just in preparation, I anticipate the following:

#1 have a poo before you ride (I do that anyway)
#2 put yourself on a diet (at 15 1/2 stone of 44 year old ex Rugby Prop this is probably valid, but i train about 6 times a week for triathlon and stuff, so it’s not going to fall off……………..)
#3 get rid of your suspension (you don’t know my back (see #2))
#4 get rid of your gears (no thanks)
#5 my bike weighs about 7 1/2 tonnes and I fly uphill…………

Now, having got that out of the way, it’s a 2008 575, with Air Pikes, ignitor UST (720 grms) on 819’s, Thomson post and stem, XT shifters and chainset, but with Blackspire stainless little ring, Deore middle. XTR front mech and 10 year old XTR rear mech. Saddle is Selle Italia Prolink lite (I think), bars Easton EA50. Think it is close to 29lbs including SPD’s (Shimano M540’s). Brakes are 180 mm Hope Mono M4’s – the old black and gold type.

Obviously the fork is probably 1/2 a pound of so heavier than some, but at £600 odd for a Thor or similar, don’t think I’ll be changing. Plus RS weights include Maxle and uncut steerer, whilst others conveniently forget the Maxle. And, for anything post mount, I would need an adapter and bigger disc to use my existing caliper.

Could go for non UST tyres (eg Nobby Nics) but they are pretty fragile, so is that agood idea without a tube?

Looks to me that I could swap the Maxle for new Maxle lite (60 grms or so), and maybe go for a carbon bar (100 grms?)? Other than that, anything obvious? Brakes maybe? – I’ve no idea on brake weights

just out of interest really – hey, it’s Monday morning……………

cheers

get some new revs instead of pikes? lighter wheels? do a massive jobby?

Big poo, blow your nose, get your hair cut, and get the drill out

These wheels might save you a few hundred grams…

http://www.freeborn.co.uk/shop/components/wheels/wheelsets/666-specialized-roval-traversee-trail—pair-only

My Reign’s roughly the same weight as your 575 and I sometimes put my Traversees on it instead of the 719/819s it usually has.

It makes a noticeable difference climbing and carrying speed.

Depends whether you think your riding style would be suited to a lighter weight set of wheels though, of course.

Lots of things you could do, but they’ll all either cost you lots of money or have some impact on strength and other performance. Meanwhile – I know it’s not what you want to hear – even knocking a couple of pounds off won’t actually make a significant difference to your performance (that would be <1% difference in total weight).

You say you’re 15 ad half stone-what height are you? it could be a good weight if you’re not under 6ft at least.

Lots of talk about poo on here…eww.

zaskar – 6 ft on the button! 38 in waist (sometines 36) and about 47 in chest if you’re really interested! not natural born cycling physique but I enjoy it

yes – lot of talk about poo, especially given my point # 1 !

nothing on the bike thats particually heavy – if you want a light weight build replace everything!

29lbs is a pretty good weight for a full suss with pikes.

stop obsessing about the weight of your bike. Believe me ive been there. Built a 31lb 7 inch travel SC Bullit (XTR, 36 Floats, DHX Air, ti and carbon everything) It ended up costing £3500 and was less fun to ride than when i had 66 coils and a dhx coil on it at 35lbs.

OK you may be on a different set up (more xc orientated) but if you spent another £1k on it (xtr cranks, xtr brakes, smaller rotors, carbon and ti everything, crossmax etc) i bet you would be lucky to shave 11/2 – 2lbs and you would make it less usable on bigger terrain – i wouldnt like to stop my 14 1/2 stone plus bike on xtr brakes and 160mm rotors at the bottom of Garburn.

Its already been said – your at the top of the peak of benefit v’s cost and its downhill all the way now. 29lbs for a 6 inch travel bike is about as good as it gets without spending £7k on a Genius Ltd. Your an ex prop so man up and haul ass.

>at 15 1/2 stone of 44 year old ex Rugby Prop this is probably valid, but i train about 6 times a week<

> Think it is close to 29lbs <

Err – whats the problem again?

Mwaaaahhhh
My HT is 1.5 kg heavier than your 6″ bounce bike. And I am 6 stones lighter than you. What is your problem?

At your weight, 29lbs for the bike is about as light as you want to go IMO.

I’m 15stone as well, ride a hardtail (like every double hard barsteward on here), you have a nice bike there. Why not just ride it more? Improve your power/weight ratio in the gym? Ahem, or have a big poo? 😆

As said before it will cost you around £1k to loose 2-3 lbs. Why not spend that money on a two week trip to the alps and ride at altitude? I’m sure you wont be complaining when you get back for your first group ride in the spring!

^^ Wot he said. The body weight to bike weight ratio is so far in one direction that it’ll be next to irrelavent taking a few grams off. The strehgth and longevity of components will come in to play though. Don’t stress about weight, only the tyres would make any real impact on your rig and the ignitors are a pretty good choice. You would notice a speed up on NNs but only when you weren’t repairing them/you.

You could try getting yourself some secondhand pace RC41/40 fighter forks, I find mine are great. They weight about 1700g where as the pikes are about 2300g, so 600g or 1.3lbs. If you save another 100g on carbon forks you’d be able to get it down to 27.5lbs. Selling the Pikes would probably cover the cost of the Fighter forks.

Or just stick with it and get over the whole my bike weighs too much thing.

Just check this months MBR, a 29 odd lb Orange P7 wins the Steel HT test despite being 2lbs heavier than most of the bikes in there.

chaps – i did say it was hypothetical and out of interest! don’t think I’m obsessing. Just kind of interested if there were some big savings I hadn’t thought of – and it seems there aren’t!

baronspudulike re: Pace’s – think 1700 g if for QR version, so probably about 1900 g for bolt thru with maxle? My pikes are listed as 2100 inc maxle, so reduction down to about 200 grm

Instead of trying to shave weight off your bike, add more:

DH wheelset
Dual ply High Rollers
3 piece cranks
Steel bars
Fill the frame with sand.

Ride with that setup for 6 months, then put your lighter stuff back on. Sorted.

“zaskar – 6 ft on the button! 38 in waist (sometines 36) and about 47 in chest if you’re really interested! not natural born cycling physique but I enjoy it”

Have you been on the scales recently? No wishing to be funny – but I reckon 15 1/2 stone is an underestimation. I’m 5′ 6″, with a 36″ waist and a 42″ chest. And I weigh 15 stone.

The fighters QR are supposed to be 1650g, I just rounded up, the Bolt thru are supposed to be 1750g. As for the Pikes I looked at the coil for 2300g but the air are 2113g according to the SRAM website. So you’d only save about 360g or 0.8lbs plus your 100g for carbon bars, would be about 1lbs. As you say though this is all hypothetical, you could always carry 1 litre less water in your backpac and just top it up halfway around the ride, therefore saving 1 Kg or about 2.2lbs from the start.

29lb? That’s what my hooligan hardtail weighs with the recent swap to 160mm Nixons. With the Domains it previously had it was nearer 32lb, and that’s with carbon bars, tubeless 2.3’s, double and bash and an I-Beam seat setup. You could try faster rolling tyres, but I think you’ve gone as far as is practical.

What kind of riding do you do Charlie? If you don’t do any high drops then i’d suggest putting some lighter wheels on. I’ve got an 07 575 and recently changed the Hope pro II on DT 5.1 to some Industry 9 hubs on Stans ZTR Arch rims. With that i went tubeless and started using Nobby Nic tryes (500 ish grams each). The difference in weight, rolling resistance and stifness is massive. Not cheap but to be honest if you want to save more than just a few grams it is going to be costly. My bike went from around 28.5lbs to 27.3lbs. It now feels like a different bike. 😀

Looking at that build I seriously doubt your bike weighs 29lb (assuming it’s a large frame), probably closer to 32lb.

I couldn’t find a weight online for your saddle but the prolink ones listed on weightweenies are all 300g+, so swap for an SLK or SLR and save at least 150gs.

New bars too and you’ve dropped 1/2 lb?

You don’t mention hubs or pedals but they could provide some room for savings.

Fill your camelbak with helium? 😯

you could probably shave a pound off with things like foam grips, a lighter saddle/post, tires. But then its not that sort of bike so I wouldn’t bother, and that’s from someone who has spent thousands on shaving off a few grammes.

kingtut – I was very scientific in weighing it you know! I stood on the scales then picked it up and took the difference! (highly accurate Boots’ own you know……………..) but seems to be backed up by an anal 10 minutes on weight weenies…….. (below)

but yes – you are all right: I shall spend less, poo more, and ride more, and what was the other one? oh yes – man up………..

g lb

frame 2727.27 6.00
tyres 1440.00 3.17
rims 1010.00 2.22
spokes 390.00 0.86
nipples 20.00 0.04
hub fr 180.00 0.40
hub r 385.00 0.85
fork 2100.00 4.62
brakes 1100.00 2.42
saddle 300.00 0.66
post 235.00 0.52
stem 155.00 0.34
bar 300.00 0.66
grips 90.00 0.20
shifter 250.00 0.55
chain 300.00 0.66
cassette 255.00 0.56
headset 100.00 0.22
pedals 350.00 0.77
fr mech 142.00 0.31
r mech 235.00 0.52
c/set 900.00 1.98
b/bkt 113.00 0.25

13077.27 28.77

OK, bit late on here, but a couple of things you could do-

Replace Deore middle ring with XT or Middleburn, replace inner with middleburn when they run out – not a massive weight difference. On top of this you could put a 36 or 38T ring in the middle position, ditch the outer (you’ll need short chainring bolts) and save some money without losing many gears – probably none that you’d regularly use off road.

Lighter rims (depending on how you ride)?

Lighter bars (probably lots of £ and not much lb)

Lighter stem and seatpost (Thomson isn’t heavy but it’s not THAT light, that said those bits don’t weigh that much! – quick check of Easton EC90 seatpost and EA70 forged stem looks like you could save some weight vs Thomson) and/or cut your seatpost down to the minimum length you need.

You could also get lighter brakes, but maybe not in the disk size you want, then go down the route of replacing all the bolts with Al or Ti ones, but that’s probably taking it a bit far. As pointed out above, for an all round full susser the bike’s a fairly reasonable weight.

nobody has told you to cut your toenails, or wear a thin lycra body suit.

make your riding buddies carry your tools/clothes/water/snacks
dont wear a helmet or gloves
summer shoes and no socks
do you wear glasses? leave them at home and you will be going so fast you will not be able to see anyhow.

soobalias – actually if I got ‘err indoors to carry her own tools / food / water / lippy / waterproof I would probably save about 25 lbs!

Pull a few teeth out?