Building The Lightest Bike

[t33zr]

I realy want to build the lightest bike thats posible.....

Only the lightest parts...

So i wonder... has anyone done this before?? What was the total weight of the bike?

My list so far:

Frame: Marco Hoesel Promodel - 1550 Gr.

Cranks: Monty TI isis 158mm - 375 Gr.

BB: Try-All isis - 268 Gr.

Front Rim: Monty TI - 402 Gr.

Rear Rim: Monty TI - 427 Gr.

Fork: Try-All - 735 Gr. <- Maybee lighter.....uncut steerer

Stem: Monty 221 TI - 186 Gr.

[Christophe']

I built a px mk2 up about 5 years ago that weighed 19 pounds.

That was a full 26 inch bike not 20.

We assume u want to build a 20?

For spokes it has to Sapim cx rays, very strong and as light as ti spokes

they will set you back around £130 pounds for two wheels.

go for it

[Tomm]

It depends how stupid you want to go. For example - are you gonna have a front disc? Magura? Even maguras are a decent amount heavier (~ 100g) than some Vees. I'm not sure what mod forks there are that are stupidly light, but on 26" you used to be able to get forks that are about 550g, made by USE. And types - again I'm not sure for mods but for stocks you can get sub 500g tyres easily. Oh, and don't forget to drill everything in site.

Of course all these things are stupid if you actually plan to ride the bike.

Sensible suggestion - Latex inner tubes. They're much lighter than normal ones (about 100g lighter per wheel) and they're OK. When they puncture they tend to go kaboom and need replacing, and they ARE several times more expensive than normal tubes, but I get the impression you're not too bothered about cost.

[Christophe']

It depends how stupid you want to go. For example - are you gonna have a front disc? Magura? Even maguras are a decent amount heavier (~ 100g) than some Vees. I'm not sure what mod forks there are that are stupidly light, but on 26" you used to be able to get forks that are about 550g, made by USE. And types - again I'm not sure for mods but for stocks you can get sub 500g tyres easily. Oh, and don't forget to drill everything in site.

Of course all these things are stupid if you actually plan to ride the bike.

Sensible suggestion - Latex inner tubes. They're much lighter than normal ones (about 100g lighter per wheel) and they're OK. When they puncture they tend to go kaboom and need replacing, and they ARE several times more expensive than normal tubes, but I get the impression you're not too bothered about cost.

Yer, Air B are very good

[ogre]

freehub + fixed tooth joby up front, or ffw and fixed rear?

f.f.w

Monty 179g

or

Tryall 179g

Rear hub

deng fixed 220g (doesn't need a sprcoket)

= 399g

freehub

king 292g

18t sprocket

echo 67g

= 359g

CK rear *** apparently

[Shaun H]

Titanium bottom bracket Thought that'd be an obvious one, not a Try-All piece of junk.

The options on a mod are so much smaller than on a stock when saving weight...

There's Ti spokes but they're MEGA bucks. Ti rotor. Aorta ti bashguard. Onza CF handlebars. 4-bolt drilled XTR carbon booster. CF top cap. RB levers. Ti King headset.

Ti/alloy bolts throughout.

LIGHT.

[Ali C]

titanium bashes and headsets are heavier than alloy ones.

another vote goes to a ti bb, I had an fsa one for a year and it was great.

[Shaun H]

titanium bashes and headsets are heavier than alloy ones.

another vote goes to a ti bb, I had an fsa one for a year and it was great.

Didn't know bashes were, thought they were made much thinner and therefore were lighter.

Meeeeeeeeeh, this is gonna cost you aloooooot of money Teezr.

[Waddy]

There's Ti spokes but they're MEGA bucks. as someone said sapim cx spokes are just as light and steel, i think dt do some simalar, revolutions or somthing

Ti rotor. an alloy one woud be lighter, could try and get an old megamo one

Aorta ti bashguard. although its titanium, most aluminium bashguards are lighter, and seeing as though hes geting an xtp he wont need a bashring

Onza CF handlebars. not that light zoo bars are lighter, and monty bars are lighter than them

4-bolt drilled XTR carbon booster no booster at all is even less weight.

CF top cap. alloy ones are usually lighter, well an alloy one is less weight in the case of the tensile ace's carbon top cap

Ti King headset. is heavier than the standard aluminium one, or so iv been told

as you are getting monty rims, you could file the square holes out bigger, saving abit of weight, and strip the paint off. if you get wellgo mg-1 pedals with a ti axel,they weigh somthing like 150g each . if you get a king, ti bolts would save alot of weight, and prehaps a ti singlespeed cog. alloy crank bolts, foam grips,

[Shaun H]

as you are getting monty rims, you could file the square holes out bigger, saving abit of weight, and strip the paint off. if you get wellgo mg-1 pedals with a ti axel,they weigh somthing like 150g each . if you get a king, ti bolts would save alot of weight, and prehaps a ti singlespeed cog. alloy crank bolts, foam grips,

I wouldn't trust steel spokes which are as light as titanium ones. The DT ones are the Revolutions, and they're only recomended for super light XC use. An alloy rotor would need intermittent replacing to prevent breakage. The Onza bars are 2g heavier but an inch wider, and the Montys are very short comparitively... Suppose no booster will be ok on an XTP. A PROPER CF top cap will be lighter although they're hard to fine, most seem to be alloy with an insert which just seems pointless to me... King headset, fair enough I guess.

Just thought - could get some of those Abant rims, which come with square holes already.

[Al_Fel]

Ask TRA for a cup of his sweat then down it and you won't need a light bike.

[Tomm]

4-bolt drilled XTR carbon booster.

No booster

[poopipe]

don't run a front brake - thats gotta be a pound or so saved

?

[Endohopper]

Obviously remove valve caps and shorten the chain right up to the point that it doesn't stress the hub body . Foam grips and a cut down chainstay skin . Also , if you frequently inspect / tighten your headset there's really no need for a headset cap , as the pinch bolts on the stem will keep the whole thing compressed .

[ogre]

carbon fibre bolts

[Oskar]

light tires and tubes - easiest way to lighten up the bike.

[ogre]

crank bro's new bb?

[ScotchDave]

Use a thinner lighter chain if you want, but keep an eye on it.

[Davetrials]

those really stupid thin tubes you can get...

wellgo pedals, summet daft like 60g or summet.

front rear magura disc's with all the fancy carbon bits

FULL!!!!!!! ti bolt kit, all the bike that makes a lot of difference,

get that bash plate drilled

foam grips

do u ACTUALY have the money for all this?

[Ben Cox]

gotta get some titanium holes on there matey

[boon racoon]

talk to jon fisher (quick_spider) about lightness.

light bits:

> steinbach forks are the lightest you can get. look them up.

> geax tyres (the old skool greenwall ones. but the newer ones should be light)

> american classic micro 68 front hub (careful!) or one of the really old hope mono superlights

> vp pedals with the inner cage taken out

Edited May 15, 2007 by the boon

[N.Wood]

A PROPER CF top cap will be lighter although they're hard to fine, most seem to be alloy with an insert which just seems pointless to me... King headset, fair enough I guess.

Or...

Just don't use a top cap.

When you fit the forks use any old steel one, tighten the clamp and remove the top cap.

Get a light chain, and about 40 of them so you can change them every week.

[ben_travis]

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/

[mods]

fill your tires with helium instead of air

[Zordon]

Remove the bashplate and machine down the frame mounts dedicated for bashplate. Bashplate toghether with rubber, bolts, and frame mounts are approx. 200g while you can have bashrings starting from 30-40g. That makes a big difference. Additionally, without bashplate the frame will last longer.

For the front wheel you can buy an Abant front one. The front is something like 5xx grams (and it can still be lowered by replacing that rim with an old echo '05 rim that weighs 330-360 only).

Rear Abant is also rediculously light - about 720g. However, you should bear in mind those are disc-only rims.

If you choose to get Abants then get Magura Martas 273g complete front, 287g complete rear (alloy rotors, maybe there are even lighter replacement alloy rotors on the market).

You could also try to get some superlight xc/road cranks and machine it down to use freewhel/sprocket. Currently I am doing it with Shimano Lx Octalink. Arms with spider are 415g only (175mm). After machining it down they will probably be under 400g and you get a very stiff hollowtech crank. And there are for sure much lighter cranks on the market. If you found some isis "machineable" light crank it would be even better as octalink bottom bracket are made in 99% by shimano and they aren't so light (210-280g). As for isis ones bottom brackets can be much lighter (150g).

Run foam grips shortened to the max. They usually are 20g a pair while rubber grips are closer to 100g.

Chain - Kmc superlite

Pedals - damn hard to find but I saw on some asian website wellgo magnesium pedals with titanium axles. They were 300-330g. If you don't find them, there are Dmr v2 magnesium pedals with titanium axles available aswell weighing not much more.

Front tyre - try some bmx one. Surly you can find some weighing under 500g.

Rear tyre - old Monty tyre '05 with yellow strips was 920g only.

Not sure if i'm correct but didn't Triton made a 1200g titanium mod frame?