Lightening up?
 

I see several references to folks lightening up their C&V bikes. In the modern world that usually means component upgrades, i.e. 105 -> Dura Ace, carbon this and that...etc. And yes, my '09 CAAD9 (aluminum) weighs about 17.7 lbs. with 105, it's been sufficiently weight weenied :)

But in the C&V world where does one go to lighten up the bike?...not implying that's a goal for me. When I disassembled my Fuji Tivoli I remember remarking how relatively light the components were, Shimano Light Action ders, Dia-Compe 400 series calipers, brake levers/shifters (as opposed to brifters)...all seemed on the light side to me.

What felt heavier: frame (obviously), freewheel, chain, wheels. Are those the places that there are gains to be made or, if trying to keep a bike in a relatively period setup is there a wall one hits weight-wise with the vintage components?

The frame and the wheels are the two heaviest parts of a bike so it makes sense that those are the first two places to make changes to reduce weight. Swapping out the chain, changing over to a cassette instead of a freewheel, and swapping saddles makes a good next pass.

A derailleur that's considered very light would be under 200 g. A heavy one is twice that, but still only a 200 g difference. 5x as much weight savings can be easily made with a wheel swap from cheap clinchers -> nice tubulars.

Without getting into components so light as to border on unsafe I would guess around 17 lbs is the lower limit for a C&V weight-weenie bike. There are others on this board who have attempted such a feat and can chime in with actual numbers.

I'll tell you what though, I replaced just about everything on my Schwinn Voyaguer 11.8, and now it is down to about twenty pounds, after I get my carbon fork (don't hurt me) it should be less than that, but one thing I didn't save weight on was the crankset. For some reason new cranksets weigh more than old ones. For safety regulations I guess? I almost wish I'd just got new rings for the original crank, but I think the new crankset is plenty good...

I did save the most weight on the wheels, despite them being kind of cheap.

Haha, guess that means you have a Voyageur 9.07?

That's good khat. You've got me thinking of putting that on it when I re-decal it. Imagine it. Brilliant!

The gauntlet has been thrown down... Just be sure to have an accurate weight or it will just kill the whole idea :)

With my Carbone 7, I think most of the lightening is with the frame and wheels (Mavic 32H GEL280s), although the SSC derailleurs are pretty weenie themselves, the'heavyish" Mavic 630 crank and "nothing special" Stronglight sealed bearing steel axled BB do cancel any of the RD/FD weenie benefits......amybe the new Look Keo Classic pedals help a little bit more.....
But I am still surprised with the completed bike weighing in at around 17.3 pounds (I'll confirm again tonight!)...........at least that's what my two scales have been telling me!

Chombi

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http://www.bikeporn.org/collections/...o_cutout_2.jpg

Or if you prefer going C&V:

http://blog.simslearningconnections....rill-small.jpg

(Okay, yeah, more likely a drill press would be used, but the hand drill visuals are better)

The vintage weight weenie certainly starts at the frame. Even a heavier R531 frame will feel twitchey and unsafe if you go the anemic route.
I'm always let down by cranks (820g for a triple) and pedals (498g for look clips)
Unfortunately there are big gains by going cassette, but lightweight freewheels can keep you on ultralight wheels (<1200g).
You can save 150g by using cut bars without drops. Downtube shifters are commonly around 100g and save cable length compared to brifters, even with all this though to go superlight you should start with a <2kg frameset. (Or just build a vintage track bike)