Weight Weenies

Inspired by this - http://www.neilbrowne.com/wp-content/up ... -bike1.jpg - and also as I am not riding it as a TT bike - I am converting my Speed Concept 9 to an aero road bike.

Bike weighs currently 9.05kg in TT config with Mavic Aksium wheels (with slime tubes at 200g each!), a Torhans Aero20 and ISM Adamo saddle, all of which are obviously fairly porky.

Think I can easily get this to just on 8kg with Red brifters (current drivetrain is Red/Force), even with alloy drop bars, with light tubes and a carbon bottle cage.

I think it should be possible to get the bike to 6.8-7kgs but will take a while and a fair number of £££'s...

Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com

have you considered anything about the geometry (top tube length) and getting the proper fit for yourself?

interested to see this transformation. hopefully its not a frankensteiner

mattjevans wrote:I think it should be possible to get the bike to 6.8-7kgs but will take a while and a fair number of £££'s...

Leaving aside why an SC9 is rolling on Aksiums in the first place, isn't it going to be a lot of money to spend on what might well end up being a heavy-ish, odd fitting, poorly-handling road bike with rubbish brakes?

If you've got the cash and are just experimenting then cool, whatever floats your boat, hope it looks awesome. But if it's this instead of an actual road bike, this just sounds like a very expensive way to get a highly compromised ride...

If you could deal with convoluted handling, then by all means go for it.

I was contemplating this the other day with a Scott Plasma i want to sell.
Just did a quick mock up.

I am aware of geometry issues and have discussed this with the guy who did the initial fit for me (TT position obviously) to get his thoughts on set-up.

Not sure why some of you seem to think it will handle terribly. Apart from reach being a bit longer (<20mm), geometry (head angle, trail, wheelbase, chainstay length) is not all that different to an H1 Madone.

Personally I find SC brakes to be fine but then I do most ride the flatlands...

The handling won't be terrible, it would just be compromised because of the different weight distribution between a TT and road position.

That said, you could minimise this issue by slamming the saddle back to a 73 degree seat angle.

hansonator69 wrote:The handling won't be terrible, it would just be compromised because of the different weight distribution between a TT and road position.

That said, you could minimise this issue by slamming the saddle back to a 73 degree seat angle.

Ah I see - well I wasn't planning to ride the bike with drop bars with a TT seatpost/hip angle.

You don't need to "slam" the saddle back per se - the SC has 6 different seatpost head options (with the two UCI seatposts now available there are 4 different seatpost heads and two of these can be reversed). I ride TT at a 78 degree angle, saddle fairly centred, using the 10mm backwards offset option (which is the third "steepest") and have bought the 35mm offset head (which when positioned in the backwards placement is the "least steep" non-UCI option) so should make it relatively easy to get to 74-74.5ish which is where I want to be.

wingguy wrote: Leaving aside why an SC9 is rolling on Aksiums in the first place

Holy snobbery Batman!

wingguy wrote:

mattjevans wrote:If you've got the cash and are just experimenting then cool, whatever floats your boat, hope it looks awesome. But if it's this instead of an actual road bike, this just sounds like a very expensive way to get a highly compromised ride...

Bit of both to be honest. Family and job means I don't have the time to ride more than 90 minutes at a time (60 minutes most days) so for me "all day comfort" isn't a big selling factor in a bike

I kind of get what your looking for. I almost did the same thing when I seen a cannondale Tri bike new on sale at a local shop when I was looking for a road bike. I am like you in that I only have time in the week for some shorter rides along with commutting. I will say this when I did a charity ride over the weekend 9 guys out of the group of 12 backed out at 60 miles from the 100 that we were going claiming the extra 40 was too much. All 9 of those guys had tri bikes which leads me too believe the positions are probally not that comfortable on higher milage.

Prolly be harsh for the longer rides, but anything under at least 40 miles my be fine. Well for me that's what I felt when I converted my Cervelo P1 into a road bike. See my sig below if you wanna see how it looked.

Depending on the requirements of your road fit and what size SC you have, it may be doable without looking like a freak.

For instance, I'm a fairly average dude and here is how it would pan out for me:
my road bike coordinates are as follows:
~380, ~550 (~10cm stem, and 80mm reach bars)
My tri bike coordinates are:
~395, ~505

But both are in essence, "slammed." And my road bike, I ride with a classic bend bar, so switching to a flat transition shallower bar would get me another 1cm in height to my hoods position and maintain my drops position.

So I would need to find an addition 3.5cm height and reduce reach by 1.5cm. 9cm stem on shorter/shallower bars - not bad for a guy on the smaller size, which I am. 3.5cm height is where you really have the potential for a not so attractive looking bike, maybe try a 0 degree stem, or -4; but you'll still need some spacers.

I have seen it before on a Speed Concept and it looked great. The guy was using it for Crit's....

I also saved this pic from a while back....

I've done this, converting a Cervelo P3 to a road bike. It rides just fine, provided you don't mind a little more weight on your hands, and slower steering. Maybe it isn't the best set up for a century, and I can only hold one bottle, but overall it's fun, and definitely fast on the flats.

Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com