Tomorrow I'm going to start drilling holes in my old cromoly commuter frame to get the weight down. Don't worry, I have a helmet. Will let you know how it goes!

Surely this will only end in a flobbely frame? I guess if you drill holes at 45 degrees to vertical/horizontal you will retain the most stiffness... Good luck - will be interesting to see how you get on!

With ideas like this you probably don't need one...

I might suggest also drilling holes in your water bottles. It turns out, most of the weight savings is not from the bottle per se, rather from the reduced weight of the water they carry.

Wow! Why haven't I thought of that before! I lost almost a kilo!

There is a good reason why steel frames do not come with lots of holes drilled in them and why 953 and XCR tubing is now drawn. A very good reason indeed.

_________________
www.thecycleclinic.co.uk

bugmenot, are you a slightly less insane reincarnation of HanSolo?

Lmao, " Everything can be drilled, except your tyres".
On a more serious note, some things are more suited to tuning than others.
Frame and fork failure are more dangerous than say front or rear mech. Bugemon? Take care which ever way you go.

_________________
2013 Giant TCR Advanced SL 0, 6.92kg
2013 Giant Defy Composite 2 M, 8.5kg - Wife's
Azzurro Torino 8.55g
Fuji 650 10.8kg
Miele Lupa Triple Tandem 38,89kg

Don't drill, shave!

_________________
Whow! That's a pretty damn nice garage door!

Where's that dude with the Swiss cheese seatpost when you need him???

_________________
Flickr
Tarmac SL3 Project Yellow
Follow on Instagram

Bah back in the 70s and 80s track riders used to drill out their frames all the time. Yes they lost stiffness but if you get your power from doing 150rpm you wanted to accellerate up to full power as quickly as possible.

Sure there are better places to drill on the frame than others, but if it is a strong frame drilling holes in the middle sections of the tube and leaving plenty of material between each one won't be so bad. Just don't drill 100 holes in your first attempt. See how the frame feels before drilling more (and more).

Also file the holes so there are no rough edges to act as crack propagation points.

_________________
signature deleted by the Admin.

_________________
"It never gets easier, you just go faster..." - Greg Lemond

"Because technology alone is a poor substitute for experience." - Richard Sachs

Drilled chainstays do actually look quite good.

until they break.

Yeah, but those chainstays actually have tubing brazed into them perpendicularly. Those holes are for looks, not weight savings. In fact, the material added probably weighs twice what was removed.

_________________
TED ESSENFELD
Schoorl, Noord-Holland, Nederland
Bike Pics
English Custom Steel Internal di2
Litespeed Ghisallo