Hello, and... if you could replace one thing on my bike...

[rob j]

What would it be?

Hi guys, from Cambridge UK. I'm back on my road bike after a 5 year lay-off, and thinking about trying to shed some weight from my bike as a reward for loosing nearly 5 kilos off my own frame

My bike's built around an old FDJ team issue Gitane (Columbus Altec) frame and is 9 speed Durace (circa 99) throughout. Other non-Durace stuff is:

Wheels: Mavic Heliums (original clinchers)
Tyres: Shwalbe F&R with ordinary tubes
Saddle: nice new Flite 135g
Bars: Cinelli Eubios
Stem: Cinelli XA (14cm)
2 x Elite Bottle cages

Currently the bike weighs almost spot on 19 pounds / 8.6 kilos. So...

the question is, if you were to change one, or maybe two things in order to get the best bang for your buck in terms of weight saving, what would it / they be?

Appreciate it's a pretty basic question, so hope you'll be patient with my newbie-ness Thanks guys.

[jeffr]

Hey Rob. Welcome to the forum. To answer that question you really have to give some price guidelines.

Most of the time upgrading your wheels can save the most weight but it's also costly. Given how old your components are you might like to update to a modern shimano or campy 10 speed group to save some weight and get improved functionality. If you want something cheaper I think the campy centaur group is a great value, but if you want to keep the wheels you should stick with shimano.

[rob j]

Hey Rob. Welcome to the forum. To answer that question you really have to give some price guidelines.

Thanks, and good point! Let's say initially, I've got around 200 pounds / 370 dollars - not a lot of money I know, but I'm sure this will only be the beginning

I guess what I'm looking for are the "good value" weight saving upgrades just to start with so ideally, I can actually feel the difference.

I'm still very interested in more expensive ideas for the longer term though. Thanks.

[drjones96]

Could you post a picture of your bike so we can maybe see what components would look good on it?

[Balenaar]

Hello,

If I was you I would buy another pait of wheels (lighter)

[Skillgannon]

What about the ones from that shop that was offering a groupset soon. Was mentioned on the road sectoin, drJones will know the name of them. Something like 200 USD for a 1400gm clincher wheelset

And with that you'd have enough for maybe some Ti bolts, or some lighter tubes/tires to complement the wheels

[drjones96]

@Skillgannon - I'm drawing a blank.

Edit: ~$200 for a 1400g wheelset? That don't sound too bad.

[Tippster]

I think I'd spec a lighter engine.

The one I have is approx 1.5 stone (10Kg) heavier than the model I was running 18 months ago.

[rob j]

I think I'd spec a lighter engine.

I could maybe loose one more kilo at a push I guess - then I'd weigh 59. Body fat is approx 10-11% (down from 14-15) at my current weight of 60kg - down from 64. So yeah, I've been kind of working on the engine

I'd have to spend a lot of cash to save weight on wheels - the original Heliums are pretty light even by todays standards at a claimed 1635g for a set of clinchers.

Here's quite a good one that wasn't so obvious (to me at least) - lighter shoes! Think I've saved about 150g already

Lighter tyres / tubes seem to be the best bet so far for the rest of my initial budget...