brothermouzon

Hello. I own a bicycle built around a Columbus Metax frame. With Shimano 105 groupset it weights around 10kg.

I was considering replacing the front, the fork and stem with carbon and ahead stem.

How much weight could I possibly save? From what I reckoned a steel road fork can weight up to 700 grams, quill stem about 285, headset is similar I guess.

A carbon form is about 350 grams, stem 150, so all together the saving will be 500 grams. Will that be in any way worth the price?

I'm thinking in terms of weight and comfort feel and rather than racing advantage.

AnkleWork

Uh, you have the steel fork and stem? Why not just weigh them? No one here can do that.

And, no one here can decide what's worth what for you.

HillRider

Yes, a "typical" steel fork does weigh in the 700 gm neighborhood and the stem weight you estimate isn't that far off either. However, a 350 gm carbon fork is pretty high end and 400+ grams is more typical. Headsets typically weigh 120 to 150 grams so you aren't going to save much there.

So for a 400 gm or so weight savings you are going to spend $200 or a lot more to reduce your 10 kg bike to 9.6 Kg for a 4% weight loss. And, if you expect a carbon fork to be a dramatic comfort improvement, you will be very disappointed.

brothermouzon

The reason I asked here was that taking apart the headset, fork, wheel and the front brakes just to weigh two of these parts would take a lot of work, and if someone was kind to clarify as HillRider it's a huge time-saver.

Thanks for clarifying this. That's a good way to think about it, in percent of total weight.

I did some research on parts to estimate weights, and I assumed front end of the bike is the most sensible to start with. The cranks, mechs and seatpost are either freshly replaced or not much of a candidate for a weight saver. Maybe the chain and the cassette are better as they get wear down with time anyways, but that's 150 grams at most, and quite expensive too.

Thanks again!

techsensei

I think you might have a difficult time finding a 1" threadless carbon fork, especially if you are looking for a full-carbon and not carbon with steel or aluminum steerer. !" threadless stem aren't too common either, although you could get a 1 1/8" stem and use a shim.

SquidPuppet

Unless you lose that .5 kilo from the wheels, you probably won't even be able to notice it. A bottle of water weighs more.