Scalpel 2012 diet program.

Discuss light weight issues concerning mountain bikes & parts.

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Geoff
Posts: 5395
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2003 2:25 am
Location: Canada

by Geoff

You were riding flat pedals for XC? Tubulars would probably drop a bit of weight.

stephenjames
Posts: 57
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 1:44 pm

by stephenjames

+1 for the MCFK Carbon steerer tube setup. It drops circa 100g and allows the use of any stem. I use a -25deg ritchey which allows me to get exactly the position I want. Awesome setup IMO.

by Weenie


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ludovic
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Aug 06, 2013 3:10 pm
Location: Canaan Valley, West Virginia (USA)

by ludovic

Nice looking bike - without a doubt.
If you are looking for light & function:
Try removing the XX1 cassette and derailleur. Go with XX and save about a 1/4 pound. Depending on your front chainring choice, you will have plenty of gear for climbing and let gravity take over on the downhill.
Keep the XX1 cranks - so as to not drop your chain.

On a different subject: I have gone with the same bike with 650b - compared to the 26" tires, that was a "blessing in disguise". The bike was the closest thing to the rolling ability of my 29er. I feel I should warn you about this though:
Putting larger wheels (27.5") raised my bottom bracket which was really nice actually.
The geometry of the bike changed completely though - the wheel based seemed to have grown by 7 inches.
All in all, I really loved that setup and even raced hard with it. Compared to the 26" scalpel, the 27.5 just totally rocked, but took some getting used to the strange angle.
Bottom line, if Cannondale would wake up and put a zero pivot on a 27.5" specific frame, we would really have an incredible bike to play with.
For now, the 29" felt better match to geometry than the 27.5 ever did.
The 27.5 was still so much more fun (and fast) than the 26.

Either way - great looking bike you have. Looks like you are ready to put some serious miles on it.

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the_marsbar
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Joined: Wed May 13, 2009 5:23 pm
Location: Denmark
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by the_marsbar

Eh. The wheelbase is a property of the frame itself. It has nothing to do with the wheel size.

See here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... ns.svg.png" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The only thing that changes would be the BB height, right? If you increase wheel sizes both front and rear, all the angles should stay the same, you just lift the bike by half the added diameter of the wheel :)

tetonrider
Posts: 91
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:38 am

by tetonrider

stephenjames wrote:+1 for the MCFK Carbon steerer tube setup. It drops circa 100g and allows the use of any stem. I use a -25deg ritchey which allows me to get exactly the position I want. Awesome setup IMO.


i didn't find this to be true. can you explain how you arrived at a 100g savings?

the cannondale steerers on my bikes are about 80g. the MCFK i purchased was heavier. ok, no problem....the stem could be lighter.

well...unless one is willing to use a pretty flexy stem, it is hard to save more than 25-30g, and it requires running no tap-cap. add that top cap and expander and the weight savings is even less.

a flexy stem doesn't particularly suit me, but your mileage may vary.

Vegard
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:16 pm

by Vegard

I'm on my phones devilish keyboard so pardon me for not replying directly to everyone :)

The mcfk gear is in a pricebracket that rivals half a decent wheelset so that's not an option I'll ever explore. I have also read, as others mention above that the 1-18 stem and steerer isn't worth the savings and is some cases make it a heavier setup than the non opi cannondale.

I have bought one more item for my bike and that is a mount zoom flat handlebar that I'm going to try out for a bit along with a pass me down thomson masterpiece from my first bike.

If I don't like the bar I'll just put it on my fatbike :)

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ludovic
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Aug 06, 2013 3:10 pm
Location: Canaan Valley, West Virginia (USA)

by ludovic

Seriously: I have thought long and hard about it and I cannot explain the result.
Ride a bike with 26" wheels, and the bike feels fine.
Place 27.5 front and rear on the same bike and it rides "more like" a downhill rig*

I am exaggerating, but you get the drift.
The Scalpel already a long wheel base and was originally designed for long distance. I often compared it with a long distance road bike designed for trails. Placing 27.5 on the 26 bike made it even more like a cadillac, but it's not as bad as I am making it sound. I'd ride it with 27.5 any day (instead of the 26 that it came with). It's down to those first 10 minutes... where you are like: "What the heck?". All that goes away once you ride over the first huge rock garden.

stephenjames
Posts: 57
Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 1:44 pm

by stephenjames

tetonrider wrote:
stephenjames wrote:+1 for the MCFK Carbon steerer tube setup. It drops circa 100g and allows the use of any stem. I use a -25deg ritchey which allows me to get exactly the position I want. Awesome setup IMO.


i didn't find this to be true. can you explain how you arrived at a 100g savings?

the cannondale steerers on my bikes are about 80g. the MCFK i purchased was heavier. ok, no problem....the stem could be lighter.

well...unless one is willing to use a pretty flexy stem, it is hard to save more than 25-30g, and it requires running no tap-cap. add that top cap and expander and the weight savings is even less.

a flexy stem doesn't particularly suit me, but your mileage may vary.



I think if you weigh the complete cannondale OPI steerer tube and stem together you will find that its pretty heavy compared to the setup I use. I don't have the OPI setup to weight but I am about to overhaul my head bearings so can weigh the MCFK + Ritchey 260 stem combo and compare. The Ritchey stem I think is very good and not flexi at all. I race pretty high level Elite XC and it's been good for me. All of that said, the driver behind this setup for me was being able to run a more negative angle stem so I can get my position lower at the front.

I also meant to add that I do have very good experience of the MT Zoom stuff as well. Price versus weight most of the producs exceptional value and for me have been very durable

OK I found most weights in a spreadsheet I kept!

I think the STD OPI setup that came with my 2013 Flash and Scalpel was 290g for a 100mm -15deg.

The MCFK steerer is 85g and the Ritchey 260 stem in 100mm that I use is 120g. So actual saving was 85g I think but as I said, for me it was more for low front end position

Vegard
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:16 pm

by Vegard

stephenjames wrote:I also meant to add that I do have very good experience of the MT Zoom stuff as well. Price versus weight most of the producs exceptional value and for me have been very durable


Sounds good, hopefully I'll have the same experience. Price to weight ratio for the MTZ stuff is amazing!
So far I have the TI rear skewer and the 640mm flat bar is enroute. :thumbup:

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maxle
Posts: 32
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:57 pm
Location: Germany

by maxle

I`m sorry, forgot the pics on page 1. Voila:

Image

Image
You only own a bike when you've violated every single term of guarantee.

Vegard
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:16 pm

by Vegard

That's quite neat, I'll start looking for one immediately! What kind of frame is that?

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maxle
Posts: 32
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2012 8:57 pm
Location: Germany

by maxle

I guess it is one of the first 2011er Haibike Greeds 29. Haibike is a german company, they make pretty light frames* and have also a nice design. The wellknown german rider Sabine Spitz won on a smaller 26er Greed the silver medal in London and i think last month the CX Worldcup Race of Andorra.

For more information:
http://www.haibike.de/en/Haibike-94,3084.html
https://www.facebook.com/haibike.de?ref=ts&fref=ts

* Two years ago i cleaned my Greed26 from varnish for a stealth optic. Before 1040g/ after 920g. Maybe it`s time for showing the results ^^
You only own a bike when you've violated every single term of guarantee.

Vegard
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:16 pm

by Vegard

Never heard of the brand before, but they have some good looking frames I think :)

Here's my Scalpels fat friend:
Image

Vegard
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:16 pm

by Vegard

Image

I really like the MTZ flat bars! Climbing is feeling a little bit different, but everything else is better I think, granted I only got 15 grams saved with the change.

quinner
Posts: 32
Joined: Thu May 03, 2012 12:58 am

by quinner

Nice build!

by Weenie


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