Budget Weenie Boardman MTB HT Pro

[chucklight]

I'm pretty new to the Weenie game though I've been a follower for quite a while, I set out to try and get the best results I could with a nearly new bike for under £900.
I didn't really want to go down the carbon frame route at this time and after test rides had settled on either the Boardman HT Pro or a Whyte 901 or 905. Both brands bikes felt quite similar and were easily the best I'd tested in that price range.
Due to a lack of availability of decent second hand Whytes, I eventually found a Boardman HT Pro which had been used maybe once. It was mint when I picked it up, still with reflectors and receipts from Halfords. £600 for a practically new £1000 bike seemed a pretty good deal.
I also love the look of the Boardman so it will be a bike that I'm happy to grow with.

The bike itself in standard guise was a more than adequate performer and weighed in at 25.198lbs (11.42kg) without pedals, possibly a tad more but I'd already removed bottle cage bolts, reflectors and rear plastic cassette guard before weighing.
I then set out on the budget weight loss trail.

I've generally replaced the obvious parts of a bike with a proviso to only change parts that will be around half the weight of the original part or lighter.

I would love to spend huge amounts on the lightest parts available but I'm under no illusion that to get really big results you need to spend more money than I had to put into this project, I knew that I wouldn't be building the lightest bike ever but with a bit of patience and ingenuity I should be able to bring the weights down and be left with a very light usable bike.

The saddle was a personal choice where I could've gone a bit lighter than 180 grams for what I spent but wanted the toughness and comfort that the Selle Italia SLR XC Flow offered, I also got it new for a bargain price of £55!
I'm not yet upgrading to clip in pedals again through personal choice so at the moment when commuting I prefer to use toe clip pedals, for off road and trails I've now tried a few different types of flats and platforms but at the moment I'm loving the tiny SARS.

The bike now feels great, I love the narrower , flat bars which give the bike a much more race feel. The grips are also fantastic and would recommend them to anyone as long as they're used with gloves.

The only part of the standard bike that I really had an issue with were the slightly heavy rims and awful Formula hubs, that's definitely something for the future but I'm going to run the standards until I have any issues with them.
Another route I could have taken would've been to just spend the money on a new wheelset but I don't think I would've enjoyed that as much.

For the time being, at least for the remainder of the summer I'm done with the upgrades. The next will probably be better and lighter tyres and inner tubes but I'm going to wear down the rather terrible Continental Mountain Kings first.

The bike is now down to 23.761lbs (10.77kg) a saving of 653 grams, it really doesn't seem like much but for an outlay of £774.91 with extras like pedals and pumps coming in at £71.73 I thinks it's been a pretty competitive build.
Using ebay as a guide then there's definitely nothing as new selling for the cost of my build so I feel somewhat justified.
I've made a quite useful and easy to follow build chart on Microsoft Excel and put a link to it here in PDF format, feel free to copy it if you like the layout.

Please let me know what you think.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9z1xJ3sukyeZGJIYlZ6OUVsRWs/edit?pli=1

[url][url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/79798036@N02/7314018448/][/url]
3 by Chuck-light, on Flickr[/url]


1 by Chuck-light, on Flickr


3 by Chuck-light, on Flickr

Truvativ World Cup Noir Flat Handlebars and Bontrager XXX Lite foam grips

5 by Chuck-light, on Flickr


8 by Chuck-light, on Flickr


10 by Chuck-light, on Flickr

5 gram Top Cap

11 by Chuck-light, on Flickr

Easton EC90 Post and 9 gram aluminium clamp and Selle Italia SLR XC Flow saddle

13 by Chuck-light, on Flickr


14 by Chuck-light, on Flickr


15 by Chuck-light, on Flickr


16 by Chuck-light, on Flickr

[the_marsbar]

A light wheelset will make a big difference. That bike probably comes with a very heavy wheels.

[colinmack]

That's a cool looking bike. I've seen those in Halfords and they do look good in the flesh. Great value too. You could do with shortening the hoses / cables a bit, and maybe lose some of the spacers under the stem? As has been mentioned, changing the wheels for a decent set of tubeless wheels / tyres would drop some weight and improve the ride. Good job.

Cheers, colinmack

[chucklight]

I kinda knew that when I posted the bike on here the wheelset would be mentioned and I did make a conscious descision to do other changes first, I don't think I could have justified spending out on new wheels straight away even if the original set have such awful hubs. I'll use them and give them a beating, see how the finances are before next summer.

I'm still trying to settle on a height that I like for the stem and bars, I tend to lift and drop them quite a bit to get a position that works for trails and road. When I do I'll probably cut the steerer which will save a few grams.

Yeah I hadn't thought of cutting the cables, the front brake cable is crazy long.

Cheers

[fivethirtyonepm]

pick up a set of hope hoops with stans crest rims and then go tubeless... that little lot should save you knocking on towards 2lbs over the current set-up.

[TheRookie]

Look at Superstar for light budget conscious wheels.....

Nice bike, I like the Boardmans (the daughter works in bikehut), I have a Carrera Vulcan at a similar weight (11,146g without pedals) which is slowly shedding the excess pounds although where I ride I need the ability to raise and lower the seatpost quickly so have stuck with a QR.

Next measure for me are grips and a lighter seatpost than the budget Carbon I have now (235g) which will get me below 11Kg.

I beat you on budget though as mine has cost £520 to date and that includes spares tyres etc as well as parts come off I still have sitting around!

[timintense]

The boardman mtb pro is a great platform for a budget weight weenie, i purchased mine on the bike to work scheme and then with a few carefully selected ebay bargains i have got mine down to 10.22kg without spending a large amount

[chucklight]

The boardman mtb pro is a great platform for a budget weight weenie, i purchased mine on the bike to work scheme and then with a few carefully selected ebay bargains i have got mine down to 10.22kg without spending a large amount

Looking good, you've done quite a bit there.
I can see forks, wheelset, crankset, rotors, calipers, seat post, seat post clamp, saddle, stem, tyres and skewers.

Have you kept a build list of weights?

I'm liking the look of black forks.

[chucklight]

Look at Superstar for light budget conscious wheels.....

Nice bike, I like the Boardmans (the daughter works in bikehut), I have a Carrera Vulcan at a similar weight (11,146g without pedals) which is slowly shedding the excess pounds although where I ride I need the ability to raise and lower the seatpost quickly so have stuck with a QR.

Next measure for me are grips and a lighter seatpost than the budget Carbon I have now (235g) which will get me below 11Kg.

I beat you on budget though as mine has cost £520 to date and that includes spares tyres etc as well as parts come off I still have sitting around!

Well you've started with a cheaper bike so you should be under my budget, shedding those extra pounds will be where the costs are though. Under 10kg has to be the aim of a budget, aluminium MTB Weenie I reckon. If I can get there without upgrading the wheelset then I'd be happy with that.

[TheRookie]

Cheaper bike indeed LOL the frame came from the bottom of a ditch with fork stanchions rusted right through, the only original bits are the frame, mech hanger and bolt and the under BB cable guide, I built it up from that.

[chucklight]

Cheaper bike indeed LOL the frame came from the bottom of a ditch with fork stanchions rusted right through, the only original bits are the frame, mech hanger and bolt and the under BB cable guide, I built it up from that.

Haha, what ditches have you been looking in? This could be a whole new thread of bikes built up from finds.

[TheRookie]

LOL, got it in a batch of 10 bikes being sold off as a pile of scrap by the council.....various bits from those have gone on most of the 9 bikes in the house, only 1 of which is vaguely as the maker intended and 7 of which have been built up from bare frames, being a WW my commuter benefited to the tune of 3g when I replaced the double cable guide on the BB with a single off one of those ten.