Lighten my bike or new XC build

I hope so. Bit of careful selling should reduce the risk substantially. I may end up keeping the cranks for the minute, at least till the BB needs replacing. Although I have a press with a 30/42 drift already and removal of the existing could be done with without new tools I wonder if I’d end up spending more on the removal tool/new BB than the difference between selling the gx cranks new Vs used.

A lighter bike will accelerate quicker.

Except you’re really not actually accelerating that much in the vast majority of cases.

I also just pulled the trigger on the XR 7.9. My current riding is 35+ mile loops around Surrey with a mix of bridlepaths, gravel, woodlands, and blue trails. This bike will be lighter, have squish and more confidence-inspiring geometry than my hardtail which is currently leaving me feeling knackered after longer rides. If I really don’t get on with the frame or rear suss in general, the parts could eventually be used to build up a Chisel frame.

Mines arrived 😁. In the stand right now but first impressions are good. Looks really tidy and in really liking the flip paint. 11.9KG out of the box for an XL (no pedals).

Great, mine arrived today too and agree the paint scheme looks lovely in the flesh. Paul’s Cycles included an easter egg which was a nice touch, and spec was slightly better than listed with a Progress carbon handlebar and SRAM Level TL brakes. I’ve assembled it but not had a chance to ride yet.

I was really impressed by Paul’s cycles. Well set up bike out the box, grease where youd want it. Nicely packed and 2 day delivery. They answred any queries via email within the hour and were friendly and professional.

I only wish they had a wider range of P&A so i could spend more with them.

I have a couple of tweaks to do to my 7.9 before its ready for the weekend

If only id held out a bit longer, i missed out on the egg.

Mine had those differences as well but no egg 😜. The inner tubes weigh 450g so get those out pronto. Wheels and tyres are more than the ones I have, should be looking around 11.5kg with pedals and dropper I think.

That’s an impressive weight Nixie, I think you got a great bike there. I’m very tempted to get an XL too. Anyone know if I can strip out all the lock out cabling ? the front end of these Lapierer look very messy. I would change the lock out to a manual dial on the front and rear fork ? assume you can swap out the top cap on the forks ? The review for the XRM 6.9 put it around 13.2kgs, which I thought was too heavy, but yours is much more in the right ball park. Is the XR 7.9 more of a metallic purple? It look like one of those stock photos where the bike turns up and you say “that’s not really how it look on the website”, but I can imagine it looking much better.

The 7.9 is a metallic purple flip paint with a bronze/gold flip. its nice. not as nice as a blue/purple flip, but that’s just my preference.

In terms of what you can do with the lockouts. the SC forks have a different topcap assembly for the remote and the manual versions. So not as simple as new levers and maybe a fettle inside.

it’s 820-05-522 for the non remote version. https://www.silverfish-uk.com/products/82005522kit_fox-fork-32-sc-grip-topcap-assembly-2019

for the shock, it may be a little more difficult. you can get replacement eyelet assemblies for remote and manual, but they are around £125. and you cna get remote conversions asemblies for around  £70, but not manual asemblies. It’d need a trip to a service centre as you’d also need to do a full strip and nitrogen charge, so factor in a service cost too.

Oh and consider yourself lucky, the XRM has a dropper lever below the bar and the somewhat huge rockshox remote above the bar and looks horrendous.

For this one though, If I could be bothered, I’d probably run the rear remote into the frame on the left hand side from the right, and run the gear and brake in the right hand side to lose the crossing over. if your really swish you could always get a hollow ahed cap and route the remote through the steerer.

The cabling didn’t look as messy in person, I think the stupid ugly Level master cylinder design looks worse than the cabling. The shock and brake exit the frame via two holes right next to each other so you could easily add spiral wrap or similar to hold them together (with the fork cable also in that till it needs to split). The fox remote is nice and small, both shock remote and gear shifter are mounted to the brakes*. I’m hopeful my dropper remote and the shock remote will play nicely together.

* when selling the shifter does the mount belong to the brakes or shifter ?!?!?!?

The colour is hard to photograph, best I can do with todays crap lighting. I imagine it will pop in bright sunlight.

That’s actually a pretty good representation of how it is. it’s more purple in sunlight, from what I can remember, it’s been a little while since the sun shone.

I was impressed with how compact the fox remote is, having played about with rockshox trigger remote I feared it woud be as unecesssarily humongous.

I ended up getting a Hope stainless PF41/30mm BB from CRC in the sale, removing the DUB BB was a bit of a chore. a heavy hammer and a headset cup remover.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364709798503 something like that.

you have to hit  it very hard and it knackers the old BB. it’s horrible hitting something in a carbon frame. but there’s a reassuring amount of material holding the cups in.

I would be tempted to just remove the cables and lockout from the bars. I assume if you loosen the grub screw and release the cable the front and rear shock are set to open by default ? TBH I never really use lock out anyway.

yeah they’re push to lock, so sprung normally open.

“lovewookie” any ideas in the front fork topcap for the SID ? If I do buy one it would be the XRM 6.9

Its a damper change I think for SIDS, or get top cap and somehow remove a spring in the damper cart.

yeah, the charger remote damper has a different head to the manual one. it has a hex bolt had rather than the threaded stub that the lockout knobs fits onto on the manual version.

I’ve not played about with them enough to  know if it’s something you can retrofit to a remote charger damper, but I suspect not.

the sidluxe shock however, if you can find parts https://www.tnc-hamburg.com/TNC-Shop/Daempfer-Federbeine/RockShox-Daempfer/Rock-Shox-SID-Daempfer/SID-Daempfer-Ersatzteile/RockShox-SIDLuxe-Daempfer-3Position-A2-Ersatzteil-Umbaukit-auf-Hebelbedienung–60815.html

looks like the lockoutshaft is replaceable.

I don’t know if it’s the same on SIDLuxe, but the RS monarch shocks you didn’t need to pressurise with nitrogen (but was recommended ideally), you can just use a shock pump to pressurise the damper making home servicing a little more feasible. hough you will need the screw in adapter for it, which is the same thing that used to be used for late 90’s RS air forks IIRC.

@lovewookie (or anyone else) did you get a chance to ride it in the nice weather today? I still haven’t had a chance to set it up tubeless, add some mudguards etc. The remote lockout on the rear shock is not really working, possibly the cable just needs tightening – how much should the blue lockout wheel rotate when fully engaged? Mine is only going about 30 degrees.

I’ve not worked out of it’s a 2 or 3 position remote yet. Race tomorrow then next week start swapping bits onto the XR.

Had the crank out today for a ring change, damn dub is hard to get moving. Also looked inside the seat tube and you’ll be pleased to hear that the dropper routing is in a little pipe (so should not require the BB to be removed). Felt like the same for the rear brake when I removed that.

you’ll be pleased to hear that the dropper routing is in a little pipe

That is good news.

Its a 3 poistion remote on the fox shocks.

Mines gettingban outing today. 15deg and sunshine 🙂

Be interested to hear how it rides.

Very nice couple of hours out on the 7.9 yesterday.

It’s a pretty decent allround xc bike. climbs well, relatively active, but not noticably bobby, light, climbing traction seems to be good too.

Confident descender too. yesterdays ride included a long fast rocky descent and it handled it really well. I think I need to spend a little more time setting up the forks, as i found them a little unbalanced to the rear, but I’ll fettle a bit more..

the low front end isn’t actually that low once you get on it. There’s plenty of scope for adjustment too. I think mine is slightly too high as I started to get a bit of neck pain after about an hour 20. This is not unque to this bike, I started to get it a couple of years ago with some bikes and have been pretty sensitive to bar/saddle height since.

Low BB had me strike pedals a couple of times running 175 cranks. may have been my poor technique, or being used to 15 year old bike geometry.

all in, it’s a bike that kinda just gets on with being a bike. I’m pretty happy with it. (for now ;-))

Sounds positive 👍.

I think I’ve weighed every part now. Will post the break down at some point.

I think I’ve weighed every part now. Will post the break down at some point.

I am that sad that I’m looking forward to this. still stuck in a 90’s weightweenie world..

I’m going to pretend I only did it as the scales were to hand but I’d be lying :D.

• Sram level TL front 253g
• Sram level TL rear 276g
• 180mm centreline rotor 145g
• 160mm centreline rotor 113g
• Eagle X01 12s rear derailleur 287g
• GX eagle boost dub cranks with 34 ring 638g
• GX eagle shifter 130g
• SRAM XG1275 cassette 461g
• Maxxis Rekon Race EXO TR 29×2.35 852g, 876g
• DT Swiss X1900 Spline – 29”*25c boost 6 bolts F 890g R 1007g
• Tubes! 435g
• fizi:k taiga 273g
• Seatpost 293g
• Grips 114g
• Fox 32 SC Perf-Series Float 3 Pos /remote boost, 100mm travel (29”), 44mm rake 1530g (inc 175mm steerer, star nut, crown race, remote cable)
• Bars 147g
• 70mm stem 103g
• Spacers 16g
• TopCap 14g
• Frame with headset, shock, axle, bb, seat binder some cable outer 2800g
• Rotor bolts x12 25g
• Chain 255g

That lot comes to 11.65kg so slightly out from all up weight of 11.6kg. I did not disconnect the shock remotes though which made weighing the forks interesting and the frame was difficult to balance.

Tubes! 435g

How much does tubeless sealant weigh?

My commuter has tubeless wheels and tyres but came with tubes. I’ve not got round to changing them. Two punctures in 9 months, both of which would have sealed tubeless has me wondering again.

100g a wheel maybe. Depends how much you put in.

Edit “all up weight of 11.6kg” should be 11.9kg.

I also just pulled the trigger on the XR 7.9

I’m not sure if I’m glad or not that they’re out of stock of large!  Part of me is beginning to fall out of love with gravel bikes and fancies going 95% as quick but without getting beaten up.

How much does tubeless sealant weigh?

100-150g depends how lucky you’re feeling TBH.  You can run them without (or with very little, <50g if they’re slightly porous) sealant and they’ll still be as or more puncture resistant than a normal tyre and tube.

those tubes, that was the first thing I noticed, good god they feel heavy in hand.

that’s a great list. I can see where I can shed a bit of weight if I feel inclined. obviously it makes all the difference despite being the wrong side of 90kg’s 🙂

https://www.instructables.com/Make-Your-Own-Drillium-Drilled-bike-components/

We bought one (the XR7.9 Race) for our eldest for his 12th birthday, fair to say he loves it. He’s on a small, his came with FSA SL-K carbon bars and the same Level TL brakes as the others, I swapped the chainring from the 34t supplied to a 32t I had in the spares box, he’ll probably get a set of ESi grips on it eventually and fit his dropper also at some point.

We were going to swap the stock wheels to his Silt XC alloys, but he likes the look of the DT ones so they got set up tubeless with the supplied Maxxis Rekon Race’s. He hasn’t been off it since he got it and as you can see, he’s not shy of a bit of mud 😀

Nice, he looks really happy with it!

I’ve half looked at the size chart for our eldest but she is still sub 150cm.

@nixie he’s bang on 5ft / 152cm if you need a size guide.

How tall are you on the XL?

Im 6’2 on the XL

185cm, just under 6’2″.

Interesting, I’d have put him taller than that from the pic. Maybe time for a height check.

His proportions are similar to mine, quite long legs for his height so the saddle height looks high for his actual height.

Finally had some time to start setting up the bike. Not a whole lot of clearance between the fork crown and 2.35″ tyre at the front, when I tried out the Proguard that has been good on another bike, there’s not enough clearance. What front mudguards are people using? @steve_b77 looks like your son is not running mudguards 😀 @lovewookie you seem to have one? Crud XL looks like it would work as it mounts around the crown rather than under it

I’m planning to run a mucky nutz face fender. Want something to protect the seals and take care of at least some of the spray. Shame there is no bolt on solution as the required holes seem to be there. Presumably the lack of clearance (width) is one way the fork weight is reduced. They look skinner than an old non boost forks 😁.

I’ve got a lifeline plastic bendy generic zip tie to your fork one. there’s not as much clearance as there is on a RS fork, but there’s enough for my 2.35 nobby nic.

The rear of the bike has a nice mud shelf at the BB too 😉

Crud guard on the back so far. not sure I want to fit my mudhugger to it, and I dont think the win wing will be in the right place if I fit that.

need a wider win wing for dropped stays, they’re great for dealing with the majority of mud.

They look skinner than an old non boost forks

They’re the same width, but the StepCast at the bottom gives you the 110mm axle spacing.