I recently bought a CAAD10 frameset in 52cm, should be pretty light, right? Well, the only 52 available at the time was in white and I bought it on impulse instead of being patient. The frame weighs in at 1219g with cage bolts, seat clamp, hanger, and cable guide. I thought I saw a white 52 weigh in at 1130ish with hardware so that was my hope. The plan is a sub-15lb. race worthy bike on a budget.

I have 3 options.

1: Build the bike up knowing I'm sitting on a porky paintjob.

2: Try to sell the frameset and wait for a raw or anodized frame to come available/Buy the complete bike and sell the components I don't want.

3: Strip the frame, clearcoat it, have an unmatched fork, but know my bike is as light as it could be.

1 is the easiest but doesn't sit well with the goal. 2 and 3 are labor intensive in different ways. Stripping the paint probably kills the resale and the bike will likely be sold at the beginning of next season.

Thoughts?

Planned build kit is as follows.

SRAM Force BB30 groupset
KCM X10SL chain
Syntace F109 stem
FSA Wing Pro Alloy bars
Thomson Masterpiece setback seatpost
Selle Italia Flite 1990 Saddle
Zipp SS Skewers
Dura Ace 7850 Tubular Wheels

The wheels aren't the lightest but they are the race wheels I own.
Other than that, is there anything I should sub out for a lighter, not too much more expensive option?

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I reckon you should change the bars, the skewers, the stem and the seatpost before stripping the paint. Except for the stem, I think you could cut more weight in each of these parts alone than the paint (yes, I understand the weight of paint.) But except for the chain, that is some pretty heavy kit even compared to fairly cheap options. I'm not gonna say anything about the wheels as I don't know how you ride nor the saddle as that is a personal preference...

But seriously, stripping the paint to go as low as possible when the finishing kit could save you severel hundred grams for peanuts... Some say it's free savings, but considering the cost of resale value, I'd say it's not in this case as you're already planning to sell.

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Roadbike
Kinesis RaceLight T2

Mountainbike
Van Nicholas Zion Ti

Thanks for the reply. I did some quick math from current bike which is a 2006 white CAAD8 with the same saddle and wheels but a much heavier cockpit and seatpost and weighs in at 16.6lbs. The new bike should be between 15.2-15.5 with the listed build so not terribly off the goal and with the easy gains you mention still available.

As for riding style, I race 3-4 weekends a month during the season and I race everything from crits to dirt road races to circuit races but I am climbing specialist. I travel a lot so the bike is constantly in and out of the case, which could also kill the resale if I am not careful. I sometimes bump into UCI regs so I deal with the 6.8 but that's an easy fix.

I am looking for race worthy usability. I could drop another 15 grams by going with the Zipp Ti skewers. Most of the lightest QRs seem to be coming in another 10g lower at 45g or less, but I need something I can change quickly during a race.

What are your recommendation for bars, stem, seatpost, and skewers?

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