Mountain Bike Racing - What is the heaviest a HT race bike should weigh?

Hey gang,

I'm going to enter my first race in about a month, and that has me examining my bike with a critical eye.

The bike started life as a 2007 Giant Yukon HT, and as I have been running up against the limits of the bike as bought, I have been upgrading it.

So the undamped Suntour springer fork was swapped for a RockShox Recon 351 air spring with lockout. Pedals are now Crank Bros Acid. Cockpit is now EA70 flat bar and stem, with a reasonably lightweight WTB seat. And tomorrow I'm swapping the Deore 8 speed rear end for SRAM X-9 mech, hub, chain, and shifter.

As it sits right now, with toolbag, pump, and lights, the bike is on the order of 31 lbs. The SRAM 9-speed upgrade will drop some weight, and I can strip the toolbag and pump for the race I guess, but I expect the "race weight" for this bike will be 28lbs or so at best.

OK, so I'm not racing the World Cup and I don't need a sub-20lb bike. Granted. But how far off the mark am I for a reasonable race bike? What's the realistic upper bound on weight?

DG

While the fork is a definite area to be weight conscious of, you can save a TON of weight in your wheel and tire choice. Depending on how much you can "finesse" your way around singletrack, etc...a light weight set of wheels and tires can save you as much as two pounds. Pretty much everything else stock on that bike is rather heavy, the crank/bottom bracket for sure, and the lower end mechanical brakes are most likely weight pigs. I have no idea about the frame weight of that bike, it's aluminum and that's about as much info as I could find. You could certainly continue to upgrade parts and eventually end up with a pretty light bike then upgrade the frame later on, if you want. Considering I did my first mountain bike race in 1989 on a bone stock Rockhopper, I think you will do ok with a 28lbs bike, your going for fun and experience here I would think. Of course, I know lot's of people with super light bikes that never race....just like nice light bikes is all...and there's nothing wrong with that!! Good luck to you, and remember....above all, just have a crapload of fun!

Don't worry about weight, just go out there and race.

Don't worry about weight, just go out there and race.

+1

with that said, as I'm just starting to race, there are a few things I'd like to change about my bike too.
New fork with remote L/O (thinking sid race) also happens to be 2lbs lighter than what I have.
I don't like the rapid fire shifters (deore LX) so am thinking of ordering some X0 gripshifts and x-9 der.

Aside from that, I doubt I'll ever push a bike beyond it's capabilities.

30.5 pounds.

where are the pictures?

+1 on the just go and race, my first race bike was a Jamis Dakar sport FS, over 31lbs, then I raced a GF Joshua, over 32lbs! Now I am on a SS 69'er that comes in just <25lbs, big difference not having the suspension but when going uphill the SS flies.

Start with what ya got and make the necessary changes as you gain experience.

Little secret, most of the pros raced and won on way under-fixed-up bikes. Its in the legs not in the hardware the legs are pushing along.
Race what you have, bikes dont make much of a difference until you reach the higher levels of racing anyway.

Its the Indian, not the Arrow, give it what you got chief, and love it all.

Race HT should weigh no more than 23lbs/max...only for the sake of ultimate climbing efficiency. Anything over that and you'll get diminishing returns.