Shaving the weight?
 

I have a Trek 1000 that I have had over 5 years. It weighs in at 22 pounds. The saddle bag adds an extra pound. I'd like to shave some extra weight off the bike and have gotten myself down to almost as low as I could go. (Maybe another 5 pounds) Anyway, I am just looking for some different ideas without breaking the bank.

Or should I F it all and buy a new carbon bike?

whats your budget?

buy some nicer wheels, if you ever decide to get a nicer bike, you can use the good wheels on either bike.

Lose weight off the engine, first.

Maybe get better wheels? What ones are on it now?

Taking five pounds off of a bike like that would be difficult. You would need wheels, groupset, and carbon fiber everything else, which would break the bank.

Ditching the triple chainring for a double/compact would probably be the most sensible option, however I'll be the first to say a 22 lb bike shouldn't be causing too many problems unless you are climbing daily in the alps.
--> bike weight is only a significant issue when you do a lot of climbing. On the flats a 17lb and 24 lb bike will perform very similar.

Wheels come in second as far as weight savings will go.

Yeah the engine is working on it. I am 13 percent body fat right now and am shooting for under 10 percent. The rims are stock. Alex Rims AT450's. Budget would be a few hundred dollars

I live in Nebraska. A few big hills, but a lot of freaking wind.

Play around with this bike speed calculator. http://bikecalculator.com/veloUS.html

Taking off 5 lbs will gain you about 0.04 mph at 200 watts (or about 7 seconds in a 1 hour time trial).

Don't worry about the bike weight very much. It is fine to save for a lighter bike but it won't gain you that much.

Thanks!! Nice tool.

Power to weight ratio. Add power. Beef up the engine.

Depending on your current tires, you might be able to save a couple hundred grams with going to something lighter. For my allez the stock tires have a listed weight of 310 grams each, and the Conti GP 4000's I replaced them with tipped the scale at 205 grams each. So 210 grams savings there on my bike. A moot point though if you already have light tires.

I recently upgraded to the Conti's. They are great tires and have a great rolling resistance.

I wouldn't worry about weight...

However the cheapest ways to shave weight is to use Performance Bike's Lunarlight tubes. For $15 you can take about .25 pounds off your bike. After that switch to CO2, get a small inflator, bring lunarlight tubes, one tire lever etc.

After that start searching for products with low cost to weight savings ratio. I've got some cheap skewers I bought for $17, but they're under 100g.

But again, I wouldn't worry much about weight. It doesn't have nearly as much of an affect as eating healthy and training. You'd be better off spending money on a PT wheel and book to get faster than buying new wheels to shave a pound.

I guess when I start loosing races by mere seconds I will start worrying about the grams. Thanks for all the comments.

It's amazing how much people worry about the little things (bike weight, components, wheels, etc) when they are neglecting the big things (fitness and training)...

1. Buy used racing tires. They're light to begin with, and half the rubber is gone.
2. Get radial laced wheels and remove every other spoke.
3. Remove every other ball bearing in your BB, hubs, and headset.
4. Get carbon bars and stem, ditch the bolts, glue them together with epoxy
5. Get a crankset with four chainring bolts and remove two of the four bolts
6. Remove tube valve caps
7. Trim down your crank arms to 120mm and have them redrilled and tapped by a competent machinist
8. Only tape the bars from the drops to the hoods. Leave the bartops bare. Leave the barend caps off.
9. If your spokes are painted, sand them down to bare metal
10. Buy used brake pads and sand them down with a belt/disc sander until only 10% of the friction material is left.
11. Ask a loyal friend to bike in front of you with an electric bike, and have him carry the water and supplies.

Really? Or maybe you forgot to re-read the post. Fitness and training are a NON-ISSUE. I am merely asking a question of how to shave a little extra weight. I am aware on the BIGGEST factor being the "engine." But I did not direct my question towards that.

You can't have a lighter bike until you are the ideal weight yourself. There is your motivation. Until then, suffer.

Maybe I could just run?

So much negativity...

I find my thoughts to be inspiring. Works for me. I'm losing weight and saving money.

Absolutley

Everyone can point and laugh because I personally still have plenty of weight to loose. But I wanted a second wheel for dedicated trainer use, so I was in the market for something. I ended up demoting my current wheels for the trainer use and got some take offs from the top of the line allez to use as my normal wheels. Compared to my stock setup these are the cost and weight savings.

The big weight savings for me was the conti tires versus the stock ones, cost $65.
310 grams each stock to 205.... saved 210 grams
Then I got ultralight tubes, $20
119 grams each stock to 55 each... saved 128 grams
Decided to go with velo plugs instead of rim tape, $13
19 grams each strip to 5 grams per wheel... saved 28 grams
Then picked up a dura-ace cassette off ebay for dirt cheap, $45
270 grams stock to 170 grams.... saved 100 grams.

466 grams savings in for a total of $143.

I could have gotten them set for half the money with no weight savings, but I figured why not try and make them lighter?

I wanted to be a weight weenie, but it's just too damn expensive. I could probably cut some pounds from myself, but I don't race. At 5' 7.25" and 140 pounds which puts me right in the middle of normal on the BMI scale. Plus I bike for the fun and fitness... which means I can sometimes eat unhealthily and not worry about the consequences as much.

I'm happy with my 18 pound bike. The only thing I think I'd want to change are the cranks. I feel like they aren't stiff enough... and shifting isn't too good.

For a while I wanted to swap out pedals to eggbeaters to save weight. But that meant I'd have to get new shoes... It just wasn't worth the extra cost. I've decided that my bike is good enough for me and if I want to get faster to start some real training.