.

Do I really need a 6.8kg bike, of course not; do I really want one though….

I meant more whether it’d suit you. We don’t know how heavy you are or whether you ride hills or more flat terrain.

I’d have thought that realistically a mid-range road bike is maybe £2.5-3K (which is what my Di2, Ultegra disc Boardman SLR Endurance 9.4 cost) however looking at something like the Specialized range, where a Roubaix Comp with Ultegra Di2 with disks is £4.4K, then you could make a case for mid-range being £4-5K.

Mainly a matter of perspective though!

I doubt you’ll hit 6.8 kg with discs and hidden cables for 5K.

Hidden cables lock you into the OEM stem etc so you have no scope for fitting anything lighter.
The same goes for non round seat posts.

Discs, deep wheels and fat tyres also add weight.

I bet you could do it if you started with something like a 2019 super six high mod and added weight weenie parts yourself.

The frames don’t change between the £5k and £10 bikes…

In the Specialized range, S-Works frames come in on bikes at around £9500.

I assumed that all Grand Tour bikes have to be production road bikes available to the public, so if I buy a Scott Addict RC frame, its identical to the frames used in the TdF etc.

I just had a look at the website and the top of the range Scott Addict RC at over £10k has a “Addict RC Disc HMX SL Carbon Frame” as opposed to those lower in the range which have “Addict RC Disc HMX Carbon Frame”. So presumably not the same frame.

Mine is still standard – I don’t think I’ve even changed the tyres on it. Given the specification it’s pretty good value and reasonably light. I really like the Di2 and the disc brakes are amazing compared to even decent quality rim brakes.

I hadn’t ridden it since moving back up to Edinburgh from London (where I was in a road club) about 2-years but took it out for a spin on Saturday. Lovely bike to ride although one thing that I did notice when I was riding regularly with the club in London was that I still used my ancient Roubaix more than I did the SLR Endurance. Partly that was preferring to use the older bike when the weather was crap, but possibly also that (despite being a comfort bike) I found the SLR riding position a bit racier than the Roubaix. Not that I found it uncomfortable or anything, but I might have a look at changing the stem to raise the bars slightly.

My lad’s bike is a Ridley Fenix SL, R8000 Ultegra apart from the crankset which is a Rotor Aldhu (so he could have a shorter length and easier to swap chainrings for racing). Combined with a relatively inexpensive, used set of Vision TC24 carbon tubs, it’s easily under 6.8kg with no other fancy weight saving measures (except for some nice bars which I picked up cheap from a friend). Total cost was around £2k, although the bike itself was bought in a clearance sale and the wheels were used, so it was a long, long way from RRP!

Helps that it’s an XS-sized frame too, of course 🙂

Virtually no chance of getting to that sort of weight with those requirements and budget.

The Focus Izalco Max is one of the lighter disc braked bikes around but still 800g heavier than the weight limit in the build that would be around budget.
https://www.focus-bikes.com/gb_en/95691-izalco-max-disc-9-7

Yep. Zero chance at £5k unless a second hand bitsa.

My canyon ultimate sl (Not the top of the the range version of the frame) weighed 7.2 kg including pedals, and cost me 2k in 2015. It was of course rim brakes.

My giant tcr advanced pro 0 with disks, deep carbon wheels, di2 etc costs over twice that and weighs closer to 8kg. Very few disk braked bikes come in at 6.8 kg, regardless of price. Remember pro bikes use tubs. I reckon you could count on 1 hand the number of disk braked bikes from the top manufacturers that come under 6.8kg once you have fitted pedals.

Tbh loads of pros bikes weigh over 7kg, and thats with tubs and top of the range kit.

Top end is £10,799.00
Cheapest is £1,699.00

Take the mean and you get £6249

To be pedantic thats the mean as you have only used the lowest and highest in the range. To get the true mean you’d need to look at all the models in the range, and I can guarantee if you did the mean would be far far less than 5k!

Also, the top end bikes tend to be the ones that get big reductions at the end of year, though the bargains may have disappeared now. 7-8k a couple of years ago might still have the features required, nearer to budget.

That CR1 frame is still light amongst many of today’s bikes, you could easily get it below 6.8kg

I found the SLR riding position a bit racier than the Roubaix. Not that I found it uncomfortable or anything, but I might have a look at changing the stem to raise the bars slightly.

’tis quite racey for an “endurance” bike, but mine is longer than the CR1 it replaced so it feels more relaxed. The Roubaix is a move in the other direction though I guess.

Reviews stated it was a relatively harsh frame, but I’ve only found that to be the case with the tyres at high pressure. It seems very comfy with 28mm tubeless tyres at 80psi or a bit lower.