The_Break Posted February 19, 2008 Share Ok guys. Serious question. Everyone is going on about how light this frame is and how light that frame is and so on and so on, but how many of us truly understand when a frame is too light in that it takes away the potential to make a bike as good and efficient as it can be. I have done a wack of research regarding building the ultimate bike using the currently market parts and have come up with some very surprizing results that show that buying the markets lightest frames may indeed not be the best thing for your racing. And I am not referring to just one aspect such as stiffness, but overall. Anyway, I am interested to hear what everyone has to say about this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sungun25 Posted February 20, 2008 Share can you share your insights in the meantime? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christie Posted February 20, 2008 Share In one of last year's Procyclings, they had a 3.8kg hill climb bike - Crumpton frame, Zipp 202 rims, single sprocket at the back. Bike was built to be raced on hillclimbs, not as a show bike. For a normal road bike, a build in the region of 5kg should be possible, for a lot of money. Dilberts real weight weenie build will be:Frame: Scott Addict (custom mod seat clamp, though) /Cervero R3 SL / Stork Fascenario Components: Clavicula cranks, Fibre-lite chain rings, Schmolke bar & stem, Lew rims, Tune hubs, AX-lightness brake calipers & one of those one-pice carbon sadddle/seatpost combos. Perhaps a Tiso casette & do all the bolts with a Ti bolt kit. Shifters could be either Record or Red. Pedals will be Speed Play Nanograms. Tires - Tufo Elite Jets. This should be a fairly light, and set you back well over R100k (or pehaps more). Would be interesting to see how far under 6kgs it will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreZA Posted February 20, 2008 Share In one of last year's Procyclings' date=' they had a 3.8kg hill climb bike - Crumpton frame, Zipp 202 rims, single sprocket at the back. Bike was built to be raced on hillclimbs, not as a show bike. For a normal road bike, a build in the region of 5kg should be possible, for a lot of money. Dilberts real weight weenie build will be:Frame: Scott Addict (custom mod seat clamp, though) /Cervero R3 SL / Stork Fascenario Components: Clavicula cranks, Fibre-lite chain rings, Schmolke bar & stem, Lew rims, Tune hubs, AX-lightness brake calipers & one of those one-pice carbon sadddle/seatpost combos. Perhaps a Tiso casette & do all the bolts with a Ti bolt kit. Shifters could be either Record or Red. Pedals will be Speed Play Nanograms. Tires - Tufo Elite Jets. This should be a fairly light, and set you back well over R100k (or pehaps more). Would be interesting to see how far under 6kgs it will be.[/quote'] then plug all the holes abd fill it with hellium aswell as the tyres. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edition 507 Posted February 20, 2008 Share In one of last year's Procyclings' date=' they had a 3.8kg hill climb bike - Crumpton frame, Zipp 202 rims, single sprocket at the back. Bike was built to be raced on hillclimbs, not as a show bike. For a normal road bike, a build in the region of 5kg should be possible, for a lot of money. Dilberts real weight weenie build will be:Frame: Scott Addict (custom mod seat clamp, though) /Cervero R3 SL / Stork Fascenario Components: Clavicula cranks, Fibre-lite chain rings, Schmolke bar & stem, Lew rims, Tune hubs, AX-lightness brake calipers & one of those one-pice carbon sadddle/seatpost combos. Perhaps a Tiso casette & do all the bolts with a Ti bolt kit. Shifters could be either Record or Red. Pedals will be Speed Play Nanograms. Tires - Tufo Elite Jets. This should be a fairly light, and set you back well over R100k (or pehaps more). Would be interesting to see how far under 6kgs it will be.[/quote'] You know your stuff hey Christie!! Good choice but I would also consider a Ghisallo @765g with THM-Carbones Scapula SP "Tuned" forks @230g Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niterider Posted February 20, 2008 Share In Cape Town if your bike is too light you get blown off in the South Easter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Break Posted February 20, 2008 Share Ok, but what I mean is a race legal bike. 6.8kg. What everyone is trying to buy on their "limited budget", but what they may not be getting the best advice on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christie Posted February 20, 2008 Share Good choice but I would also consider a Ghisallo @765g with THM-Carbones Scapula SP "Tuned" forks @230g The frames I listed all have very good to excellent BB stiffness. The Ghisallo test I saw (must admit it was a year ago) showed a very flexable BB. Will work for a small rider, perhaps not a big sprinter. Bigger guys should look at the Vortex. Agree on the Scapula fork, definately worth a look, the Reynolds forks they used to sell Litespeeds with were not realy cutting edge. Last I saw they sold them with Easton EC90 SLX's. Nice light fork, but I dont think it can match the stiffness of a Scapula. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Break Posted February 20, 2008 Share You guys are off the topic. Ok, let's ask it slightly differently. If you currently had a 7.4kg non-top-of-the-range-frame (but excellent stiffness) set-up would you rather choose to lighten the frame or other components on the bike such as pedals, cranks, wheels, etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
word Posted February 20, 2008 Share You guys are off the topic. Ok' date=' let's ask it slightly differently. If you currently had a 7.4kg non-top-of-the-range-frame (but excellent stiffness) set-up would you rather choose to lighten the frame or other components on the bike such as pedals, cranks, wheels, etc?[/quote'] I would chose to lighten the rider - could do with losing about 2 kgs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christie Posted February 20, 2008 Share If you currently had a 7.4kg non-top-of-the-range-frame (but excellent stiffness) set-up would you rather choose to lighten the frame or other components on the bike such as pedals' date=' cranks, wheels, etc?[/quote'] In most pro bikes, which all have to weigh around 7kg's, the frame only makes up about 1kg of the total. More weight can be shed on components than on the frame, but expect to pay big $$$ for uber light components. I would look at wheels & saddle first for upgrading. Christie2008-02-20 07:46:18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Break Posted February 20, 2008 Share Wheels I would agree with. Would choose a pair that took its weight off of the rims rather than the hubs though. Saddle, I wouldn't change until last. Unless of course it caused extra weight from the saddle sores it gave me. Ok, let's say we take 200grams off for the wheels. That leaves us with. 7.2kg. Saddle sores not included. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christie Posted February 20, 2008 Share What wheels are we starting with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Break Posted February 20, 2008 Share Ok, real life scenario. Cervelo Soloist carbon frame, fork and seatpost (frame heavy in comp to lightest frames), full dura ace groupset, campy bora ultra wheelset (1305g - tubbies naturally), campy competition tubbies, selle san marco aspide fx saddle (180g), ITM wingshape handle bars, ITM stem, carbon bottle cages (40g), Shimano magnesium pedals (182.5g per pedal). Full bike mass = 7.35kg. Everyone told me to buy a lighter frame. After all my research I found that having the heavy frame was actually a blessing as I could get down to 6.8kg by spending R13,000. Cheaper than any frame that could knock that mass off and I will get some very cool technology on the bike that gave me free speed and the mass was taken off in areas that actually was the equivalent of taking about 900g off of the frame. That is big. Added to this I get to keep the aerodynamic advantages as well as the super stiffness that helps climbing, sprinting and good handling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudsimus Posted February 20, 2008 Share Can you ride that thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Break Posted February 20, 2008 Share Only when my insurance company opens its vault, give the secret code to the four armed guards and tranquilizes the 16 rottweilers. I normally get an armed escort with air support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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