The issue is almost certainly not weight but the combination of suspension design, geometry and weight.

Having ridden an early Ariel I recall that it is really a play bike, it was a blast on the downs and hucked well but to steal an expression from another thread… it is a ‘winch and plummet’ bike.

I hate to say it Brown but the fact is you bought the wrong frame, your kit sounds ok, a sensible mix so to speak.

Get on the classifieds and seek out a Zesty for example and you will get a better all rounder, same with the prophetthough and many others, plenty of Stereos about but keep an eye on the bearings.

Strip it, sell it and ride the HT through the winter whilst waiting for the ‘right’ frame to come up.

All of the above is imho of course.

If you really wanted to save weight you could try it but as druid h says its going to cost.
Lots of small weight saving will add up quickly.
E.g. Change the SLX crank and cassette for XTR or top end SRAM. Run 1 x 10 instead of a double? Carbon bars might save a few gms. Narrower tyres-say 2.3’s? Wheels-Stans Rims, American Classic Hubs could drop a bit. Tubeless? IS the rev a light fork (no idea myself!)-could you put something else on that saves 2-300g?

But might not be worth the £££.

We recently built this up for a customer – Ibis Mojo SL 140mm travel, under 25lbs, that’s a pretty decent weight.

With pedals? Need a picture on scales…, otherwise its just cyber-bragging.

I think thats an entirely possible weight for an SL.

My mate has the SL-R blinged out in typical trail XTR style spec and on my garages ‘scales of truth & justice’ its 25lb dead.

Not bragging, why would I do that?-it’s not my bike?, genuine weight on digital bike scales hung from bike stand and I’m not about to drive to work to satisfy your skepticism either. FWIW You can get the ibis super light down to sub 22lbs if you have very deep pockets.

Five with light wheels tyres, 2×9 no carbon, flats 26.9 lbs, alpine mode heavier duty wheels tyres dropper post max 28.5lbs.

Cheers everyone.

It’s the ‘feel’ that’s bugging me. I don’t think the bike is necessarily ‘too heavy’, but it’s bigger than I’m used to, which doesn’t help. Fantastic heading downhill fast over rocks, less goo nipping through the trees.

I have no idea what any of my other bikes have weighed, but then they rode more to my taste. The Ariel is fantastic downhill, but I like hitting the flats and climbs just as fast (I’m really looking for a bike to have a proper crack at some enduros). I think I did indeed buy the wrong frame. Ah well, every day’s a school day!

My Pitch is 32lb with coil lyrics, dropper post, chain device and a pretty tough build. I’ve ridden it round 40mile loops and finished without feeling too dead, maybe even fresher than the guys on XC bikes!

I’m sure for not much more money I could have made it lighter (maybe 3lb?) but it wouldnt have been as tough or as good such as loseing the dropper post and using an i-beam post and i-fly saddle, no chain device, float 36’s (Ok these might be the same/better, but cost £££), flows on pro2 (rather than EN521 in XC/bulb), lighter tyres, and generaly being a bit more weight weenie in my kit choices (lost almsot 2lb off my road bike just by being sensible and buying top of the range alloy finishing kit rather than middle of the range alloy and cheep carbon bits).

If you want to lighten it start by stripping and weighing everything individualy on some digital kitchen scales. Then in the next column listing the weights of some bits you’d like to change, probably be suiprised where you can save a lot of weight.

Best places are finishing kit and soid bits like wheels, cranks, grips, saddle, etc. As they have the least impact on performance by going lighter. Then maybe the brakes withign reason. I’d not buy lighter suspension or tyres unless they were also better (eg swap domains for float 36’s or Intense DH’s for Maxxis HR SPC) as chosing light over high performance here will cost you more speed.

Ohh and don’t neglect the gym. Not just for losineg fat, but if you’re stronger the bike will be easier to move arround regardless.

And if it’s your first big FS bike, give it time, it took me a few months and some time on uplifts to get dialled into my Pitch, the huge wheelbase and slack/low geometry seem to reward getting good smooth (as in one long arc, not the buffed smooth) lines through corners more than a nippy hardtail where you can turn in late and take whichever lines you fancy.

We recently built this up for a customer – Ibis Mojo SL 140mm travel, under 25lbs, that’s a pretty decent weight.

With pedals? Need a picture on scales…, otherwise its just cyber-bragging.

The last time someone responded to a post like that from you you didn’t even have the courtesy to reply! And where’s the proof of your ‘cyber-bragging’?

Five with light wheels tyres, 2×9 no carbon, flats 26.9 lbs, alpine mode heavier duty wheels tyres dropper post max 28.5lbs

Next purchase, some scales that work 😉

I’d have to agree there! 😆

As the guys say – you can go as low as 25lb on carbon superbikes, but 27-28lb sounds a rideable compromise without breaking the bank.

You can go far lower than that if you want!

There was a 19lb Mojo SL on MTBR years ago, was absolutely horrendous!

Pretty meaningless question though, as with all of these things. I’ve always hankered after a Mojo, and my intended build would be sub-25lbs I’m sure, but then I’d go light on certain parts where I’m sure others would add weight.

Sounds from comments like the frame and geometry are the issue more than the parts. I ride a meta 5 and its a few ounces short of 33lbs with a very similar build but don’t have any problems. Frame weighs 7.5lbs. Then again sometimes it’s what you are used to and how you ride – I have a habit of breaking things so generally don’t buy light stuff.

🙂 Whenever there’s a thread about bike weight a lot of opptimistic numbers get mentioned.

The mojo’s we built did have finishing kit at the top-end of the scale and price (£4000ish build for the SL and (£5000ish build for the HD) but in no way was the function and strength compromised for lightweight parts, these bikes are built to take abuse and regularly get it, certainly no car-park posing bikes – we worked out we could have built the Sl down to 23lbs and the HD down to 25lbs but that would be pointless as there comes a point in a lightweight build when components limit the effective use of the frame and suspension travel and if a customer is paying that much money we prefer to offer him a guarantee that the components will work in harmony with the frameset and forks, time and time again without fail.

Anyway back to the OP. As others have said problem with the Aerial is probably not weight but geometry and feel.

somafunk , whats the exact spec of that HD thats below 27lb?

Mine comes in at 30lb, and I dont think it’d go much lower without compromising its ability (or spending several thousand more £). The only thing I can think of is to ditch the dropper post,which would knock ~1 lb off

Mine is :-

Large HD
Fox 36 160 talas RLC
CCDB air
rockshox reverb post
Some sort of super light saddle (masively uncomfortable) .
Pro II hubs, with DT ex 5.1 rims, hans dampf 2.35 tyres, tubeless.
Easton haven carbon bars
SHimano xt brakes (203mm front, 160mm rear)
SLX crank (2×9)
Xt derail, sram cassette (cant remember which one, but not top end, not bottom end)
wellgo mg 1 pedals

My rocket is 30lb on rubbish ebay digi-scales. That’s a med with 2×10, revs, arch ex, minion on the front, ardent on the back. My ST4 weighted about that. It’s a bit strange as it did feel ‘heavier’ than the ST4 when I first had it but since I was running 2×10 from 3×9, I couldn’t tell if I was riding in a lower gear.

Now it just feels ‘fine’. And that’s in the Malverns which is steep. Sure I’m not going to sprint up any hills but it’s perfectly fine for a 1000m of climbing. And awesome lobbing it down the other way.

See how I feel after 4 days back to back in Tenerife.

From memory :

Full titanium bolt kit
Hope hoops sp with cx-ray and polyax alloy nipples on flow ex rims
Full carbon sram xo groupset
Cane creek pimpy headset
Hope ceramic bb
Easton carbon xc 90 riser bars (specced by buyer)
Easton EC90 stem (specced by buyer)
Easton carbon post (specced by buyer)
wtb lightweight saddle but not superlight
2.2 conti lightweight tubeless tyres (specced by buyer)
Fox floats 34’s ctd/trail adjust
Formula R1 brakeset with titanium bolt kit/floating alloy spider rotors
Riders own lightweight xtr pedals (not crank bros in picture)

I think that’s it?……….oh grips?, can’t remember but the usual lock on of some variety.

Personally i would’ve dropped the sram groupset completely and went xtr 2×10, fitted easton haven finishing kit, 2.4 tyres, and a dropper post of some sort, i’m undecided as to whether i prefer the fox d.o.s.s or the reverb? – the reverb has issues with lifespan, i’m not overkeen on the fox lever so i would prob wait for the thomson dropper to arrive 😉

My Edison comes in at 30lbs with a not-superlight build.

Most of the bikes I’ve seen on the Enduro scene this year are around the 28-30 mark, the odd few have been a bit lighter, but most riders are going for strength and reliability.

33 does seem a bit high. You got a full build spec?

Thanks somafunk.

Those components explain it. mainly the 34mm fox fork,the 2.2 tyres ,the lack of dropper post and the XO cranks

I wouldnt change what I have now for the above(with the exception o f the cranks).

XTR cranks would knock quite a lot off what I have now, but not worth the money for me at the moment.

Hobnob
scales tested biannually as medical scales
Good try though
nb it is a 2010 frame set which is lighter than the current one.

Spec of the Alpine then?

If you can ride it up a local steep hill then its light enough.

This, potentielly 14 kg is a very good weight for a USABLE mtb with 140mm of travel.

Think logically:

Realistically you could throw a lot of money at it and loose a few pounds, say 2kg max without compromising strength.
Weight of bike plus rider (approx 100kg), this equates to a 2% performance difference.
That may be relevant for XC racing but it doesn’t sound like it would be relevant for you?

If it feels heavy / uninspiring then it’s a case of shock tune / geometry / tyre setup.