Making My Rockhopper Lighter
 

Hi There,

I recently bought a Specialized Rockhopper Disk 2005 (UK). I use this bike for commuting to work everyday as well as XC on the weekend. I recently weighed my bike and found out it weighs 32lbs! :eek: It’s a 17” frame. I'm also bit of a light rider at 136lbs. I've got about £500 ($900) to spend at the moment on making the bike lighter. I'd also like to through making the bike lighter get some better quality components.

The spec of my bike is below –

FRAME A1 Premium Aluminium, disc only, double butted front triangle with 3-D box gusset, reinforced disc mount, externally machined HT, forged alloy drop outs with eyelets and replaceable derailleur hanger

FORK Manitou Axle Elite, 100mm, Fluid Flow damping with adjustable rebound, alloy steerer , Black Nitride coated 28.6mm Cr-Mo stanchions, Mag Disc Only lowers

HEADSET 1 1/8” threadless, black steel cups, loose ball bearings with seals

STEM Alloy 10 degree rise, forged and TIG-welded, 13/15”: 75mm, 17/19”: 90mm, 21/23”: 105mm

HANDLEBARS Alloy, 38mm rise, 9 degree sweep

TAPE / GRIPS Specialized double density Kraton

FRONT BRAKE Shimano M-525 full hydraulic disc, Post mount, 6” rotor

REAR BRAKE Shimano M-525 full hydraulic disc, 6” rotor

BRAKE LEVERS Shimano M-525 full hydraulic disc

FRONT DERAILLEUR Shimano M-510 Deore, 34.9mm clamp, bottom pull

REAR DERAILLEUR Shimano M-570 LX

SHIFT LEVERS Shimano SL-M510 Deore

CASSETTE Shimano HG-50, 9-speed, 11x34t

CHAIN Shimano HG-53

CRANKSET Shimano Deore, Hollowtech arms, 13/15”:170, 17-23”:175mm

CHAINRINGS 44s/32s/22s

BOTTOM BRACKET Shimano, BB-UN25 68x118mm

PEDALS Shimano Clipless M540

RIMS Mavic XM-117 disc, 26”, 32h

FRONT HUB Specialized, Disc 32 hole with alloy QR

REAR HUB Shimano M-475 Disc, 32 hole, loose ball bearings, alloy Q/R

SPOKES 1.8mm (15g) black stainless, brass nipples, L260/R263mm front, L261/R260mm rear

FRONT TIRE Specialized Crossroads Armadillo 26 x 1.95”, wire bead

REAR TIRE Specialized Crossroads Armadillo 26 x 1.95”, wire bead

TUBES Specialized, schraeder valve

SADDLE Specialized Body Geometry Sport MTB

SEAT POST Alloy 30.9mmx350/400mm, micro adjust

SEAT BINDER Alloy QR, 36mm I.D.


Any advice will be greatly appreciated. My forks are also inline to be upgraded in the new year to something like the Rockshox REBA Race 06. So I should loose some weight there as the current fork Manitou axel feels a little on the heavy side.

Danny Boy

This does beg the question, if you have another £500 to spend, why get the Rockhopper and not something better? Its a nice enough bike and good enough for of-road riding but the front end esp is heavy.
If you can ride offroad without the sus fork, then a rigid fork will lose some weight.
The stem is a solid billet of Al. Switch it for something lighter.
Swap the knobbly tyres for mixed use semi-slicks.
For the rest of the componentry, forget about any upgrades until they wear out, it simply isnt cost effective.

If you want light I would suggest replacing the following (in no particular order except the wheels)

1 wheels and tires (those wire bead armadillos weigh a ton) (American classic disc 350's)
2. Seat (Selle Italia SLR)
3. Pedals (eggbeaters)
4. crankset (XTR integrated)
5. cassette (XTR)
6. Seatpost (thomson)
7. flat bar ( carbon or alloy)(Easton ec70)


What I would do, because you use it to commute during the week and ride XC on the weekends, is to keep those wheels and tires for commuting (those armadillos are great for commuting because of the tough skin) and get a replacement wheelset for riding XC on the weekend. That way you could get rotors, wheelset, tires and tubes and cassette for XC racing that would make your bike feel much snappier.

Well I just spent way more than $900 for you, but you get the idea

8. Rigid fork, if you're up for the punishment

:beer: Sounds like he already had a replacement suspension fork picked out, but I agree wholeheartedly. .

Thanks for the all the options. I guess I'm going to have to think hard about the upgrades. On the budget I have, can I make it much lighter that I'd notice the difference? I guess I could look a decent wheel set. What sort of weight should I be looking at for a pair of new wheels? Any ideas on how heavy they currently are? As the front of my bike feels so heavy.

Danny Boy

I dropped quite a bit of weight off of my Rockhopper. It was originally around 30lbs but now it should be 23-23.5lbs (I haven't weighed it since the last parts change). With a few more changes in the spring, it should be in the 22lbs range. The only thing restricting it after that is likely the frame, I don't know the weight but I'm guessing it's nowhere near the weight of a lightweight, XC race frame.

Mine is an 04 so some of the parts are different but my biggest weight losses were:

All the other weight loss was from smaller changes, i.e., bar, stem, seatpost, brakes, cassette. I did lose about 3/4lb by swapping seats, the stock one was extremely heavy. I made some other changes where I don't think I saved any weight, i.e., shifters, rear derailleur.

If you are commuting and trail riding on the weekend, get a second wheelset with slicks (or put that cash towards another bike for commuting).

As wheelerer suggests, put helium in your tires! :D

I agree with "never" the Maniitou Axel's weigh as much as an anvil. My wife has one on her Jamis and coincidentally, we are looking for a Marathon SL for her.

Cheers!

T.J.

My $55.00 Surly 1x1 weighs in at a scant 2.27 pounds. My old Rock*****s Judy weight about 5.5-6 pounds. I lost 3.5 pounds by doing that. I know you may be a bit virgin for an SS conversion, but doing that and going to a 1x1 took my bike from 32 to 24 pounds, and it cost me a $5 cog. Weight lost: 8 pounds. Money spent: $60.

I've spent well under $900 (probably under $400) and my bike weighs about 23 pounds, but without suspension. The items I've purchased that made the most noticeable difference were lighter wheels and tires. Especially tires!! I also have an old vanadium rail Vetta seat and a Kalloy Uno seatpost, both of which are quite light but very affordable.

Ughh, anything but the Marathon SL. Mine was a lemon out of the box. A few other people that I know had the same problems. Always sounded like the headset was loose. This may have been fixed for 2006 though. 2005 was just a bad year for them.

Danny Boy - The first thing I would do would be to swap the tires for something else, preferably something such as the Kenda Karma DTC 2.1's which weigh about 440 grams each. After that get rid of the extremely heavy tubes that bike comes with. These couple of changes alone will save you around 1.5 pounds of rotating weight. Changing the tires alone will save you 680 grams. That is a huge amount of weight for very little money. Since this is rotating weight it worth almost twice as much weight savings and any non-rotating weight.

Depending on how much money you want to spend the wheelset would be the next best upgrade. You can lose quite a bit of weight there, just depends on if you want to spend $200 to save a little weight or $350 to save a lot of weight.

Another easy way to lose a couple of ounces is to go with some Delta bolt-on skewers. Those will only cost you about $12.

Next would be the crankset and bottom bracket. You can get an FSA Carbon Team Issue crankset for about $200 and an American Classic ISIS bb for less than $100. The crankset will save you 125 grams and the bottom bracket will save you 180 grams.

A relatively cheap way to lose some weight is to get rid of that saddle. That thing weighs 417 grams. You could go with almost any other saddle and lose weight. If you would go with an SLR (about $120) you could save 270 grams.

An even cheaper way to lose about 70 grams would be to switch to some foam grips. I use Johar grips, they are made for an old school road bike. You can get two pairs of them for about $12 from your lbs. After you cut them down they weigh 22 grams a set.

Your current cassette weighs 360 grams. If you would switch to a Shimano XT 11-32 you could save another 100 grams. You could change to an XTR you could save about 120 grams, not worth the extra money if you ask me. However if you don't do a lot of climbing you could use a Shimano Ultegra 12-27 and save 140 grams.

Your M-540 pedals are like boat anchors, they weigh 350 grams. Buy some eggbeater chromes for about $60 or so then spend another $100 and get the titanium spindles. This will take you down to 221 grams. If you don't want to go this route buy the eggbeater sl's. They weigh in at 271 grams.

The handlebar weighs in at 234 grams. You could get an Easton Monkey Lite on closeout for less than $100 I believe, that would save you about 75 grams.

You could save another 60 - 70 grams by switching to a Thomson Elite seatpost. Not the lightest but very reliable.

Hope this doesn't seem like too much. These are all just suggestions and some good starting points.

ya, know i was just going to reply to this thread. but i think lowcel pretty much said it all.

-if you want to lose a little more, mybe a tubless system?-

Thanks LowCel that was a great post! You have given me some good options to go with and looks like my tires and tubes will be swapped first then the wheel set. Can you get lighter disk rotors? Or is this a dangerous idea? Lastly I've been looking at this wheel set "XT Disk Hubs, Mavic 717 Rims, DT Rev Spokes" Is this a good setup to drop a good amount of weight?

Danny Boy

I have the wheelset you are talking about as a back up. It is a great wheelset, not what I would consider light though. Switching from your current wheelset to the xt/717 you would definately see some weight loss. I saw on the other forum that you do some jumping so you probably wouldn't anything much lighter anyway. This is also the reason I didn't suggest going tubeless. If you didn't jump I would have suggested switching over to Stan's no-tubes.

Stan's makes a light two piece rotor. People had a lot of problems out of the first generation of them. I believe he has taken care of the problems now though. The problem is that they cost about $100 each. Even being as big of a weight weenie as I am I just cannot justify the cost of that one.

Something I didn't mention earlier was aluminum and ti bolts. That is a relatively cheap way to save some weight as well, I just don't think you will notice much difference at this stage. Once you drop a few pounds on your bike switching the bolts makes much more sense. You can lose 2 or 3 ounces by buying about 50 bucks worth of bolts.

I've finally decided on my first purchase of a new wheel set, tubes and tires. From all the research I have gathered it seems wheel sets, tires and tubes are a good place to start. The tires you suggested I cant seem to find over here in the UK. So I've been recommended Nokian NBX Lite Kevlar 2.0 (470Grams Each) & Continental Supersonic Tubes. My only worry with the tubes is will they be more likely to get flats?

Danny

The Nokian's are great tires, should work great for you. With light tubes it is hit and miss. Some people have great luck, some people can't get through a ride without flatting. Only one way to find out if they will work for you or not.

Do you do anything bigger than two or three foot jumps? Also, how frequently do you do them? If you just hit the occasional jump on the trail then you would probably be fine going with Stan's no tubes. I have been using it for quite a while now and have only experienced two flats. Something to consider anyway. :)

I very rarely go jumping and if I do its often nothing big and whilst on a trial. If I went tubeless I guess that means different rims? I have so far made a list up of the following bits I am going to change on my bike over the next few months. If I could have some input recommendations on better or cheaper alternatives that would be greatly appreciated. The list is in order I plan to make the purchases.

New Wheel Set – XT Hubs, Mavic 717, DT Swiss Spokes Revolution £133
Nokian NBX Lite Kevlar 2.0 (470Grams Each) £30
Continental Supersonic Tube £18 (Pair) (100Grams)

Syntace F99 254 90mm 6° Black £50 (100Grams)
Syntace Duraflite 7075 600mm 12° Black £50 (148Grams)
TiTec Pork Rinds £9 (22Grams)

Selle Italia SLR T1 Saddle £60 (195Grams)
USE Aluminium Alien Seat Post - 350mm £40 Black (190Grams)

Danny Boy

You can go tubeless while using those tires and rims. You will just need to go with a tubeless conversion such as Stan's no tubes.

On the stem I'm not so sure I would go with the Syntace. A lot of people complain about it having some flex, on top of that Syntace just issued a recall on it. I prefer the FSA XC115 stem. It weighs in at 130 grams but it is a very solid, reliable stem.

As long as that saddle is comfortable for you go for it. The downside is that it actually weighs 20 grams more than it's claimed weight. The true weight of that saddle is 212 - 215 grams. :(

The seatpost is a very good choice as well. Only seatpost I like better is the one I just ordered, a Thomson Masterpiece. You could get one of those (30.9 x 350) which would weigh 187 grams. Pretty much the same weight as the Alien but you wouldn't have to use any shims. I could be wrong but I don't believe the Alien comes in a 30.9.

I had great luck with a 2003 Marathon SL. It was the plushest air fork I've ever used. I sold to a buddy and it is still going strong today. Even today, it never looses air; even after a couple months. Some oil eventually leeks into the negative chamber but that was normal according to Marzocchi.

What went wrong with yours?

T.J.

I've got an 03 SL as well and it's great. I originally was going to get a Fox F80RLT but I got the Marzocchi dirt cheap from a buddy. Couldn't pass up the deal!

The Marathon SL's prior to 2005 were great forks. It was in 2005 that they screwed them up so bad. Mine was a complete piece of crap from the day I bought it. The SID that I have is actually stiffer than the SL was. It rattled when it was new, had bad bushings and according to Marzocchi the doppio (sp?) system was bad. They told me to send it back in and have it worked on, would take between 3-4 weeks to get it back to me. To me it is not acceptable to have to have to immediately send a $600 fork back to the manufacturer. That's what quality control is for. To make it worse this was a common problem with them.

I wonder if someone can help. I am looking into a new wheel set and I'm wondering what the weight saving would be over the proposed new set. As new wheels are expensive I want to be sure I'm making a good choice. Yes I could get out and weigh my current wheels. I just dont have a decent set of scales which would give me an accurate reading. Even if the weight saving isn't huge I would be gaing some much better quality wheels in my opinon. I've done a good search on google but have been unable to find the weights of my current wheel set. Lastly if anyone has the new wheelset I'm looking at could they tell me the weight of them.

Current Wheels

FRONT HUB Specialized, Disc 32 Hole With Alloy QR

REAR HUB Shimano M-475 Disc, 32 Hole, Loose Ball Bearings, Alloy Q/R

RIMS Mavic XM-117 Disc, 26”, 32h

SPOKES 1.8mm (15g) Black Atainless, Brass Nipples, L260/R263mm Front, L261/R260mm Rear


Proposed New Wheels

XT Hubs, Mavic 717, DT Swiss Spokes Revolution

Cheers

Danny Boy

If you swap the heavy XT hubs for something like WTB Lazer Disc/American Classic hubs (light and reasonably priced), you'd have a light wheel.

A couple of examples with WTB hubs from Odds and Endos:

With XC717 rims:
http://oddsandendos.safeshopper.com/17/68.htm?859
http://oddsandendos.safeshopper.com/17/69.htm?859

With Velocity rims (about 10 grams heavier than XC717 but cheaper):
http://oddsandendos.safeshopper.com/17/79.htm?859
http://oddsandendos.safeshopper.com/17/78.htm?859

I would say to not spend more then 1 or 200 MAX on upgrades and save your money towards a better bike.