Inpd

So with the addition of the Venturi Breezer (eventually) I figured I would spend a few hundred dollars to repurpose by BD bike as either: i) a rain bike, ii) a gravel bike or iii) a touring bike (it has front and rear eyelets and rear braze-ons). See the bike configuration at the end of this post. Its an endurance geometry.

What do people suggest? It's worked flawlessly for over 6500 miles.

I tore down the bike and put it together again so weighted each component and this is where it gets interesting. Despite being very cheap ($399) the individual components weight wise are decent and similar to the much more expensive items I'm ordering for the Breezer build. For example:

Cranks LASCO FR680 825g vs 105 cranks 737g
Fork Unbranded 602g vs 550g for a Carbon fork with composite steerer

In fact the only real place the bike is really bad is the wheels. The wheelset is strong but weights 2100 grams.


Configuration of Dawes Lightning DLX
========================

Rear Triangle Dawes Altair 1 aluminum curved seat stay w/ rack mount, Dawes forged road dropout with replaceable derailleur hanger
Fork Dawes 1.125" steerer, custom tapered Carbon Aero Road
Crankset LSCO Forged Aluminum Road 30T SLx42T SLx52T SIx170MM ALLOY SILVER
Bottom Bracket Semi Cartridge Bearing ST
Pedals FREE Pedals,9/16" AXLE, color and style may be different from pictured
Want different pedals? Go to www.bikeisland.com for great prices + free shipping*
Front Derailleur SHIMANO FD-2303 DOWN PULL
Rear Derailleur SHIMANO SORA RD-3400GS
Shifters SHIMANO ST-2300/2303 24-SP
Cassette/Freewheel SUNRACE CSR86BQ0SS1 12-25T-8 SATIN
Chain SUN RACE, 1/2"*3/32" Narrow
Front / Rear Hub Aluminum Alloy Road / Aluminum Alloy Cassette Road, 8-speed
Spokes 14G Stainless Steel
Rims 700x14Gx36H HJC-DA14 DOUBLE WALL ALLOY SILVER F/V clincher
Tires Kenda Kwest, 700 X 28c, presta valve tubes
Brake Set Dual Pivot Forged Road
Brake Levers SHIMANO ST-2300/2303
Headset 1.125 inch dust sealed bearing
Handlebar Aluminum Alloy Road, W:400MM(42~46CM)/420MM(50~54CM)/440MM(58CM), ALLOY SILVER
Stem Dawes Road Aluminum, ADJUSTABLE ANGLE,
ADJUSTABLE EXT:100MM(42~50CM)/120MM(54~58CM), ALLOY

rms13

550g is heavy. A good quality full carbon fork should be 350g or less

joejack951

The square taper bottom bracket you have likely weighs a lot more than the little bearing cups for the 105 crankset (roughly 300g vs. 100g). Add that difference to the almost 100g difference you noted and you are looking at over half a pound right there.

Inpd

Sure, but I'm talking about a carbon fork with alloy steerer to compare apples to apples.

My point is that the only place I can think of to upgrade the bike is the wheelset as for $200 I can get a lighter set with cartridges. Everything else would be throwing money to save a 100 grams.

Dave Cutter

Rain bike! I still have my original Fuji and use it on salt covered winter roads as well as taking it out when rain looks certain. Sure it weights slightly more than my other bikes, particularly since I added the rack and truck bag. But it preserves my daily rider.

PepeM

Shedding weight costs a lot of money, yes.

rpenmanparker 

I don't think you understand that after the frame and the wheels saving weight on a bike is done 100 g or less at a time. I am in no way suggesting you try to lighten that bike, but you brought up the subject. Everything on it is not light, everything is heavy. 100 g heavier than a 105 crank is a boat anchor. A 602 g cut fork is a boat anchor. The wheels are boat anchors. I imagine the levers are too. The reason to no try to lighten that bike is not that it doesn't need it. It is because it is just too heavy to start with. If you try to lighten it, you would be just replacing it with a whole other bike. Your frame of reference is not realistic.

Vicegrip

Thinking about the weights of this and that is a waste of time. Taking weight off would be a waste of money. It is a working workable bike use it to fill a void. Bikes are like shoes. A great pair of hiking boots is not a great pair of running shoes. The wider range of gear you have makes for a wider range of riding conditions you can enjoy and vice versa.

Commuter / rain / grocery getter bike. Mount up the fattest tires that will fit with a set of full fenders. Add a rear rack, good lights, get a decent bike lock and you have a bash around bike. Doubles as a loaner bike too.

pdedes

this is the correct answer

Nachoman

+1

Inpd

I think that's a winner plus I can do some light gravel riding with it.

I agree that shaving weight is a waste of money on this bike as I wrote in the original post, I was just surprised that the parts weren't much heavier.

The bike has front and rear eyelets and rear brazeons for a rack. Also, the beefy 32 spoke tires will probably be a benefit for this use.

The only challenge is that it can probably only fit 30/32 mm tires as a max.

So I'll spend $100 on rack and mud guards and another $100 on nice gravel grinding tires and I'll be done.

Thanks!

rpenmanparker 

But I think that is the important lesson here. It doesn't take much extra weight in every component and the frame and fork to add up to a lot of extra weight on the complete bike. The grams add up to pounds really fast. Your crank may only weigh 100 g more than a 105 crank, but a full 300 g more than a really light crank. And so on for every part.

As for what to do with your bike, I also agree that the recommended solution is optimum.

StephenH

Just keep it around as a spare. Eventually, you'll have your other bike in the shop or be waiting on parts or something, and you'll have something to ride in the meantime.

StanSeven

This is for certain. I bought a steel bike years ago that weighed 23.5 lbs. That included a complete 8 speed Ultegra group, a cf fork with aluminum steerer with threaded headset, Mavic CXP 30 wheel, and several other components like that. Over time I replaced every single part except the frame including threadless headset, complete CF fork, DA, SPD-SL pedals, wheels, etc. That took 5.3 lbs off the overall weight.

pdedes

and get a nice pannier bag that will clip to your rack.