MTB bike weight

[AMid]

Evening all, Fairly new to forums. Be gentle ????

A riding buddy has a query:

 

How much does MTB bike weight affect/matter to the general intermediate rider ? More cross country / marathon type riding mainly.

 

My mate is in the market for a new bike, He's a large human at 6ft4 & 103kgs and a budget limiting him to aluminium frames only.

 

He recons he could drop a further 5-8kgs personally. Some people advising carbon / some aluminum.

 

Would he notice much difference?

[BaGearA]

If he wants to buy carbon , buy a santa cruz 

 

 

biggest upgrade he will 'feel' is probably wheels , however at that weight he needs to strike a good balance between weight and strength ....which is going to be expensive 

 

again look at santa cruz reserve rims 

[Rudi Pretorius]

Nothing wrong with a aluminum bike....my Sola 1 weighing in at 11.9kg's.

Not all carbon bikes are lite.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Rudi Pretorius

[Pieter1]

Nothing wrong with a aluminum bike....my Sola 1 weighing in at 11.9kg's.

Not all carbon bike are lite.

True. My Carbonish bike weighs around 16kg. Nothing wrong with alu.

[Grease_Monkey]

I'm also a heavier guy. And you will feel the difference in bike weight as much as anyone else. A lighter bike probably won't make him any faster as overall system weight (rider + bike) is going to be very heavy regardless of the bike. But lighter bike are more manouverable and you do feel it on climbs.

 

What matters more than that though is stiffness. As a heavy guy lightweight parts flex more than with lighter riders. An XC bike with a 34mm fork instead of a 32mm will be a bit heavier, but will feel more solid. Cheap alu rims will flex, quality alu or carbon rims will be more solid. So a little extra weight in the right places will be more beneficial than going for the lightest parts possible.

 

For me, stiffness matters more than weight (to a point, don't go buy an Enduro bike to ride XC).

 

As an example, my bike (an enduro bike so not completely relavent here) has an alu frame with every other bit being carbon. I have owned a number of alu frames and carbon frames - in my experience I can feel the difference in carbon components more than a carbon frame. What I am trying to say is that your friend should not necesarilly see an alu frame as a bad thing as long as it is a quality alu frame. If he wants to save weight on the bike start with some quality alu rims or carbon if budget allows, then move onto other components. But as a heavy guy he should focus firstly on buying something solid and stiff, that is going to impact ride quality more than weight.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Grease_Monkey

[Me rida my bicycle]

I am 5ft9 and just under 100kg. I prefer HT as I don't lose power bobbing around, giving my riding buddies are all fit strong riders and south of 85kg I need every little advantage to keep up.

Nr 1 good wheels find the right ballance between weight and strength, I like the Lyne AMP30 v1 or pulse 30 have a set of Flow mk3 on hope not bad at all but little heavy and overkill in my opinion.

Good tyre's I have never had a issue with Maxxis EXO sidewalls.

A good fork I wind Fox more forgiving to heavy riders than Rockshox but playing around with volume spacers and pressure Rockshox can also be improved.

Lastly at his length a dropper post will make a world of difference.

 

Carbon is not always about weight, there's a lot more to it. I ride carbon for ride quality and strength. I have owned a number of the same bikes in carbon and alu and thou the weight was not a massive difference the ride was and you could feel it from the moment you got on.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Me rida my bicycle

[DieselnDust]

Evening all, Fairly new to forums. Be gentle

A riding buddy has a query:

 

How much does MTB bike weight affect/matter to the general intermediate rider ? More cross country / marathon type riding mainly.

 

My mate is in the market for a new bike, He's a large human at 6ft4 & 103kgs and a budget limiting him to aluminium frames only.

 

He recons he could drop a further 5-8kgs personally. Some people advising carbon / some aluminum.

 

Would he notice much difference?

 

 

I think you've got some good advice thus far.

 

What does intermediate rider mean in terms of your friends riding ability? I'm assming that at 103kg he'scloser to a 5hr Trailseeker rider than sub 3h30?

 

If that's the case then I'm going to say that stiff strong wheels would be the place to lose weight off the bike.

Bike frame wise a carbon frame may be a stiffer option but not necessarily. Some Alloy frames in the intermediate price bracket are stiffer than the carbon equivalents. I would not fret teh frame material too much but rather opt for a good bike.

In the mid range I'd say the

Giant Anthem  2 

 

Giant Trance 2

 

silverback stratos

 

titan Racing cypher

[NotSoBigBen]

I would posit that bike weight isn't critical (within reason) for even more advanced riders unless you are at the 'pointy end of the field' to coin a phrase and want to win. It should not be the overriding factor, lots of good advice from others regarding bike/equipment choices here already.

[SwissVan]

It’s not about the bike

Just look at the race results or big group rides

There you will find plenty of carbon upper range bikes at both ends ( first and last ).

 

Buy the best u can afford and then look at upgrading components gradually, starting with the wheels which are important for a heavy rider

[MORNE]

or buy a steel bike....stop worrying about weight (because they are comparatively heavy AF) and start considering comfort (and street cred)  instead?

 

smoooooov....

Edited May 28, 2020 by morneS555

[Myth]

In my opinion, rather buy a bike with a good groupset and wheels, rather than focusing on the frame.  I concur with the other comments - I have had Alu and Carbon bikes and have had crappy and good wheels...the largest difference in feel comes from the wheelset.  And here the difference can be attributed both in weight and in stiffness (or flex).

 

In terms of groupsets - mid-range groupsets just perform so much better (especially once components have started to wear) than entry-level groupsets - both in terms of shifting and braking performance.

 

So if it was my money I would buy the bike with the best wheels and groupset in the price-range I am willing to pay - the frame would be good enough (irrespective of being carbon, Alu or even steel).

 

Unless you have a lot of dough to spend - then the upper end frames do actually also feel a bit different, but I'm talking Hi-mod carbon here, which  is usually out of most people's league.

 

Cheers...

Edited May 28, 2020 by myth125

[T-Bob]

Some off my fav' bikes have been Alu / Steel but steel is definitely a heft if it's XC / Mara' he's looking at. That said there are alot of bad carbon frames out there and there are alot of good Alu' frames. My carbon frame is pretty damn burly but I didn't buy it for weight. Same reason if I buy carbon hoops its for the feel, compliance and ride (and a lifetime warranty which you just don't get Flows!)

 

Look at the bike as a whole, quality of components, frame and everything and go for the best you can. Or... look at custom build, score a good frame in the classifieds, and grab the bits you want to fit in your budget. It might be a bit more at first (it always is!) but you won't be looking to upgrade a base level SX cassette or tyres or other dodgy part couple of months down the line. 

 

There are a lot of upgrades that can make lot of difference to bring your weight down if you want to shave the grams but the biggest and easiest is to drop the weight off the body. Hands down the most you can loose and the cheapest! 

 

I dropped from 86kgs to 72kgs when I got sick a few years back. Didn't ride for 6 months, first time back on the bike I did an easy ride on a normal loop and beat my strava time easily. 

[Myth]

Agreed T-Bob...I've personally found the tube around the middle makes the biggest difference to performance - dropping 12kg from my body saved me almost 30 mins on the 947 using the same bike.  So bike weight is pretty much insignificant factor in the bigger scheme of things for us as amateurs.

[TNT1]

I would posit that bike weight isn't critical (within reason) for even more advanced riders unless you are at the 'pointy end of the field' to coin a phrase and want to win. It should not be the overriding factor, lots of good advice from others regarding bike/equipment choices here already.

So, I returned to racing about 18 months ago after many moons of just riding and training for enjoyment.

 

I am racing on a new weapon which comes in at 6.5kg's and out of the handful of races I did, I have a handful of podiums, so I will agree with that. 

 

But, my training methods have changed, my race preparation and selection has changed to suit my talents more, and my body weight has increased (by conscious decision - and said training changes) by about 2.5 kg's from my prior racing days. 

 

So which is the winner? The bike or the training?

 

(Also, I'm talking road here, but weight is weight, right?)

Edited May 28, 2020 by TNT1

[Grease_Monkey]

Agreed T-Bob...I've personally found the tube around the middle makes the biggest difference to performance - dropping 12kg from my body saved me almost 30 mins on the 947 using the same bike.  So bike weight is pretty much insignificant factor in the bigger scheme of things for us as amateurs.

 

I agree wholeheartedly with everything you say about body weight. I used to race (a long time ago) at 80kg, I am now just north of 100kg. Sure, body weight is going to save you significant amounts of time if you look at it from a racing context. It is also drastically going to impact how much you enjoy riding.

 

But, bike weight is significant for reasons other than time on a Strava segment or race for anyone, regardless of whether they are amateur or pro. I'm not going to advocate for big guys buying lightweight bikes, actually quite the opposite - but the weight does make a difference in they way a bike rides. I have a carbon XC bike that is sub 12kg, and I have an enduro bike that is around 16kg - and that 4kg makes a significant difference even to a big guy (non-withstanding geo, component choice, etc).

 

Anyway, I'm not necessarily arguing with you, I just want to raise the point that weight matters in more ways than just speed/time. And that for a heavy guy, an ultra lightweight bike may not be such a good thing.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Grease_Monkey

[MTB-More]

So when I started to cycle I was 147kg and 192cm in length so quite a big fattie

 

HT is the way to go. Alu is the way to go. You can get pretty much any bike as long as it has heavy duty wheels. I back then bought Mavic Crossrides for R3000 new to put on my Titan Expert that subsequently transfered to my Scott and my Merida and my Rocky I have today. 

 

After 3 years down to 115kg and can tell you the biggest win was propper wheels that dont break. Had Fulcrums as I got lighter and then now running DT Swiss X1700 Spline 2 for the past 2 years and wheels probably makes the biggst difference out of any upgrade. 

 

The lighter the wheels the quicker you accelerate so up down up down on a MTB its makes a diffirence. Heavy wheels are more durable and have a nice enertia when you get up to speed. Up down efforts you can feel the suffer start quite quick.

 

What I found though is that "poephol" on the seats weight is a much bigger problem than the weight of the bike. Losing 5kg on the "poephol" on the seat is a lot cheaper than losing 1kg on a bike too and makes a lasting difirence.

 

my 2c