Thank you weightweenies!

I recently got back into biking. My wife and I purchased two hybrids last summer to enjoy all the new NYC bike infrastructure and eventually I wanted to try to get back into road bikes.

I wanted to start off slow (meaning buying something used and cheap) and ended up buying a new old stock condition Trek 5200 USPS edition (circa yr 2000). It was really “new old stock” since the guy literally used the bike as “hanging wall art”.

It was in perfect working order, aesthetically pristine (only two scratches), and complete. The only problem was the weight. It weighed in at almost 19lbs (18.8lbs)! - including pedals , computer, and water bottle cage - 8.55kg.


groupset is all Ultegra 6500 except for the Dura Ace 7600 shifters. Even the 11 year old unused flight deck computer worked after a battery change (I had an extra battery from my old garmin HRM).


I started looking around the various forums on how to shed weight and realized that there are easy ways to do it (just throw TONS of money at the bike) and a fun and cheaper way: find bargains on eBay/craigslist and sell off the old parts (if possible) to off set the expenditures.


This is where my thanks for weightweenies comes in. Although this website is the best place on earth to view ultra lightweight bike/components porn. Its also has practical information to save weight on a budget.

I used the listings page religiously (http://weightweenies.starbike.com/listings.php) in finding the best way to save weight on a price/gram ratio.

I ended up tabulating all the weights and then swapping everything out piece by piece. Eventually all that was left was the original frame, fork, and drivetrain.

So this isn’t exactly lightweight bike porn, but its my way of trying to shave a lot of weight off my bike on a budget.

But I did learn a ton of things along the way...

First thing I learned is: eBay is your best friend!

I found a lot of lightweight parts on the WW listings on eBay that were a lot cheaper. In fact all of my parts were purchased on eBay except for my wheels and tires.


So here's what I upgraded:

Icon Graphite Stem 167g / Control Tech Stem 109g =58g
Aluminum spacers 19g / carbon fiber spacers 14g =5g
Icon handlebar 245g / 3TTT handlebar 210g = 35g

original:

The ironically named "graphite series" is actually just aluminum. The original parts were actually not that heavy as you can see and actually had all titanium bolts.

New:


a couple things: I needed a 1" -1 1/8" shim (thompson $5.00 15g) because my bike had a weird legacy 1" threadless steerer.
- the stem was 15grams heavier than advertised even with Ti bolts.
- the handlebars were spot on in weight 210g but the 42cm measured more like a 40cm.

The stem was $39 (eBay free shipping), spacers $10 (eBay free shipping), handlebars $39 (eBay free shipping).

Next things were the saddle, seatpost and seatpost clamp.

selle san marco era 242g / selle san marco aspide 175g 67g
Icon graphite seatpost 199g / USE alien carbon 145g 54g
aluminum seatpost clamp 28g / aluminium/Titanium clamp 12g 16g

Before:


After:


take note:
- the two saddles are USPS edition selle san marco but different models (the aspide weighed 67g less)
- the seatpost is a 27.2mm size which helps in the weight savings
- the original seatpost clamp wasn't that heavy to begin with, but the new one was 12g!

the saddle was $51 (ebay with shipping), seatpost ($52 ebay), and seatpost clamp ($17.50 eBay).

here's another lesson I learned: You can actually sell your old parts on eBay pretty easily even if you think they are worthless!

I ended up selling the the ICON stem, Handlebar, seatpost, and seatpost clamp for $30. I sold the old Selle San Marco ERA USPS seat for $72. So I was able to really offset the expenditures.

After buying a kitchen scale thats when the weight obsessiveness really kicked in.

look PP 256 pedals 382g look keo plus pedals 253g 129g

I saw that the original look pedals were in really good condition. Look pp256 were nice but I noticed how heavy they were. I got another set of entry level look pedals that were a lot lighter/less bulky (look keo plus).



I was happy to see that the look keo plus were lighter than advertised at 253g. I bought them for $69 from eBay (free shipping) and sold the old pedals $36 on eBay as well (the guy who bought them was really nice and we ended up sharing our bike stories/pics together).

the one big/costly mistake I made during the process was the wheel skewers. I bought some titanium/aluminum skewers that were the direct bolt type which you unscrewed with a allen key. They were a fantastic 23g per set!! but I ended up stripping the allen bolt on the back skewer and had to pry off the skewer which destroyed it in the end.

so I ended up getting some aerozine titanium skewers quick release.

cook bros. racing skewer 104g AL/titanium skewer 44g 60g



the titanium skewers were $40 eBay free shipping.

and to my surprise Cook Bros. is a brand which has a rabid cult following! I ended up seeing that their parts sell for a premium on eBay. these skewers sold to another great guy in Germany for $67 - he wanted to complete a vintage 90's MTB build and had to have them! there was actually a pair of cook bros. bmx pedals that sold for $2,000.00 at the time also

Nice work and attention to detail. I like that you kept with the USPS livery with your new saddle.

I've got a sweet spot for the USPS gear. My Madone 5.2 was a USPS replica.

I find buying bits piecemeal is rather entertaining. It's a sport in itself!

Keep posting your "finds" for the benefit of your fellow members.

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My sub-5.7kg / 12.53lb Addict R1

WTB: Challenge latex tubes, 700c x 60mm - NEW only

the most money I ended up spending was for a new wheelset and tires.

michelin axial pro 231g x 2 /continental grand prix 400s 215 32g
cheng shin 67g + 85g /continental supersonic 54.5g x2 43g

the tires were almost $100 for the pair and tubes were $12 each. after seeing that cheng shin tubes weighed in at 60g+ and were only $6 I ended up just getting the cheng shin as my spare inner tubes.

the wheels:

Rolf Vector Comp Wheelset 2013g /Easton Circuit Wheelset 1781g 232g



Notes:
The easton circuits were over 110g over the advertised weight. I took off all the decals on the rims to save some weight. I ended up complaining to easton and bonktown about the weight difference and bonktown gave me a discount on the wheels. I spent $199 on the easton wheels which is a pretty good price. The rolf wheels were in pristine condition. I put them up on eBay and actually sold them for $260. I guess they have a cult following as well. They are currently off to their new owner in France.

Both wheelsets weights are measured with rim tape/strips. The rolf had velox 51 tape and I bought some FSA rim strips for the eastons. I read in WW there is lighter rim tape/solutions, but I figured that this wheelset may end up being my training wheel set in the future so I just went with what my LBS had.

generic bottle cage 44g /carbon fiber bottle cage 20g 22g

the bottle cage that came with the bike was a normal white aluminum model. the carbon one was a generic china one from ebay $12.88 free shipping. I decided to keep the old cage as a spare. I might end up getting another eBay generic carbon cage. its cheap and both would still be lighter than the original.

I measured the old bar tape and new tape:

Cinelli Cork tape 34 x2 /sram cork tape 27g x 2 14g

some quick tips:
-the bolts that came with my look pedals/cleats are actually very light and low profile and fit into the bottle cage holes! I saved 6 grams per 4 bolts (and the best part is that its free).

- weigh the parts you want to swap out beforehand. sometimes you don't realize that the original parts you have are actually light weight. the WW listings page is a godsend, but still has variances and you might have the lightweight version on the bike beforehand.

- WW listing page is still the bible to see whats best to switch out and what to buy!

so here's my bike so far: its was 18.8lbs (8545g) before and now its 754grams lighter! And I didn't have to spend too much since I sold off all the swapped parts sometimes/luckily at a profit too!

I just came from the post office and asked permission to use their large platform scale and saw that my bike weighed 17.13 lbs! Again I know that its not a true Weigh Weenie, but it was on a budget, and I had a ton of fun swapping out all the parts and selling off the others. It was a true learning experience and I have Weight Weenies to thanks !


17.13lbs with pedals, bottle cage holder, computer, and bell (in NYC you NEED a bell ).

Loving a weight weenie with a bell lol!!

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thanks! I was lucky to win the bidding for the USPS saddle for $52. But in reality I would have settled for any san marco aspide at that price. I was fortunate for it to be a matching USPS version.

i guess the last things to really save weight is to swap out the remaining ultregra drivetrain and brakes, and fork (there are actually easton e90 1" steerer forks out there) but I will really have to shell out money and won't get back as much in reselling the old parts (especially the fork).

my future bike will be a true weigh weenie. I actually never really needed to sell off the old parts, but selling things on eBay is a bit of a obsession for me because I hate having cluttered closets/ storage rooms.




so true, but hey you're in London! You should understand how much of a pain it is to ride in crowded city traffic. especially clueless tourists. i can only imagine its worst than here in NYC!

Bravo!! runningdoc,

That is a wonderful showing of the "essence" of "Weightweenie-ness" !!!

Hope you have as much fun riding it as gathering parts and building it ...




Louis

you know thats what I forgot to mention. I loooove this bike! seriously it fits me, is comfortable, and I now even ride it in the snow flurries here in NYC. but if there is salt on the roads then I'll just use my new bike rollers and wait till the roads clear up again. but rain, or snow I'm going to ride it if I have free time. its been a great cross training tool for me (riding the bike) for when I need days off from running.

Welcome to the forum and for sharing your quest. It's always about the journey and never the destination.

_________________
-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!

Nice upgrading and the bike looks good.

Really great story ! Perfect reading. You are doing similiar things than me : find something cheap&light enough on ebay, buy it and sell my own item. It is usually bargain price for the weight difference. Sometimes I feel depending on that site (my girlfriend always see me browsing ebay), but I tried to google "ebay depend" and found nothing But I have the suspicion it is addictive :p

I dream about handlebars in that weight (210) for that price ($39). My disadvantage is address (Slovakia), shipping usually costs too much.

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Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred. (V. Havel, november 1989)

BTW, the shifters are not Ultegra 6700, they must be 6600 or older.

I like your post, very cool. And what a nice bike, the TDF was won on one of those badboys Treat her good, and give her all the parts she wants

you're right they are dura ace 7700 brifters. I made a mistake and said they were dura ace 6700

here's a pic:


I was happy that the brifters were already dura ace, so swapping out the rest of the drive train to dura ace won't be too expensive (especially if I can sell off the older ultegra 6500 stuff).

I actually computed the weight difference for the cassette/cranks/front&rear derailuers/ and brakes to be around 130g... so doing that swap plus a new fork (maybe another 150g) would put it into the 16+ lbs weight.

I'm leaning to swapping out the components because I can do it cheaper (since I can still sell off the old ultegra stuff). the fork I will have a hard time selling off (since it has all the original trek paint on it).