Laurence--Trials Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Since no one awnsered my questions on the the superlight weight dude's topic i made this.. How safe is it to drill the seat tube? and how safe is it to cut out the middle section on your pedals? Also whats the best way i should cut my headtube? drill and then file? or just lots of drills? any other ways? i dont have a milling machine. Obviously it will effect the strength but how much exactly? I've got a because trial-simple 24" frame 1.9kg at the moment no modifications, fairly strong, i'm a light rider at 58kg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradJohnson Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Safer way to save weight is just change your BB to Ti, you would save more weight. Drilling the frame would barely take 100g off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Dark Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 (edited) How much it affects the strength is really controlled by how far you go with your " mods " A simple headtube cut as round on the echo pure 2011 and nicely finished I can't really see breaking...Whatever you do, make sure you stay well away from the welds, and finish it all off with as bigger radius in the corners as possible to help minimise stress risers.I I cut my bionic headtube out with a drill and angle grinder... basically get the rough shape you want and finish carefully with files, then coarse sandpaper...then something like 320 W+DI really wouldn't bother with the seat tubes....or any tubing. the amount of weight there you can save is just ridiculously small compared to the CNC chunks ( wall thickness of the seat tube might be 1.6mm, whereas on the headtube it could be up to 4mmCutting the middle section of your pedals is going to depend what pedals you have, and whether you have good quality sealed bearings,On older mod frames with bash plates you could trim maybe 200gr off, but with something like your because or that echo the possible amount of weight to be saved is fairly minimal! Very picture heavy, but below are some mods I did to my old B4r Edit: and this one I like for some reason? Edited July 23, 2012 by Alex Dark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narrowbars Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 You'd save more weight by stripping the paint / sandblasting the frame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CalRobbo341 Posted July 24, 2012 Report Share Posted July 24, 2012 How much it affects the strength is really controlled by how far you go with your " mods " A simple headtube cut as round on the echo pure 2011 and nicely finished I can't really see breaking...Whatever you do, make sure you stay well away from the welds, and finish it all off with as bigger radius in the corners as possible to help minimise stress risers.I I cut my bionic headtube out with a drill and angle grinder... basically get the rough shape you want and finish carefully with files, then coarse sandpaper...then something like 320 W+DI really wouldn't bother with the seat tubes....or any tubing. the amount of weight there you can save is just ridiculously small compared to the CNC chunks ( wall thickness of the seat tube might be 1.6mm, whereas on the headtube it could be up to 4mmCutting the middle section of your pedals is going to depend what pedals you have, and whether you have good quality sealed bearings,On older mod frames with bash plates you could trim maybe 200gr off, but with something like your because or that echo the possible amount of weight to be saved is fairly minimal! Very picture heavy, but below are some mods I did to my old B4r Edit: and this one I like for some reason? Boggles me how clean and nice yours looks! Got a grinding disc yday and attempted to clean it up a little, also used an old file and not sandpaper / wet & dry.. Pictures - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trials-Mikey Posted July 24, 2012 Report Share Posted July 24, 2012 Also whats the best way i should cut my headtube? drill and then file? or just lots of drills? any other ways? i dont have a milling machine. buy a dremel from bnq for around £30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake. Posted July 24, 2012 Report Share Posted July 24, 2012 I wouldn't really bother with your frame Laurence, if you wanted to save weight from the frame the best way to do it is get a new frame that's not a because. The other trials 24" frames are all around 1400-1500g. You'd knock off 100g at the most if you're lucky worth doing the headtube though, the seat tube and pedals seem a bit more risky in my opinion, but I've never done it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurence--Trials Posted July 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2012 Spoke to a guy about the headtube and he said it has a friend who does milling and he could do it properly for me. Then i showed him benito's headtube and asked if he could do it like that, and he can.. so WIN! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake. Posted July 24, 2012 Report Share Posted July 24, 2012 That looks sick. Make sure you don't put some ridiculous stickers on the steerer tube though? Haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ogre Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 my vote is for steerer tube boobies 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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