S5 frame weight & lightish S5 builds

[ryanw]

With all due respect, I would like to disagree with the above...

The new S5 (2015 onwards) is by no means easy to get under 7kg in a 56 or above.

I have spent a fortune on mine and it's pretty much at 7kg on the nose (with cages and pedals). Mine is a full aero road bike with 404s and aero cockpit.

You're contradicting yourself though aren't you? When you've gone aero for every component that has an aero option you can't really say you've tried to build a light bike.

When GCN weighed a bunch of pro bikes in full aero mode at an Arabian race last spring one of the DiData S5s (Cummings' I think?) was just shy of being the lightest one there.

Agree, but I have built up a bike as it was designed to be built.

As stated above, I could have put £1,000 brakes on it, a carbon chainset, super light bars, silly light climbing tubs, but I'm a 94kg power rider and wanted a fast, strong aero bike that I can race week in, week out.

Pretty much any frame came be made under a 5kg build with £10k of AX Lightness thrown at it, but that would crumble under me, so no use to me.

I guess I was too blunt with me first post, but I would suggest the OP be more specific about what they want to use the bike for.

[wingguy]

Agree, but I have built up a bike as it was designed to be built.

As stated above, I could have put £1,000 brakes on it, a carbon chainset, super light bars, silly light climbing tubs, but I'm a 94kg power rider and wanted a fast, strong aero bike that I can race week in, week out.

Pretty much any frame came be made under a 5kg build with £10k of AX Lightness thrown at it, but that would crumble under me, so no use to me.

Well now you've just swung to the other extreme. The difference between 5kg and 7kg is pretty freakin' massive

You could easily have had what would still be a decently aero setup sneaking under 7kg and spent less money than you have. There's nothing wrong with the way you've decided to build it, but that doesn't mean it's difficult to build it another way.

[glam2deaf]

Mine weighed in at 7.4 with 808 tubs on it. Ultegra cassette, so there is weight to save there. I'm also running an alloy bar + stem, and the Rotor SRM isn't particularly light. The Speedplay Pave's add to the weight, and I could switch to lighter bottle cages.

Under 7 for a 58 shouldn't be too hard, so well achievable in a 54.

[RyanH]

I'm under 6kg with a 1280g frameset and only a handful of boutique parts. I'm pretty sure I'd be under 6kg with a S5, too. The aero difference between 46mm and 60mm rims is negligible in most conditions, but the weight not so much.

[ryanw]

My aim is to get my S5 to 6,800g on the nose.

I know I can potentially get there without changing out my 404s.

Extralite Hyperstem should save me 50g, eeCycleWorks brakes another 100-ish grams, then cut down the steerer and seatpost...

That's with cages, pedals and PM.

[RyanH]

You could also lose 40g by going to a Red Cassette (they're the best, I run them with SR) and about 10g on a tighter taping job.

[ryanw]

I've got an 11-25 DA cassette which weighs 175g compared to my 11-28 at 195g, so can save 20g there but need the 28T since I'm shit on hills.

[boots2000]

Mine was 6.8 kg with Dura-Ace 9000, Dura-Ace 9000 pedals, and Enve 4.5 wheelset.
But even at 6.8 kg it was the fastest bike I have owned- climbing too.

[DaReef]

Red Mechanical will help a lot towards meeting weight target. I own both Red Mec and Etap. While Etap is freaking sweet, a well tuned Red Mec will shift almost as fast/easy. I don't see how it could be hard to build a S5 at 6.8kg unless the frame weighs a lot. My Allez Sprint w/Zipp SL70 bar and Sprint stem came in at 6.872kg without much effort.

[ryanw]

Remember size of frame needs to be taken into account here also...

As already stated, an S5 with lightweight tubs will see the bike well under 7kg in otherwise factory spec.

[hambini]

My 2014 S5 is 7.2kg with dura ace groupset and C35 wheels. It is my daily ride through winter and british rain storms.

I prefer the 2014 model over the later ones purely from a geometry perspective. The seatpost has two positions 0 and 40mm setback, also the headtube was shortened by 25mm? on the later models and there would be no way I could get that low and still be comfortable.

[wingguy]

The seatpost has two positions 0 and 40mm setback, also the headtube was shortened by 25mm? on the later models and there would be no way I could get that low and still be comfortable.

It wasn't that much. Depends on size how much lower it got - 48 dropped 9mm in stack, 51 dropped 11mm and so on to the 61 which dropped 19mm.

[thumper88]

Fulcrum speed 40 are around 1470g and a lot cheaper than Enve, Zipp and co

Actual weight is 1,420g, but they're only 40mm deep.

Also for me, not in the same league even though they're fantastic wheels, Fulcrums just aren't special.

And you think zipps are?

Yes I do, I think they're up there with the best made and performaning wheels of modern cycling history... But please do tell me about the world ending hub recalls.

I would agree with you 5 years ago. But not today. They are to heavy compared to campagnolo ultras, enve and lightweights etc. And I have a spare pair of 404's.

When you start putting 40mm wheels on an S5 youre kind of getting away from the point of the thing.
404's are about as small as I'd go, though sometimes I do take mine off and put some older Reynolds 46's on if I feel the pack is going to be sketchy.
The 404 firecrest - I'm on third set for various bikes, this time NSW -- is less twitchy than the 46's, so I don't think 40s are going to be a huge advantage in that arena and def are going to be slower.
The current 404s are laterally stiffer and while not as bulletproof feeling as Reynolds are much faster and are quite solid.
The NSW's Im running now are under 1,520 grams For 58mm clinchers, that's not bad.
The first variant of firecrest, the hubs and lacing felt slightly soft in the back but the current ones are quite good.
You'd have to be a hater for hate's sake alone to criticize them for anything other than perhaps price.

[thumper88]

To the OP: My bare 2015 standard black frame in 54cm weighed 1050 grams, though that was on kitchen scales that may be less than perfect.

[Shrike]

Thanks guys, appreciate the replies. Feel pretty optimistic about getting the weight down, but looks speedy. I do want rims around the 50mm mark, so maybe it's spendy to go that deep AND light..