Thanks for weighing the frames Spoken36

I think most of the weight discrepancy would come from the lower end/older parts used on many Hiten frames. You just have to pick up some older seats bars or cranks, freewheel rims or caliper brake levers to see. At least for mtb's, the onset of cromoly frames and subsequent higher quality aluminum parts drops the weigh of bikes considerably.

I would be willing to bet a sandwich that if you had two frames built the same, painted the same, spec'd the same and loaded the same for a tour, no one would be able to tell the difference between one or the other.