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Making My Bike Lighter


mrs dj

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hey, I was just wondering what I could do to make my bike lighter.

I find it really hard to do small things on my bike that I can do on mods. I don't want to swap my bike because I love it so I thought I would ask as you lot will have more ideas than i do. (and remember to explain it in simple terms cos i'm a trials retard) :( thank you

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Get some lighter component's silly, carbon fibre and titanium are the best thing's to go for, but they do come with a hefty price tag. Alternately you could go to the gym and get buff, then everything would seem light.

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if u buy some new bars, wider and lighter eg the pazzaz/onza/eastern whatever u fancy. wider bars can make the whole bike feel lighter, perhaps change the front rim to something like an XC717, light yet strong (changing rims is expensive though) drilled rims would probs be lighter too.

get one of those push in saddles instead of a proper one.

go single speed, get rid of shifter and ur cassette block.

dont ever ride a mod again!! get used to your own bike and i reckon itll help u more than changing any components.

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You could..

Drill the rims

Drill the saddle ( if you have a plastic one)

Carbonfiber bars and stem

Tires can make a difference if you run maxxis they are heavy

Latex tubes

Thats all i can think of.

Sam

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I think the main problem isn't your bike, trials (IMO) is 98% technique, the better your technique the easier the bike will become to ride.

Mods are always easier to do things on, little wheels etc. So what i would suggest is just get out as much as you can and practise, bike weight will become less and less of an issue as you get better.

:(

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Get out a drill!!

And do the chai!

Drill anything you can: rims, bashplate(bash ring), saddle, forks, frame, cranks (lol, imagine cranks with holes :( )

And after all that, if its still too heavy...take out all your spokes intil you have four either side, so 8 in total. May be a tiny, winsy loss of strength...but hey!

Inspired by Andrew Chai

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Frame - Leave it alone.

Forks - Getting lighter forks (Fatty Rs) will reduce some front end weight makeing th bike easier to control on the back wheel.

Wheels - Wide rims = weight but more stability, slightly narrower rims (mavic ex721) will make your bike lighter and still very strong.

Expensive hubs will also make your bike significantly lighter but I woudnt worry to much about that at this stage to be honest.

Tyres - Michelin Hot s, grippy in the dry, very light, puncture resistance ok-ish.

Cranks/BB - Lighter cranks will also bring the weight down. Middleburns may not be that light but the weight to strength ratio is excelent.

Misc parts (it all adds up) - Ally headset, remove the little springs in your QRs, drill rims, lighter inner tube in the front, disk brakes weight quite a bit and so do maggies so run a V up front, Ti QR levers, ti bash ring.

Bout all that I can thnk of that will drop some weight :(

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I think you could get away with running super light tyres and inner tubes, seeing as you're probably a lot lighter than most of the guys on here..

Tioga make some light innertubes, and they don't cost that much money. Michelin Hot-S tyres (or Mountain Extreme, which is the new name I think) may shed some weight off the bike.

I saved about 300 grams on inner tubes by changing to Tioga Superlights, and no punctures yet...

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Hey Em.

Out of the things on your bike i would think the front wheel and forks would probably make the whole thing feel fairly heavy. My old 521 on deore you have is pretty heavy for a front wheel although the tyre (mich hot s) is nice and light. The forks (onza tuf guys) are also fairly heavy and would give you a bit of scope to save some weight. The bar and stem (echo) arent particularly heavy so i wouldnt change those.

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Hey my luvli,

I personally think you should attach helium balloons all over your bike, then it will def feel lighter :P I'm just being silly so ignore what I said and stick to the people who know what they are talking about hehe ^_^

:D :wub: Love you :wub: :wub: (Y)

Edited by Charlotte_P
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Simply changing the geo of the bike can also help - longer/shorter stem, rise of the stem, wider bars, crank length, harness of the gear. Obviously the frame geo is a major one, but a fairly pricey thing to change at the same time.

Hope this helps a little.

Mark

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I think the main problem isn't your bike, trials (IMO) is 98% technique, the better your technique the easier the bike will become to ride.

:P

A light bike will make it easier, like me Em is only a begginner, so she's not gonna be wanting to spend weeks of very boring practise refining her technique on things.

Lighter gear, if you run gears, singlespeed is good, lightest tyres you can find, especially on the front, light tubes, get a short stem as well, will really help getting the front end up :D.

Edited by rich4130
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Ah shut up, a light bike will make it easier, and you know Em is only a begginner, so she's not gonna be wanting to spend weeks of very boring practise refining her technique on things.

Well having a lighter bike isn't going to make it harder but, i'm just saying when i was a beginner i was fixated on making my bike as light as possible, dosn't make a real difference. My mate has a t-pro 03, with heavy components (basic onza components) and he is better than me even though we started at the same time.

I just don't think it's important.

And thankyou for edditing your post :D :P

Edited by JT!
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it is all in your head, a light bike doesn't physically make riding that much easier.

but trials is all about the mind anyway, so a lighter bike does improve the learning speed and et cetera.. It's all about placebo.

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its all about placebo? isn't that a band >_<

Thank you for all the suggestions.... I'll go with what Andy said as he knows my bike pretty well and I will put helium balloons on just for charlotte x

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