baxtefer

Speed holes

kappa_italia13

ill add a bit more detailed info about the specs on the bike right now:

frame - 1520 g
fork - ?
campagnolo veloce triple FD - 100g
campagnolo veloce RD long cage 10 speed - 263g
campagnolo triple crankset - 731g
record chain - 279g
veloce brakes- 368g
veloce cassette - 250g
veloce ergopower - 402g
veloce bottom bracket - 299g
ritchey handlebars - 300g
ritchey seatpost - 300g
EA50 stem - 179g
shimano PD-M540 pedals - 330g
selle italia C2 carbon special edition- around 250g
front tire michelin megamium - 260g
rear tire vittoria rubino - 290g
wheels gipiemme platinum and gipiemme hubs - ?
tubes - average tubes ?
total - 6121, not even including wheels and hubs, fork, or tubes.
estimated actual total - 6121 + 2500 + 600 + 250 = 9471! (about 20.5lbs)

orguasch

cheapest way to ligthen a bike go to this site, www.unicycle.com , just kidding, what you need is to train and ride hard, with a heavy bike you can do both, and once you have the money you can buy the lightest bike in the market, I am advancing this theory that you want a lighter bike , coz' you want to ride faster right or I am wrong,

orguasch

that 20.5 lbs, is not a heavy bike, as I said you need to ride hard and train hard, then your bike even if it weight a ton, will feel lighter under you because you have now stronger legs and bigger lung air capacity, my bike weight 18 lbs, and I can see the riders with a heavy bike leaves me in file of dust behind them when I do my weekend ride with the group I belong ..

zensuit

Pedals can be lightened and they are also rotating weight, making it a very effective place to start

zensuit

Colnago C-40

kappa_italia13

just remember that this doesnt include everything, and they are just estimates. many other miscellaneous things are on the bike for which i dotn kno the weight. but i agree with you about the other point you made. if i train hard on this bike, and i am capable to keep up with everyone, then once i get a lighter bike it will all be easier to blow past them. or at least i hope lol.

lisitsa

I find it ridiculous people can even suggest cutting down unnecessary length of the seatpost to save weight. A frame change from steel to carbon might make a big difference, but seriously, shorter seatpost, getting a bit overboard aren't you?

glevii

This...

https://www.performancebike.com/shop/...TOKEN=14135506

Save 135 grams

This...

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

Save 145 grams

These...

https://www.performancebike.com/shop/...tegory_ID=5420

700x23c save 140 grams

These...

https://www.performancebike.com/shop/...tegory_ID=5245

Save 130 grams

Cost - $348.00

Weight savings of 550 grams or 1.2 lbs.

I'd start with tires, then pedals. Like somebody else mentioned. Work on rotating mass first.

That's just a cursory glance at a couple of websites, for quick deals. Better can be found, but that's pretty accurate on what to expect so I quoted off of Performance just because it's easy.

Next would be wheels, then frame. That's cheapest to most expensive. The Veloce group is good. I'd stick with that.

Lectron

Rotating weight is important, Yes. But pedals and crank rotate 90-110 rpm at a max radius of 175mm, and that’s not fast enough to generate any big ma product. We are also talking about maybe 250grams at a cost of $400.
That’s $1.6 a gram.

A wheelset could save you 1000g for about $700. That’s like $0.7 a gram.
So if your not looking for a whole new bike, a new set of wheels would still give you one.

Rowan

Electric drill and drill bits... drill out the top tube, down tube and seat tube, the walls of the wheels, plus the seat post and the cranks with a series of strategically placed holes. In fact, if you are really clever like one bike maker, you can replace the *entire* downtube with a cable.

Thread half the number of spokes that are currently on the wheels. Use lightweight rubber innertubes for 20-inch tyres and pump them up with helium. Hydrogen might be an option, but you're probably soooo fast, your tyres will overheat and risk blowing up themselves and you.

Cut the seat post and stem/steer tube to the absolute minimum, then epoxy them in their respective holes so you can dispense with those pesky clamps.

Remove half the balls out of each of the bearings on your bike -- BB, headset, hubs.

If the bike is steel, send it to a company that dips stuff into acid and reduce the wall diameters of the frame to paper thin (you'll have to have the company flush it all out with an alkaline to neutralise the acid).

Cut the handlebars to a bare minimum -- six inches each side of the stem should be enough (see next). Don't use bar tape or bar-end stoppers.

Get ride of the shifters, brake levers, all cables, front der and rear der, and the freehub and all but one of the rear gears and keep one chainring, and make the bike into a fixed gear (which is probably the most obvious answer of all).

Don't wear shoes, but use gaffer tape to attach the clips for you pedals directly to the soles of your feet, which takes care also of wearing socks.

Cut the legs off your shorts so they become padded bikini briefs. Never wear anything but a boob tube, plus no helmet and no sunnies. Shave your head, legs, chest and armpits. Clip all your fingernails back to the quick so they hurt. Have your front teeth capped in plastic and have the molars removed. Amputate the fingers you never use (and those pesky toes as well).

Paint everything red (it doesn't make anything lighter, but everyone knows that red things *always* go faster).

There ya go... a lightweight, fast bike and all for the cost of a little elbow grease and imagination. Bontrager has a saying for people like you.

Pity you won't qualify for any competitive UCI event coz your bike would be underweight! But you'll be able to blow the cafe racers away on a Saturday morning.

Sheesh.

Lectron

Yes. Sure. That saying is definitely angled towards people riding 22lbs bikes wanting them to be lighter.

C’mon Rowan !You really got him there. Rub it in. Tell'im what it's all about

Al.canoe

Eat less. You will save money (now, that's "cheap"), you will have "less" to pedal up hill and your heart will have less work to do.

Al

FOG

IF you want to lighten your bikein teh lest expensive fashion, start by developing a spreadsheet of your component weights. In the next few columns have alternative components, their costs, and their weight reductions. Figure out the cost per gram of weight saving from various components. Decide on a budget. Find an acceptable cost per gram saved, and then buy the components which save weight at a lower cost per gram saved. You can use this to buy components when they go on sale, which in the end, will keep the costs reasonably low.

Grasschopper

Seems like that crank and BB combo is pretty heavy. Do you have to have the Campy stuff there or are you willing to go with FSA? Get a FSA Mega EXO setup and save some weight then sell your Campy stuff on eBay to recoup some cost. I also agree with glevii that seems like a good 550 grams to save.

Edit: oops 550 grams not lbs oh and looking at FSA weights you would have to go carbon to save weight and they don't list a Carbon triple Mega EXO (thought I swear they did a week or two ago) so maybe you can't save too much weight there.

Don Cook

Lighten by how much? If you want to save about 150 grams or so and spend less doing it, install downtube shifters and simple aero brake levers. Chains are pretty cheep and you can swap them and save a couple dozen grams. The potential number of answers to your question are just about limitless. But, there isn't any bicycle performance enhancing gizmo's that will do nearly as much and for as little as you loosing weight. Whenever I get asked by relative newbies where I work the same question you pose, the response is "eat one less twinkie a week and save your money". When you've improved your physical abilities and reach that plateau of no more appreciable gain, then look to getting an additional edge by dropping some of the bicycle's weight.

MichaelW

Cost per gram saved is a useful way to calculate savings.
Drillium components are so 1970s, like flared trousers and writing EDDIE MERCX on your knuckles.
https://www.velo-retro.com/spivey1.html

If you really want to go faster for the same effort, then try some experiements. Work out a circular 10mile time trial. Ride it at a constant heart-rate a couple of times to find your time. Add some weight to your bike (eg waterbottle full of metal) and see if you go any slower.
Try altering your position be more aerodynamic and see if that improves your time.

WoodyUpstate

1. Lightweight tubes and tires first.
2. Saddle, stem and bar.

Now you're done with the least expensive items, unless you sprung for carbon in #2.

3. Figure, on average, $1 per gram - 457g to the pound. Rounded: $500 to save a pound. Plus or minus, of course.
4. $1,500 to save 3 lbs.
5. Even then, $1,500 may not save you 3 lbs. without upgrading your drivetrain, or swapping out your frame.

Grasschopper

Yea seems like the frame is one of the biggest targets here. You can get a 1360 gram scandium frame on eBay for like $425 and shed almost 200 grams. I would guess the fork could shed some weight too and the SL90 is on sale for like $209 now most places or you could get a full carbon Weyless on closeout for $75 from Supergo.

glevii

What he said. Good idea.

Patriot

Go to a double crankset. An FSA pro Team issue carbon will save you about 200g. About $220 on ebay.

Also, get an FSA pro ti BB, that will save you another 130g. $80

Carbon seatpost will save you another 130g. $80.

That alone just saved you over 16ozs.

ggg300

Go to price point dot com and pick up a carbon fork for about 80.00 us or supergo's house stuff when it is on sale. Trust me.....the best thing to do.

Next, go for seat post....carbon for 50.00 at supergo or look at tompson elite post on sale.

Last, the seat....look around....tons of stuff there....

Stuff to forget.....cranks...too much money for the grams lost/ tubs...a flat tub will slow you down much more...

I used this with my bike and love it.

zensuit

The math is on your side, but nothing made my bike "feel" lighter, other whan new wheels, than lighter pedals...and considering how many times you have to go around and around, I think they go a long way toward improving the quality of the ride overall.

FOG

just one other note- Cost is not the only thing which needs to be considered in lightening a bike. You need to consider serviceability and durability. You could choose lighter, thinner tires, only to find out that you get so many flats that you end up being much slower on an average ride. If you chose lighter, but less durable bearings, you might find that friction eats up all of your weight advantage. Lighter components might also be more difficult to maintain in alignment. For example a brake might move out of alignment and drag. This would really eat up any weight advantage You also might consider drag. If a bike had lower drag tubes which were slightly heavier, you might be able to manage faster overall times on rides. So what you really want to do in the long run is optimize average ride time based on your budget.

Lectron

Just wanted to show one way of visualizing where the money and weight is