Weight Weenies

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!

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bugmenot wrote:... Don't worry, I have a helmet.

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.

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

In Drilling holes in CF frames to save weight, HanSolo wrote:Hi,

I am interested in drilling holes through the seat tube of my Kestrel Evoke to save weight. It looks like a sturdy bike and I feel that the seat tube is not very structural....any thought? How about the top tube?

_________________
Everything can be drilled, except tires.

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.

Don't drill, shave!

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

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.

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.

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