Cannondale SSE 2021 - Help me lose weight!

[mrjetlee]

My first ever road bike, got her a few weeks ago. Really enjoying riding it I do not have a comprehensive list of weights like everyone else here does, I've not taken the bike apart that much yet! It's a SuperSix Evo 2021 Ultegra Disc 54cm, I bought it used and everything on it was stock.

Its current weight is pretty much bang on 8kg. That's with pedals, bottle cages, computer / light mount and rear light mount on. I would love to get her closer to 7kg or under, 6.Xkg sounds like a nice weight to be at.

The original Cannondale Knot cockpit that came with it weighed in at nearly 600g

The Hollowgram 35 wheelset is also pretty heavy, both wheels with cassette, tubes, tires and rotors came in at over 2kg.
I'm pretty sure the current drivetrain I have is extremely overweight too, I have the Cannondale One cranks and 11spd 105 chain and cassette on there.
I wish the seatpost wasn't propietary so I had the option to put a different one in.

Parts I've swapped in so far are:
Mixed 7D saddle
Thinkrider TPU tubes
Thomson stem 120mm
Toseek carbon handlebar 360mm
Titanium bottle cages

Once I figure out the right fit for me I will get a 1 piece carbon bar/stem combo which should be a bit lighter and of course chop the chimney off . I definintely want a lighter wheelset. The whole drivetrain will get swapped out, I'm looking at Aliexpress Lexon carbon cranks, maybe their carbon / alu chainrings or Alugear, Dura-Ace chain and I don't know what cassette.

Would love your suggestions and input on parts to swap and where I could lose weight on it!

[CampagYOLO]

Those Cannondale One cranks are heavy but I'd look to replace them with a SiSl crankset if possible which would save around 300 grams. Even the much cheaper Si Crankset would save about 200 grams.

[matcav]

+1 to find a Hollowgram crankset + spidering on ebay. The non-sisl2 "hollowgram" cranks like these are pretty stiff & lightweight

[OtterSpace]

I think the key thing here that you mentioned is that this is your first road bike.

In my opinion the best first bikes are ones that first and foremost build a love of the hobby and secondarily build a base of knowledge of what you like and dont like to make whatever bike eventually replaces this one be the best fit possible for your better known priorities given that the second bike will likely be more expensive than the first bike.

At a high level this platform will never be the lightest or most aero even if you throw tons of money at it, but I think thats a good thing as it can help this project stay more grounded.

A lot of what you have done and are considering is in line with building that base of knowledge and at resonable prices so good job so far. I'd just make sure to not go too high end unless you know you plan to move those parts to another platform later.

The strangest thing with Cannondales pre T47 was the BB and the limitations it placed on the crankset and its kind of a dead end system that is no longer being developed. You have a heavier iteration but with these parts becoming an abandoned standard you can find the SiSl, SiSl2, or Si for close out prices if you shop around or buy used.

Other than that your bike should be fairly standard which is great for working on it yourself. Personally I'd try and keep a first bike adaptable so I'd avoid 1 part barstems. Some items to consider trying in no particular order:
Dura-Ace chain and YBN chain rotation to see what style you prefer (shifting performance vs low weight)
Chain waxing
through axle change if they are heavy
Dura-Ace 12s calipers for lower weight and better pad retraction
Lighter bottle cages
Buy multiple lengths of kalloy uno stems and remove the logos with jasco (or similar)
Try different styles of handlebars to see what you like most (super narrow, flare vs no flare, different drop compactness)
Try a different tire to see what you prefer and prioritise between rolling resistance, grip, width, etc. Buy them before you need them but swap after you wear through your current tires.
Try some of the Ali lightweight cassettes but keep your current one and swap between them a few times. You can save a lot of weight but loose some shifting crispness.
Try different rotor styles. You have the oldest gen Shimano road rotors which are fairly prone to ticking. The newest ones work better but are heavier than other options. Galfer is a good enough option for most at a lower weight. There are others that are way lighter but dont work as well. You should experience this yourself to find what works best for you.
Carbon-Ti expander plug
Direct mount RD hanger
Try to borrow or test ride other wheelsets to see if you like the ride feel of carbon spokes or metal spokes.
PM pedals (Expensive but can be moved between bikes)

Enjoy the process the journey is half the fun.

[mrjetlee]

Thank you guys so much for the helpful replies
It's my first road bike, but not my first bike! I've got a few fixed gear track bikes that I've been riding for a few years. I accumilated a lot of Aliexpress parts for those bikes and that's where the parts I've swapped in so far came from. I am planning to keep my upgrades cheap and cheerful when possible.

I've put an 11cm Uno Kalloy stem on instead of the 12cm Thomson and it feels much better for me, my hands were not very comfortable with the 12cm. The stock 42cm/11cm cockpit with full stack of spacers was also very uncomfortable. The first thing I did with this bike was get the cables out of the intergrated stock handlebars so I could swap out bars / stem to play with the fit. The Thomson stem was 175g, Uno Kalloy 110mm is supposed to be 112g. So that's 63g saved. Probably gonna pick up the 110mm 17 degree version as I prefer the look of a flat stem. Seems like they are available without logos here https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/32964466090.html only a little more expensive.

My thru axles are 70g together, I don't know if this is heavy or not don't mind getting some new ones if there's a bit of weight to be saved.

Searched all over for the Cannondale cranks you guys recommended and couldn't find anything. I would actually prefer shorter cranks at 165mm and it doesn't seem like these exsist at all!
These two are the only 2 interesting cannondale crank listings I could find, I just really wish they were 165mm.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305699548490
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226278554563
I am now seriously considering some aliexpress carbon cranks, unless you guys have some other suggestions.
Once I get a crankset I will definitely get a new chain and cassette to pair with it, with wax as well. I already wax my fixed gear chains.

Wheels are the next thing I want, don't want to spend too much, I'm looking at elitewheels. I really want to run 32mm tires, so the wheels should be wide to match.

[CampagYOLO]

Thank you guys so much for the helpful replies
It's my first road bike, but not my first bike! I've got a few fixed gear track bikes that I've been riding for a few years. I accumilated a lot of Aliexpress parts for those bikes and that's where the parts I've swapped in so far came from. I am planning to keep my upgrades cheap and cheerful when possible.

I've put an 11cm Uno Kalloy stem on instead of the 12cm Thomson and it feels much better for me, my hands were not very comfortable with the 12cm. The stock 42cm/11cm cockpit with full stack of spacers was also very uncomfortable. The first thing I did with this bike was get the cables out of the intergrated stock handlebars so I could swap out bars / stem to play with the fit. The Thomson stem was 175g, Uno Kalloy 110mm is supposed to be 112g. So that's 63g saved. Probably gonna pick up the 110mm 17 degree version as I prefer the look of a flat stem. Seems like they are available without logos here https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/32964466090.html only a little more expensive.

My thru axles are 70g together, I don't know if this is heavy or not don't mind getting some new ones if there's a bit of weight to be saved.

Searched all over for the Cannondale cranks you guys recommended and couldn't find anything. I would actually prefer shorter cranks at 165mm and it doesn't seem like these exsist at all!
These two are the only 2 interesting cannondale crank listings I could find, I just really wish they were 165mm.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305699548490
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226278554563
I am now seriously considering some aliexpress carbon cranks, unless you guys have some other suggestions.
Once I get a crankset I will definitely get a new chain and cassette to pair with it, with wax as well. I already wax my fixed gear chains.

Wheels are the next thing I want, don't want to spend too much, I'm looking at elitewheels. I really want to run 32mm tires, so the wheels should be wide to match.

165mm does exist for the Hollowgram cranksets but they'll be hard to find:

https://www.cannondalespares.com/Cannon ... il/3-42225

In terms of price, second hand ones are pretty cheap so keep an eye on Ebay and snap one up when it turns up!

[Discodan]

I’ve got the same bike, a fair few mods but not chasing weight savings so it’s about 7.5. On the cranks discussion, I kept the stock arms but replaced the rings with spiderings which saved a fair bit of weight (those fsa ones a real heavy) and looks a lot better for little cost


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[mrjetlee]

I’ve got the same bike, a fair few mods but not chasing weight savings so it’s about 7.5. On the cranks discussion, I kept the stock arms but replaced the rings with spiderings which saved a fair bit of weight (those fsa ones a real heavy) and looks a lot better for little cost

Nice! Would love to know more about your bike and what you've done to it, do you have a build thread for it? I'm particularly interested in the headset / spacer / stem situation and if you know of any way to keep looking nice and intergrated. Do you know if the shifter cables can be routed through the headtube alongside the rear brake hose? I'd love to get them fully inside the frame, can't see any reason why it wouldn't work Also do you know what version this bike is called?

My mate has spider ring he offered to sell me, will ask him about it again, hopefully he'll offer a decent price.

[Discodan]

No build thread (it's an unglamorous workhorse) but here's a pic of when it was first built, it was a 105 donor. https://1drv.ms/i/s!AlR9KEiul8Img-ozJRK ... Q?e=cxZQ7e. Since then I've made a 3d printed spacer which is much cleaner for hiding all of the cables, bearing in mind I've got Di2 on it so it will be hard to do that with mech shifting unless you use that conversion kit (can't remember the company name but someone will chime in). Here's the spacer before I cleaned it up and made it smoother https://1drv.ms/i/s!AlR9KEiul8ImhJU7FGS ... g?e=VgzoYF and here's the bike in it's current form but from the wrong side https://1drv.ms/i/s!AlR9KEiul8ImhKp_5eg ... Q?e=CvS1oR . Hope that helps

[matcav]

I am now seriously considering some aliexpress carbon cranks, unless you guys have some other suggestions.

Of course, you can install a carbon crankset from Ali. However, you probably have to replace the PF30A bottom bracket + end up with something that might not be such a significant improvement. In my opinion, Cannondale's hollowgram cranksets si/sisl2 are well made, great in stiffness and weight, and designed specifically for this exact frame/bb spec. I'd definitely start upgrading with a spidering while you're hunting for the crankarms you need, rather than going with a Chinese option.

[MichaelK]

Probably gonna pick up the 110mm 17 degree version as I prefer the look of a flat stem. Seems like they are available without logos here https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/32964466090.html only a little more expensive.

My thru axles are 70g together, I don't know if this is heavy or not don't mind getting some new ones if there's a bit of weight to be saved.

Acetone will remove the logos on the Kalloy stems really nicely.

You could probably save around 20g with lighter thru-axles. Might not be worth the g/£ ratio.

[mrjetlee]

Acetone will remove the logos on the Kalloy stems really nicely.
You could probably save around 20g with lighter thru-axles. Might not be worth the g/£ ratio.

Acetone actually does nothing to the Uno Kalloy logos I've tried! It's ok I've already ordere the black one, I don't mind paying the extra £3.
Do you have any suggestions for thru axles? I don't even know where to begin to look.

Unrelated, where do you ride in London? Do you go on any group rides? I'm looking for roadies to ride with!

[MichaelK]

Proper acetone, none of that nail polish remover stuff, plus a bit of elbow grease. I've done 5 Unos so far.

I need to update that info bit, I've moved outta London and I'm only there once a week. Do Regents laps when I can. Depends which area you're based really. North-ish/East Islington go out Essex way to Ongar/Harlow/Epping etc. South I'd say Brixton Cycles in South Hills/Ide Hill direction.

[OtterSpace]

Do you have any suggestions for thru axles? I don't even know where to begin to look.

J&L are a good enough cheaper option. Personally for a build like this I'd try and keep $/g savings under $2 a gram or so which means they might not be worth it. Some stock through axles from bikes around 2021 came with heavy non removable levers which would be well over 70g for the set.

There is enough low hanging fruit to keep the focus on $1 a gram savings or better initially.

The kalloy is a good inital reference. It was 63g savings at something like $15 which is ~$0.24 per gram. It will get harder the more you change though.

Also its a good time to try and see what matters more to you weight, usability, price by trying a range of cassette, chain, tire, and other options as its rare to find something like the kalloy that ticks all boxes. For me this process motivates me to ride more and is just a lot of fun building a bike you love.

[mrjetlee]

Proper acetone, none of that nail polish remover stuff, plus a bit of elbow grease. I've done 5 Unos so far.

I have a bottle of "proper" acetone! Maybe I didn't use enough elbow grease, it did absolutely nothing to the logos when I was scrubbing them Will give it another go over the weekend!

There is enough low hanging fruit to keep the focus on $1 a gram savings or better initially.

I might just get those J&L axles!

I've started looking at wheels, trying to keep the budget down so been looking on Ali. Not really been able to find anything very light weight as far as I can see, lots of very cheap wheelsets though! Google says my current Cannondale Hollowgram 35 wheels are 1550g.
I'd love to get some wider rims as I want to run 30mm/32mm tires.

Found these Elitewheels EDGE 2.0 for around £500 which are 1303g at 50mm and 1448g at 65mm, they're the lightest I've come across on Ali. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007516932880.html

I don't really want to raise the wheel budget too far over 500. I can manage 600 - 700 but they'd need to be light and look nice! What kind of weight range should I be realistically looking at if I want 50 - 60mm deep?

I will have a chat with https://www.yuananbike.com/ to see if I can price something up with them. Seems like farsports is unfortnautely out of my budget for now.

I may or may not have ordered some SISL cranks and spider ring Gonna get a dura ace chain and look into a new cassette
I've also discovered that my shifter cables can be internally routed alongside the rear brake hose, so that will be a future project for this bike once I figure out the perfect cockpit position.