Commentary--being a weight weenie

[2002SaecoReplica]

90 minutes(45minutes each way) is not a long way. Roads in America are generally not good regardless whether you live in New Mexico, Georiga, California, or New York. You use your bike to commute, a nobel purpose I'll give you that. But most commuters are not riding hard and for not very long. I suspect if you were to do a crit race on your bike you'd be swapping those 900gram wheels quick. It's easy to bost about reliability when it is hardly put to the test.

[rustychain]

Thinking on the weight / strength issue made me remember the crash in the TD Georgia when the guy bunny hopped over Mario and his fork broke.

I think that the weight / stength issue could be resolved better by having each racer bonny hopp over say a 8 inch curb, giving some test to the stength of the bike with that rider. The 15lb weight rules are not making riders or bikes more safe. Riders are from 130lbs to 215lbs, a 15lb bike and a 215lb rider is questionable for mass start racing IMO.

A weight weenie to me is simply trying to make a bike work best for you and your riding style, I am as happy with my 15.5lb bike (down from 19lbs) as some of you are with your 12lb bikes. I don't feel that I am packing any extra weight (on my bike ) so in my book I'm still a WW.

[kAb]

This just makes me want to put my build list for my durable 12.5lb road weapon on here so you can all see a pretty damn good compromise between price(value), weight, durability, and most importantly ride quality. Hell my set up with clinchers is sub 14lbs. But I will wait another 3-4 weeks til my damn brakes finally come in. I think I'll post it on this thread.

[BikeTech]

Gandini, I've got my TCR down to 11.6 lbs with sewups, about 12 lbs even with clinchers. I'll post pics and a spec if you are interested... bike is 100% reliable for my rider weight of 155 - 158lbs.

[OLver]

summary of this topic:

beeing a true weight weenie = being very rich and to be a bit crazy (or stupid...)

[drjones96]

Gandini, I've got my TCR down to 11.6 lbs with sewups, about 12 lbs even with clinchers. I'll post pics and a spec if you are interested... bike is 100% reliable for my rider weight of 155 - 158lbs.

A sensible 12lb bike that is reliable/durable that can be raced/trained on? If so, you have my full attention. Post away.

[OLver]

Gandini, I've got my TCR down to 11.6 lbs with sewups, about 12 lbs even with clinchers. I'll post pics and a spec if you are interested... bike is 100% reliable for my rider weight of 155 - 158lbs.

A sensible 12lb bike that is reliable/durable that can be raced/trained on? If so, you have my full attention. Post away.

I'm also waiting to see this miraculous bike....

[gandini]

90 minutes(45minutes each way) is not a long way. Roads in America are generally not good regardless whether you live in New Mexico, Georiga, California, or New York. You use your bike to commute, a nobel purpose I'll give you that. But most commuters are not riding hard and for not very long. I suspect if you were to do a crit race on your bike you'd be swapping those 900gram wheels quick. It's easy to bost about reliability when it is hardly put to the test.

So now I don't ride long enough, or hard enough, to qualify as having a "durable" or "reliable" 12lb TCR? In your first post you said you'd whop me in a race, or crit. on your 16lb bike--and I have no doubt about it! You'd probably show me dust on any bike, under any conditions, any time. I've never claimed that my bike is "stressed," simply that the conditions under which I commute are harsher than most road races I ever partcipated in (semi-rural semi-closed point to point or circuits,) except for the speeds. I commute at about an average of 18mph I'd guess. I don't "race" against the other commuters, or racers out training when I meet them--I usually nod, or let them pass, or chat with them if they decide to stop, or I catch up with them. I'm 48 years old and have been riding for 25 years--I lost all my pride while riding mountain bikes with guys 12 years younger than me. I have nothing to prove. My bike is no where near the lightest one on this forum, nor the most expensive. My original post wasn't actually about my bike...

[big fellow]

no need to degenerate into the "what cat rider, how fast can you ride rubbish" dribble again...

thought we were all a bit more mature than that

[Enda Marron]

Its an obsession, its an addiction, I have to do it I must IMPROVE my bike, it probably won't make it faster, or me a better person, or solve the world's problems ...but it makes ME happy!!

[Coolhand]

The one thing that is clear, is that there is not one "type" of weight weenie. All of these sub 15 pound bikes, I would flex and break- probably at the worst possible time in a race. I hate composite saddles (yet love my carbon railled Alliante). I won't ride tubulars just to save weight. I will happly add weight to the bike if it means the bike is stiffer where it counts. My new race bike is heavier then my old one, but I like it more. Nevertheless I will sell this one too once the race season is over.

Yet I still care about the weights of all my parts, and still want the lightest, best performing parts I can get. I care about the true weights of parts, rather then the advertised weights. I love the new carbon bling parts. I love when people are amazed at how light my 60cm bike is. I like finding out about truly top notch companies that stand behind their products. Zero Gravity, Lightweights and other great products are first exposed here.

And while this forum does have a bit of a pack mentality at times, and certain posters don't let not knowing the right answer slow them down- this is still the first and best resource for intelligently specing a bike for whatever need you may have- from budget light, to racing light, to shutting up that guy in your club light, to engineering exercise light.

[BikeTech]

Here you go DrJones...

Here is the spec of my Giant TCR '04 frame.

Frame: TCR '04, size medium, 1038gm

Fork: TCR stock, 332gm

Headset: FSA, stock

Spacer - stock carbon, 1 x 5mm

Headset expander: Extralite, 8gm

Top cap: Giant carbon, Alloy bolt

Stem: Syntace F99, Ti bolts, 120mm

Bar: Schmolke TLO, 129gm

Shifters: Campy Record 9 carbon (no BTP clamps... unsafe)

Seatpost: Extralite UL, chopped to 330mm, 134gm

Seatpost binder: BTP Carbon, 6gm

Saddle: Ax-Lightness Sprint, 71gm

Brakes: ZeroG, 168gm the pair

Cages: BTP carbon x 1, 13gm.. add another for road races of course.

BB: AC ISIS, 139gm

Crank: Storck with Specialties TA Rings / Alloy chainring bolts - 449gm

Pedals: Speedplay X-1 w / Superlite's plates and Ti bolts - 127gm the pair

Front Derailleur: Campy Record carbon, BTP tuned, 53gm

Rear Derailleur: Campy Record 2004 carbon, Fibre Lite plate

Chain: KMC X10, 233gm

Cassette: Dura-Ace 9 speed, with two Shimano alloy spacers substituted for Campy resin ones

Cable housings: Jagwire racer (lighter than their faux carbon housings)

Cables: Jagwire

Wheels: Zipp 202 rims, AC 2004 / 2005 hubs, CX-Ray spokes. 20 front, 24 rear. 1023gm.

QRs - Control Tech, 47gm the pair

Tires: Tufo S3 Lite < 215 with Tufo extreme tape.

Pic attached was taken a few months ago. Will attach a more recent pic when I'm at my abode later. Photo shows bike with training setup - AC 350 clinchers w / CX-Rays and Tune Concorde saddle - took that off as I found it a little too 'mushy'. In this form the bike was about 12.2lbs. Several changes have been made since then and it is a tad over 12lbs even in training mode.

For me this bike is very reliable and is regularly raced and trained on. I weigh about 155 lbs. I usually train on clinchers but the sewups come up for special events and races. This bike was ridden at the Georgia Six Gap century last year and I have no qualms about reliability. I have always been easy on equipment so that may be a factor.

[drjones96]

Its an obsession, its an addiction, I have to do it I must IMPROVE my bike, it probably won't make it faster, or me a better person, or solve the world's problems ...but it makes ME happy!!

My bike started life in 2001 as a 22-23 lb beast and I've got it down to about 16.5 lbs. Is it super duper light? No. Could I have taken all the money I've spent and just built a bike in the 15lb range? Probably, but I didn't. I had an attachment to my bike. I even named her. "Sally"...."Mustang Sally". I had to buy her better wheels, improve her drivetrain, help her shed those unwanted pounds, and sex her up with carbon fiber parts.
"All you want to do is ride around, Sally. Ride Sally Ride."

[BikeTech]

Mustang Sally LOL.

I have several bikes but the Giant is my fun project bike.

[PNuT]

a true weight weenie WOULD ride fixed