Apologies in advance my pictures aren't that great since I know most people just scroll to those, but I figured I would also tell a little story. I used to run, but combined with downhill skiing my knees were really not going to last, especially as I am, let's say genetically predisposed towards heavy set. Unfortunately when I stopped running I didn't really replace the activity with anything, and gained 30 lbs. Screw that.

March of this year I bought this 2001 Trek 5500 I found on Craigslist. I got shoes, spare cleats, and a pump for $675. It has full Dura-Ace (6700?) and it needed tires and bar tape. It had blue tires on it and I didn't totally hate how it looked so I decided to go with a little "blue theme" and bought new blue tires, blue bar tape, and crappy blue Bontrager cages (I say crappy because they loved to launch bottles...) Now looking back, I don't know about the blue so much...



Found one of my dream cars on a ride...



I probably put close to 8-900 miles on it, lost 15lbs and the bug had bit. I like to "reward" myself instead of just buying things willy nilly, for example I bought a Garmin Edge 500 after my first 40mi ride. I told myself that once I lost 20lbs I would reward myself with a brand new bike, with brand new warranty.

Beginning of August I bought this Colnago Air for $2000 with some extras. This is it after my first ride



Yes, I could've gotten a lighter bike for that money, but ever since I got into it I just had a thing for Colnagos. They look the best to me and I wanted one. I also fit this bike better than the Trek so that is always nice. It is completely stock right now, but I plan on upgrading it with lighter parts as I reach whatever goals I set for myself. The current goal is a metric century. The only thing I splurged a little on are X-Labs Chimp CF bottle cages, listed as 28g. I understand they are more of a tri oriented company but they grip the bottles really well and I hate launching bottles! Love the rough roads here in Illinois... My scale is currently on loan so I didn't measure how accurate their claim is. But anyway, in the meantime I'm just riding it and enjoying. Here are a few pics from this evening. (sorry for the wrong side photos, but we all know what 105 looks like right?)







Any ideas on what a good "reward" would be for my goal? I was thinking to upgrade the wheels perhaps, but that can get expensive quickly.

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2012 Colnago Air
2012 Raleigh RX

Welcome to the forum from a fellow Illinoisan. Congratulations on your weight loss and developing good habits. The things that make the biggest impact are rotating parts. Nothing effects a bike like a great set of wheel matched with the proper tires and tubes.

Best wishes!

Juan

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-For my next trick I will set myself on fire!
-This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.
-Sticky Fingers John Rockefeller
-First one over the cliff wins!

Thanks! I actually tend to spend a fair amount of time in Chambana for my other main hobby, cars/autocrossing (with CCSCC). I might just keep planning my budget for wheels, I keep reading the WH-RS10 are heavy and go untrue quickly for heavier riders which of course I don't plan on being forever

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2012 Colnago Air
2012 Raleigh RX

Shoot me a private message next time down this way and bring a bike. I'm not an aurocross person but I do play with motorcycles.

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-For my next trick I will set myself on fire!
-This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.
-Sticky Fingers John Rockefeller
-First one over the cliff wins!

Not that I'm doing a full out weenie build (or even a "build" for that matter) but I'll post some stuff as I go along with new parts, with their weights, if anything just to have it all in one place for myself in a format I like to read

Bought a couple things to get the fitment spot on hopefully

Original stem, DEDA EL in 110mm I believe is 162g



Shorter 90mm Ritchey WSC, 120g sourced from the classifieds on here saved 42g. I also like the way the bike handles better with this, seems a little more responsive than before.



Original saddle, Colnago Z7, 308g



Was actually pretty comfortable to me, tried an Arione but didn't like it, sold it on Craigslist and on the same day ended up finding this San Marco on Craigslist coming in at 212g



On the plus side, I took my first ride on it today (18mi) and I am actually shocked at how comfortable it is. Like, really, very comfortable. I was a little worried but maybe I've finally found a good saddle fit for me after trying so many others.

Ended up 138g lighter than before which is good too.

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2012 Colnago Air
2012 Raleigh RX

Oh also forgot the cages I ordered a while back came in. I had bought the XLabs chimp cages in the meantime. There were listed on Amazon at 28g but the xlabs website says 36g. I weighed them and got 38g, so pretty close to what they said.



But I ended up putting these on to try them out. 30g, nice and tight around the bottle.

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2012 Colnago Air
2012 Raleigh RX

Ended up winning some new bars on ebay which I didn't expect to get. Ritchey WCS Carbon Streem, 246g



The Deda Al bars are 318g. But after my first ride today with the carbon bars, the biggest thing I notice is comfort. The carbon bars seem to ride much smoother



And a couple more gratuitous pics. Come to think of it, the bar tape is comfortable to ride, but I find it hideous. I'll probably get fed up and change that soon too.







I also have new spacers on their way, which are not matte black and should go better with the wet black stem.



Also, so far the savings haven't been great but they are there, 226g or about half a pound. Bike on the scale (as ridden with pedals and cages) at the LBS came in a 20lbs 8oz (9298.64g)...Ouch! We can certainly improve that. I hope to save at least 1lb with the wheels. Thanks for reading.

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2012 Colnago Air
2012 Raleigh RX

Ha, I looked at your first post and felt like 'meh'. too middle of the road. then you scroll down and find a person who is making his bike lighter like a mad man!

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'Tape was made to wrap your GF's gifts, NOT hold a freakin tire on.'

Follow me on twitter. I try to be interesting
On Facebook!

Yea I told myself I wouldn't go too crazy with this, but since I sold my autox car it's the only hobby I have to spend money on....

(If anyone cares to read about the car details are here

And I'll start learning how to do all the labor on this stuff by putting the parts taken off onto the old Trek, which is going to end up on a trainer in the basement or garage for the winter most likely

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2012 Colnago Air
2012 Raleigh RX

deleted the quote. please do not use the quote button when you are writing a reply. thanks FB.

Nice M-coupe! I used to run an E30 318is in DSP before I got hooked on open track days and time trials. Fun stuff!

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Trek 5500 - 13.75lbs on a $1400 Budget
20 gram 1x10 chain guide

Thank you much. I love E30s too, I would love to own one but unfortunately most in my area are too far gone (rust). Once I'm settled into my new place I'll certainly pick up another car to race, my end goal is also the NASA TT. Maybe an all out E36 race car this time

Nothing much going on with the bike, just these CF spacers I mainly bought because the matte aluminum ones clashed with the gloss stem. But they are 8g less and look better.





Also seem to be launching the water bottle from my seat tube. twice yesterday (and not even on what I considered the roughest part of the ride). Maybe switch back to the chimp cage in that location.

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2012 Colnago Air
2012 Raleigh RX

Mail man dropped off a present...



Selle San Marco Mantra Carbon FX, listed at 168g, I get 174g. 38g lighter than the Xsilite version I currently have, which will make its way to the Trek. I seriously love this saddle, really glad to have found what seems to be a perfect fit.

Got it mounted and lowered the stem another 5mm. It look's like we're approaching cutting time for the fork. Took for a ride and it's as comfortable as I expected it.

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2012 Colnago Air
2012 Raleigh RX

Lots to catch up on here. First I sold the Trek to finance a crossbike purchase. I mainly wanted something I could ride around town and beat on and not spend too much money on, so I got a pretty decent deal on a 2012 closeout Raleigh RX. It's nothing to go gaga over but it seems like it will be durable and get the job done which is all I wanted.

All I've done to this so far is put a Garmin mount on it and a pair of Look pedals. I know the consensus for cross bikes is to use egg beaters, but I'm really just riding some trails and through rough streets and since I had all the stuff laying around anyway including an old pair of beater shoes I just went with that for now.



found some mud:



Onto my roadie...

Through being generally good over the winter I hit another milestone in my get healthy / weightloss and decided to take everyone's advice who said that a new wheelset would probably make the biggest difference - and man they were right. After deliberating for a while I ended up purchasing some RS80 C24s mainly because...

....they saved a reasonable amount of weight from the R501s (that's what the bikes build sheet lists - they just say R500 on them) - 1900g vs 1516g for the RS80s so saved 384g there
....they preserved an aluminum braking surface
....the 24mm profile should be easy to handle
....they were well within budget and this allowed me to upgrade cassette too

I put some Continental tubes and some GP4000S 700x25s on the wheels.

I got a 12-25 Ultegra cassette (209g) to replace the 11-25 Tiagra cassette (258g) that came with the bike. Saving 49g is nice but the crispness and smoothness of shifts now is the real advantage I'm getting from it. Combining this with how much faster these wheels accelerate and hold speed my ride today was really a nice one.

Anyway, my goal was to try and save around a pound with the wheel upgrade and I hit 433g in savings here, maybe a little more with the different tubes/tires so for what should be a durable every day wheelset I'm happy with that.









(yes I know - cut the steerer, I'm working on it )

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2012 Colnago Air
2012 Raleigh RX

I like the matching black and white brakes on the Colnago. What brakes are those?

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2013 Colnago C59 TSMR

Those are Colnago brakes - X brake 3

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2012 Colnago Air
2012 Raleigh RX