Bike Weight Post

In the last anorexic bike update, I discussed how the gram scale was lost, so the change to the carbon FSA bar and the Control Tech skewers were "noticeably" lighter by feel and that I was happy with them.  Tonight, after the shop ride, I threw my bike in the stand and after cleaning the chain, I decided to weigh it.




If you go back further, you may remember me outlining how I was going to get the bike down to 17lbs even with the PowerTap wheels by replacing the stem and saddle with lighter versions, lighter skewers, lighter tubes and tires and the lighter bottle cages, as well as some lighter hardware.  All of that would get me down to 17lbs even and then by building up a stupid light weight set of wheels, I would drop down to 16lbs and all would be right with the world.  Well, after changing just the cages (which added 2g) skewers and switching to the carbon bar (unplanned weight savings) my bike weighs 17lbs even.  Apparently, I suck at guessing weight, in a good way.

Since I reached my goal way sooner than I had planned, I may try and get it down to 16lbs in the coming months.  My tires are at the end of their lives, so when I replace them, it will most likely be with Michelin Pro Race 4s.  The Service Course (read, second heaviest, or light weight training) tire is a claimed 200g each, which is about 35g lighter per tire than the Vredesteins I'm running right now.  They also have ridiculous grip in the wet, and since I'm not made of paper and I ride in the rain, that's appealing to me.  I was going to run 25c tires because they're super comfortable and you can run lower pressure, but I dropped my tire pressure in the 23s I'm running now to 95PSI and kept the rear at 105PSI and I've been really pleased with how well my bike rides as well as the comfort, so I'll probably go 23c again.  While I'm at it, I'll probably order 4 of the light weight tubes as well, which are 65g each.  My current tubes are 100g each, so if all the weights are close to true, that will put me at 140g savings per wheel.

But why stop there.  I hate my G3 wheels.  Hate may be a strong word, but I'm not really happy with them.  My Garmin broke, which is no fault of the wheels, but now that I can't read power, I realized that I don't care about it at all.  I never look at my power numbers from my ride, or even while I'm riding.  I think power is fantastic for training, and I will train with it again next winter, but for an every day bike, they're just heavy wheels that can't stay true.  I do like the wide rim, and it does wonders for comfort, but I could buy some Ultegra hubs and Velocity rims (the rim that Isaac and I suspect is the rim Saris is using to build their wheels) and build a lighter training wheel that is just as comfortable, more reliable and way lighter.  Would I love to build up a light weight set of King wheels?  You betcha.  Is that in the cards at the moments?  Nope.  But selling those wheels is in the cards, so if you're interested, make me an offer quick, because I'm probably going to put them on Craigslist soon, then Ebay if they don't move on Craigslist.  I'll use my old Shimano wheels in the meantime, which are over half a pound lighter any way.

The saddle I'm still up in the air about.  I have a Romin on my bike.  It is broken in and comfortable.  I have a hard time justifying buying the exact same saddle that I would have to break in all over again.  At the same time, I want it and I think, for purely cosmetic reasons, that black would be a better colour than the white saddle that I have.  Oh, and it's 100g lighter.  It's going to take something big for me to take the leap on this one.

The stem may get done just because I got a full BGfit from Isaac today (I'll write a post about it after a few more rides) and I should probably be on a 100mm stem instead of the 90mm I've been using.  So I can at least justify that to myself.  It will still have to wait, especially if I need new tires.  Unless my wheels sell, of course.

While I'm at it, I said that I would build an alloy bike to Ultegra equipped carbon bike weight for less than Ultegra equipped carbon bike money.  So, here we go...

Specialized Tarmac/Roubaix with Ultegra Retails for $3,900 and weighs 17lbs, 5oz without pedals.

Specialized Allez Frameset and Fork 56cm - $660.00
SRAM Force BB30 group - $1,320.00
PowerTap G3 Wheelset - $1,500.00
Specialized Romin Cr-Mo Saddle - $90.00
Woodman EL Seatpost - $121.00
Specialized Stem - $45.00
FSA K-Force Light Carbon Bars 42cm - $290.00
Specialized Turbo Pro Tires (x2) - $130.00
Specialized 700x23c 48mm Presta tubes (x2) - $16.00
Specialized Roubaix Bar Tape - $22.00
Jagwire Brake and Shifter cables - $60.00
Total - $4,254.00

That's $354.00 over the cost of an Ultegra carbon bike.  If you built up a set of wheels with your choice of rim, spokes, and Ultegra hubs and got an alloy bar from Zipp, you'd be at the same weight or lighter for over $1,000.00 less.  For the record, my bike also hits the 17lb mark with Speedplay pedals ($180.00 for the stainless versions) and the carbon Rib Cage bottle cages ($140.00 for both).  The Ultegra bike comes with no cages or pedals, and the bike I weighed was a 52cm.  Carbon bikes are awesome, and I love them, but you can get a much better value complete bike, with components picked just for you, and even throw in the cost of a fit to help make your decisions for certain parts, and have an absolutely amazing bike that will shame most carbon fiber bikes and fit you better from the get.