I paid $1,900 for the bike. So i felt it was a pretty good deal, and i can upgrade it later to DA crank and brakes. :D

That's an excellent deal!

You've got the 1st and 3rd most important parts: Frameset & Drivetrain.
You next upgrade (besides personalization parts like cockpit/tires/pads, etc...) should be the Wheelset.
That bike would drop to 15lbs easy (maybe 14?). But you got a decent wheelset on there now.
There's no "need" for you to upgrade.

Shifters, front & rear ders, crankset + frameset alone (w/Premium fork) would cost you $1,700.



:D

The SLK is Hollow.

Is there a difference between hollow, and hollowgram?


I do plan to upgrade once i've put some miles on the current set-up, and summer rolls around. I'm either going to upgrade the remaining parts to DA7900, or possibly sram red just to mix it up.

Then of course full carbon wheels, bars, stem. Tires will be replaced after they wear out.

Maybe i can hit 12lbs?

Exactly. i don't feel the need to upgrade it for a little while. :D

Also, all the left overs that come off this. I will be installing on my old trek, lol.

This is the saddle i'm looking at possibly getting.

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...MJB2flWg_3.jpg

My '09 Caad9 has DA7800 shifters, 6700 RD, 6600SL FD, R700 crank, 6600 cassette, 6700 chain and Tektro brakes from the '10 model with DA pads and it all did its job spectacularly going down that damn highway.

i love caad's as much as anyone (i have one), but you guys are delirious if you think you're getting the bike sub-15 without putting some serious money into this. sub-12? you probably shouldn't have started with the caad frame.

it probably comes with a SLK crank because it's a BB30 frame. Shimano doesn't make a BB30 crankset.

Exactly...My C-10 Dura Ace was 15.8lbs with a Hollowgram crank, FSA Carbon bars and Williams Carbon 38T wheels. (with pedals tho)

If you bought Yishun 38T you could of saved 0.088lb. :P
(I wont go into dura ace vs. red, lol)

I'm really not worried about weight. I'm happy with it being sub 20! Lol.

nope

Does anybody know the history of the caad 8? I recently bought one and was wondering with the popularity of the caad 9/10 why Cannondale is still producing the 8. (not that I'm complaining - I really like the bike). I thought I had read somewhere that it was "reintroduced" but maybe I'm mistaken.

The CAAD8 is an "comfort"/lower level road bike unlike the 9/10 which are performance/higher level bikes.

The CAAD8 has a higher HT(iirc) and heavier frame, non-full carbon fork(iirc as well) and starts with lower components&lower price.

"Serious money" is relative.

RBR & WWs.
Tons of sub-15lb CAADs for about $3K.
I don't consider that serious money.
My CAAD will easily hit low 15lb range at $3K.
I could get it below 15 with a Hollogram. $500.
:)

It's 17lbs right now at just over $2K with another 1.56lb drop awaiting
it with wheel swap. Then, there's the another 30g coming off with DA7900
pedals and I should see "some" grams coming off with DA7800 chainrings.

CAAD8's were introduced as detuned CAAD9's.
CAAD9's became mid-level bikes price-wise.
CAAD8's turned out to be nice bikes actually.
There's a gorgeous built-up Black C8 here.

that is obviously a matter of opinion, i have ridden both and would take my bb30 slk over DA all day..to say it's not as good is subjective.

I don't know about easily hitting 14's.

I have a 10 with Sram red except for the crank and FD.

I am running aluminum bars, stem, with a Doric seat post, a Carbon CX Arione saddle and Reynolds Attacks.

my pedals are Look Ti Carbon blades, doesn't get much lighter there.

I have Yokazuna cables (which are a little heavy) and the original chain (also a little heavy) but even with my 404 tubbies it's still 15lbs flat.

Getting sub 15 would be tough without spending another 1k and there's already 3k into the bike.

I keep wondering how many of the people who worry about few grams are pro racers. Otherwise, I just don't see why having a few more or less 100 grams matters to the regular rider. Your water bottle alone has a lot of wieght. Then add other personal belongings, including fat...

This might be blasphemy, but to me paying about $1000 per pound to decrease weight is not worth it. The CAAD seems to be a great bike, so anyone who has it can do some amazing things with it, without having to worry about the weight too much (except pro racers maybe, who have reached their limit). Otherwise, this is a disease! I actually feel better about choosing a bike based on color and style than a 1-2 lbs weight difference. If anything, I would invest in lighter wheels before I decided to spend hundreds to shave off a few grams here and there.

Well if you choose top-of-the-line components you will almost always end up at or below UCI weight (6.8kg, or 15lb).

It's almost impossible to end up with an 8kg bike or whatever. I think 6.8kg is already very very light and many people would be more than happy at that point.

Problem is a lot of times we're riding heavy frames, heavy forks and heavy wheels. All of a sudden you upgrade to a UCI illegal bike and you feel like you're in heaven.

I think that just as important as weight is balance.
A well balanced bike makes up for a little extra weight.
Me? 15lbs is a target weight because I'd like to work from the same
standards that the pros work from as some sort of reference point.

"If" I end up with a perfectly balanced bike that doesn't go below 16lbs, so be it.
Also, I wouldn't want to make a bike so light that it becomes unreliable for "me"
(a person at my weight that is).

My Trek 1.5 was a well balanced bike.
My CAAD9 didn't feel "as light" as my 19.13lb Trek until I hit 17lbs.
Even though the CAAD weighed less, the Trek "felt" lighter.
My CAAD was biased towards the front if I held it from the middle by the top tube.
The Trek was almost dead on center. The CAAD had a much heavier OEM fork & seat post.

I always laugh at fat guys that snub their noses at me for riding an aluminum frame

Just out of curiosity, why is balance important? This is the first time I've ever even heard it brought up. You don't ride a bike balanced on a finger, a bike has two contact points on the ground and a much heavier object (the rider) positioned on top of the bike which will dramatically alter the center of gravity and balance you've sought. Hell, pros even stick metal rods in their top tubes to make UCI weight regulations, so I'm curious as to why you place such importance in it?

Either way, until you're on the slopes of Ventoux or Mount Evans, weight of the bicycle has little effect. I made a big change on my CAAD going from the stock Shimano wheels to Eason EA90's. The drop in weight was about .5 pound, probably more considering I changed to GP4000 tires as well. I don't feel jack difference, even when climbing. What I do feel a difference from is bumping up my riding mileage and lengths of rides.

I think many who have posted in this thread would agree the weight obsession and tinkering is a hobby in itself as much as cycling which is cool, but as others have mentioned, let's try to keep things in perspective when extolling the virtues of 60 gram differences (about .14 pounds) in cranksets and brake sets.

Put a very heavy wheel on either side of your bike and put a very light wheel on the other side. See if you notice a difference with your bike handling when you change its weight distribution and make it uneven.

I first noticed the importance of balance in performance from working with tools.
A tool that might feel heavy when not in use, but it becomes light when being used for what it was intended for.

A 24oz bottle of water weights around 1.5 lbs. Bring one bottle instead of two and you've shaved more weight than any $1000 set of wheels.

Top tube?