Got a current generation Marin Attack Trail with alloy frame, I might have the chance to get hold of the same frame in carbon. Would I notice the weight difference?

‘a bit’

it’s likely to be a few hundred grams difference. No more than a part full water bottles worth, though at a guess.

lighter wheels/tyres likely to save more weight for less (depending on build).

Lighter forks more weight for about the same…

[edit]

Well, I answered a question that disappeared…

Consider the fame as a percentage of a total bike and its about 10 – 15%.. so as above, not much..

Probably will ride / feel different though and we all love a bit of carbon bling..

Depends so much on the frame. Like, the carbon BMC Trailfox is miles lighter than the alu one, I think largely because BMC went “well if you care about lightweight, you’ll buy the carbon, we’ll make the alu one strong and effective and inexpensive.” But then you’ve got your GT Furies and the like that aren’t light at all, GT seem to like carbon for making clever shapes and tuning flex and the like but not so bothered about light.

OTOH, Cube Stereo carbon weighs nowt.

My C456 was 3lbs, which for a long travel hardtail is pretty bloomin good. You could get close with alu but light alu tends towards the stiff, retaining nice ride quality is tricky. My Ragley Ti was half a pound heavier but then it also cost about 6 times as much…

Basically carbon isn’t one thing, you can do different stuff with it.

When I swapped from a alu road bike frame to a carbon one, there seemed to be loads less flex round the BB area.

I seemed to be much more efficient at delivering power to the wheel.

Is this likely to be the case for MTB hardtails or are they already overbuilt round that area any how ?

The ‘carbon bling’ factor is always a consideration too!

I’m at that age now where my shoulders complain when lifting the bike over gates and styles, so any weight saving would be good.

I was wondering if the ride would feel different..

scu98rkr – Member

When I swapped from a alu road bike frame to a carbon one, there seemed to be loads less flex round the BB area.

I seemed to be much more efficient at delivering power to the wheel.

Is this likely to be the case for MTB hardtails or are they already overbuilt round that area any how ?

It doesn’t follow really, carbon’s very versatile so it can be built to be stiff or soft or a mix, depending on how the designer wants it to be (and how good that are at the job)

TBH all the bike materials are like this, you can build flexible alu or stiff steel but most of the other materials have a cliche feel so if you build posh steel it tends to be springy, ti tends to be soft because people expect it… But carbon doesn’t even have a clishe character so you acn’t really make any assumptions.

i recently had the pleasure of renting a Carbon Norco Sight (?), it was good, but i didn’t *completely* get on with it – Because it didn’t have the saddle, grips, and pedals that i like, and for the first few days, the tyre pressure was a bit too high.

for me at least, the difference between a carbon frame, and an aluminium frame is less noticeable than the contact points. for me at least, Carbon fibre isn’t worth it.

Its a noticeable difference if done right by using high quality, low resin, carefully applied, location specified plybook layups; you can save a lot of weight whilst maintaining the same stiffness.

Most frames don’t do this – even most (not all) expensive CFRP frames make use of only a single expensive prepreg, and layup in different plybooks in certain locations.

Depends so much on the frame

Only 100g difference on the Giant Reign apparently.

More on most brands though, I’d guess. You need to find out from Marin or other owners (not that there are many).

I’m always disappointed with the weight of carbon mountain bikes. According to the hand scales there is barely noticeable weight difference. A mate of mine had a Norco Sight which actually felt heavier than my bike, which is no lightweight, and more recently I took a Hightower for a demo ride and it felt no lighter than my mates brand new Flare Maxx. The Hightower had 650b+ carbon wheels and my mates a more modest Hope Enduro 29er wheel set, so maybe 650b wheels are a hell of alot heavier than a 29er wheel set and ate up any frame weight advantage.

Not read it yet, but I think MBR mag has a group test review including a Cotic Rocket Maxx and a carbon Specialised Stumpjumper (I think) and apparently the Cotic was lighter.

XC bikes may be different, Roadbikes too, but big carbon full suss trail bikes don’t seem to offer much of a weight advantage over their metal counterparts.

And on a full suss MTB frame the weight difference between the cheaper carbon and the fancy stuff is only 250 grams, so again you’re paying a huge premium for the meagre weight reduction.

Depends on the carbon quality. That’s why Santa Cruz have a heavier cheaper ‘C’ carbon and expensive light ‘CC’. Both are same or similar strength but the latter is cheaper and to make it strong and reliable enough but at a lower weight is a lot more costly.

Weight comparisons need to be like for like also. Picking up someone’s carbon bike and thinking it’s no different to your own is partly subjective (compared to using scales) but more importantly going to depend massively on the components, especially the wheels and tyres. My C456 has a light 1.5kg frame, but overall build is around 26lbs/12kg and yet you can get alloy builds for that weight. On the other hand they may have a lighter wheel set.

That’s where I got my 250g from – that is the weight saving SC quote between their C and CC frames.

Road frames but my CAAD10 was 200gm more than my Supersix (1150gm).

Not much different to ride.

But as above every manufacturer will do their own thing with it, the Cannondale aluminium frames have always been good.

When riding on 2″+ tyres and suspension are carbon frames actually more comfortable in real use? Stiffer and stronger for a given weight I can understand, and comfort on a road bike I can too.
BTW I’m posting this to convince myself that my fairly light alu hardtail is all I need

The frameset is a fraction of the bike weight and on a full suss the tubeset is a fraction of the frameset weight as the shock/armatures/bearings etc all weigh something too.

Stiffness even more so is it going to be significant compared to suspension bob, play and flex in the suspension mechanism etc.

For a hardtail the difference in weight and stiffness would be more apparent.

The 2 carbon FS frames I’ve had have been 0.5kg lighter than the equivalent alloy ones, the bigger the frame the more weight to save so with L/XL more win.

I also like how they ride, also have a Ti HT.

I’ve had a few, I had a Mojo that got a scary cosmetic crack and Ibis kindly swapped at cost. I then had a carbon Zaskar, it weighed about 1500g, yet cracked on the seatpost within minutes anyway, I got a full refund.

Really can’t be bothered with it anymore, I’ve got a Stumpy and Enduro, the carbon variants of both are just the front triangle, so it would have been £1000 extra for 200g saving. I’m sure I’ll end up with another one day. I’ve demo’d a few and got on very well, it’s just a ridiculous cost if weight is the main motivator.

You could almost save the same weight by swapping to light innertubes or grips for a tenner.

Really can’t be bothered with it anymore, I’ve got a Stumpy and Enduro, the carbon variants of both are just the front triangle, so it would have been £1000 extra for 200g saving. I’m sure I’ll end up with another one day. I’ve demo’d a few and got on very well, it’s just a ridiculous cost if weight is the main motivator.

You could almost save the same weight by swapping to light innertubes or grips for a tenner.

this pretty much sums up my attitude to carbon frame. I did have a mojo HD (in carbon obviously) and it was nice and all that, but not worth the extra money.

I now have an orbea rallon (alu obviously), and its also great.I think the frame is about 300 g heavier than the mojo frame. If the cost difference between alu and carbon frames was smaller I’d go carbon, but with your carbon frame typically costing £800-£1000 more than alu I find its not worth the extra.

I got my SB66c and the shop swapped all the gear from my ASR5 alloy onto the frame.

The bike was 3/4lb lighter after the swap and had gained 35mm rear travel.

So yes, much lighter 🙂

Not sure on what planet 3/4 of a pound is ‘much’ on a bike that weighs in at around 28 – 30lbs. It’s about 2% of the bike weight at best. And at the end of the day the only thing that matters is all up weight with rider on board, then you’re looking at about 0.3% of total weight.

It’s measurable, but not noticeable and definitely not much. Especially after you’ve invested £3k.

I’ve just stripped a 2010-ish Specialized Hardrock, 17in size, to a bare frame. Thinking of this thread I decided to weigh it
Just under 1650g as closely as I can measure, so around 150g heavier than my Carbon 456.
Interesting. That’s only a mid range alloy frame and to my mind that’s pretty bloody light. 🙂