Practical Sub-5 On a Budget (4454g) - Officially Sub-10!

[jpeterson1012]

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(That extra shift cable has since been shortened)

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The title probably sounds akin to some weight weenie oxymoron, but alas, here it is. It's certainly not done, but it's at least sub-5 now. As for "budget," I guess for the weight, you could call it a budget build.





I'll add some better full-bike photos when the lighting is good/I go out with my camera.

The next step in my journey towards practical weight weenie-ing is converting this to 1x. You may wonder, why go 1x11 50T on a bike that's perfect for climbing? To which I will answer, "find me a hill in Chicago please."

Plus, 1x is just more user friendly. I never use the small chainring anyways.


The 1x setup will probably be this:

1. FSA Ceramic PF30 BB - 50g (-28g, 75USD)
2. InColor Skypivot Cranks + Spider - 327g (350 USD + shipping)
3. Fibre-Lyte or Lightworks (eBay) Carbon Chainring 50T (Both ~130 USD, Fibre-Lyte is well known, but Lightworks has a narrow-wide version which Fibre-Lyte doesn't) - 60g
4. KCNC Short Chainring Bolts - 6g
5. Total Crankset weight = 393g (-232g)
6. Remove FD+Chain Catcher + Hanger + Bolts (-99g)
7. Remove FD Shift Housing + Cable + Barrel Adjuster (estimated -35-40g)
8. Remove Shift Paddle + Ratchet Internals from Red Left Shifter (estimated -30g)
9. PYC SP-1101 Chain (-14g)

9. Estimated 1x Savings: ~439g, meaning the new goal would be 10lbs, of course

Now for the gallery


White spokes are pretty eyecatching!


Get pretty scared every time I work on this stem... plus, the printed manual I received when I bought it says 3Nm for the HB-Clamp, now they updated it to 2Nm on their website... Always did 3Nm, am I in danger?



I hate the "new ergo" brake lever instructions FSA gave. They looked like shit and the hoods actually pointed slightly down when done according to their "optimal mounting position." Straight in the bin it went.


These poor Ciamillo brakes from 2006... They barely open wide enough for these 25mm rims. I get bare minimum brake lever travel even with the tire release tab flipped to the "open" position.




Some heavy tuning was done on this saddle. It was bare carbon to start at 82g, ended up at 62g.


Rope Spokes.




An aluminum mini brake noodle was used to shorten the RD cable run. The frame was also designed to have the housing run all the way to the bottom bracket cable guide, but a 4mm-5mm stepdown ferrule was used to create a DIY cable stop, along with some inner sheathing to protect the frame innards from cable abrasion.



Can't wait for the 1x conversion!

[ome rodriguez]

Nice!

[jpeterson1012]

I pride myself on the fact that no single component on this sub-5 build breaks the bank (like say THM cranks, schmolke bars, darimo seatposts, etc). The highlights are probably the 753g wheelset for 1100 dollars, sub-100g seatpost for 44 USD, 62g saddle for 26 USD, and the brand new FSA bars for 140.

2022 update: well I guess now I can't say this anymore, since I caved for a THM crank after waiting months and months for InColor

[cheapvega]

We need some whole bike and detail pics. That seat looks shredded. Def wanna see the rope spokes. Been thinking about chopping down my 300mm seatpost too.

[shotgun1]

I pride myself on the fact that no single component on this sub-5 build breaks the bank (like say THM cranks, schmolke bars, darimo seatposts, etc). The highlights are probably the 753g wheelset for 1100 dollars, sub-100g seatpost for 44 USD, 62g saddle for 26 USD, and the brand new FSA bars for 140.

Nice build! It's great to see how with some imagination and knack for details a really WW build can be done without breaking the bank!

[Kayrehn]

That's an awesome weight for your money, and that saddle looks like a steal! I'll like to see more pics of it; by tuning do you mean stripping the cover off it?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[jpeterson1012]

That's an awesome weight for your money, and that saddle looks like a steal! I'll like to see more pics of it; by tuning do you mean stripping the cover off it?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Nope, took off a lot of material. It was bare carbon to begin with. lots of sanding sawing and drilling involved, wasn't afraid of breaking it since it was so cheap. In fact, it did break. it showed signs of cracking in the bridge between the two sides of it, but I fixed it by laying down some more plies of UD carbon on the underside. The fix didn't add any measurable weight to it, thankfully.

[jpeterson1012]

That's an awesome weight for your money, and that saddle looks like a steal! I'll like to see more pics of it; by tuning do you mean stripping the cover off it?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

We need some whole bike and detail pics. That seat looks shredded. Def wanna see the rope spokes. Been thinking about chopping down my 300mm seatpost too.

Nice build! It's great to see how with some imagination and knack for details a really WW build can be done without breaking the bank!

Nice!

Pics added to main post! ome rodriguez I remember you commenting on my initial build of the wheelset in the Everything Wheels section, they've finally been put to actual use!

[Arnomatic]

Build looks amazing! Proper weenie and some good bang for your buck parts. Do you have a link to the seatpost?

[jpeterson1012]

Build looks amazing! Proper weenie and some good bang for your buck parts. Do you have a link to the seatpost?

Here is the link to the seatpost if the link is broken, google "Elita One carbon seatpost aliexpress" and you'll find it.

Here's the link to the saddle too

[Arnomatic]

Appreciate it! Thanks for shairng the secrets

[ome rodriguez]

Pics added to main post! ome rodriguez I remember you commenting on my initial build of the wheelset in the Everything Wheels section, they've finally been put to actual use!

Excellent ww build. Given this budget I couldn’t make one at this weight. Love the wheels.

[jpeterson1012]

Pics added to main post! ome rodriguez I remember you commenting on my initial build of the wheelset in the Everything Wheels section, they've finally been put to actual use!

Excellent ww build. Given this budget I couldn’t make one at this weight. Love the wheels.

Thanks! I wonder if it's possible to do a sub-4kg at sub-4k$... would involve a ton of tuning, but would be an interesting challenge; do you recon it's possible to save 430g just from tuning? everything but the saddle is stock right now. I have 200usd to work with, and the rule is, if I swap a part out, I subtract the old part's cost from my "budget," since this is theoretically the lightest bike you can build in one go under 4k.

Edit: My spreadsheet tells me I can take this thing down to 4190g while staying under 4k USD. Some homemade pedals would bring it down to 4120g territory, but still needs 120g off.

4120g is with extreme tuning on the RED RD, shifters, and taking an inch off the drops + sanding off the clear coat of the bars, as well as swapping out some skewers (J&L Ti non-QR from eBay, same cost), bearings (FSA light bearings, +40usd), knock off shift housing (dont know how the shifting will be, 0usd), getting a PYC SP-1101 chain (-13usd), getting a recon aluminum cassette (+40usd), fully slamming the stem, veloflex record on the rear (same cost), and DIY carbon end-plugs.

Cost diff: +67

Further tuning I can think of involves: frame clear coat sanding?, cutting the BB cable guide in half? (since it's 1x), Ti Brake bolts (+15 usd), Ti cables (+80usd), corima cork pads (+22usd), chopping the seatpost at 45deg at bare minimum length? I reckon all of that combined would take off 60-65g at best, still would need 60 to go...

Total cost increase: 184, making it a 3984usd bike
Prospective Weight: 4060g

Almost at that 1:1 dollar/gram milestone!

[cheapvega]

This build is out of control. I love it. Def need a ride report. Fun/depressing to see the huge chunks of weight you took out of my similarly priced build

[flying]

Almost at that 1:1 dollar/gram milestone!

You did very well & in true WW Spirit!
Congrats!