Originally Posted by alanbikehouston

If taking weight off your bike is a goal, the best place to do so is the tires. A high quality, light set of tires can give a bike a totally different feel.

I sometimes strap a four pound u-lock to the rear rack of a bike that has a four pound frame. And then I forget the lock is there. I've just doubled the weight of the frame, but it makes little difference in how the bike feels. Even going up a hill, now I'm pushing 208 pounds of total load up the hill instead of 204 pounds...can't feel a difference.

I have two bikes that are essentially identical, but one has heavy duty tires for inner city commuting. The other has light racing type tires for the rare times I feel like pretending to ride fast. The difference in tires makes one bike feel like a truck, and the other feels like a Miata.

And nothing improves the feel of a road bike more than a top quality steel fork...if you have one, treasure it, because they are becoming rare, except on high end and custom road bikes...in ten years, only the rich guys will have steel forks.