True Weight Weenieism...

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Kazyole
Posts: 236
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 1:45 am
Location: NYC

by Kazyole

To me it's more a mentality than anything. Constantly tweaking to shave weight/optimize parts of your build. Defining a weight is difficult because of aero frames, disc brakes, etc. As long as you're consciously trying to shave weight off your stock build, you're one of us IMO.

My descent into madness started slow and then accelerated out of control. But I think the critical breaking point was when I started having a document on my laptop with claimed and measured weights (stolen from here) of all the potential upgrades I could make to my frame, and then ranked them by breaking them all down in terms of dollars/grams saved. Which was pretty early on admittedly. To be honest the research process is almost as satisfying as the actual build at this point.

sin77
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2019 3:39 am

by sin77

To me it is a philosophy revolving around an art of achieving a lower weight bike with your talents, skills, knowledge and resources. The philosophy stems from your unwavering belief system that a bike should go as light as you would wish.

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PoorInRichfield
Posts: 203
Joined: Sun May 17, 2020 9:38 pm

by PoorInRichfield

A true weight weenie is obsessessed with the weight of a bike over everything else, no matter how illogical, just shy of making the bike completely impractical.

I.e., you could shave a lot of weight from a bike by removing the tires or wheels, but that's not sane as what you're left with isn't even a bike. However, riding w/o bar tape certainly is do-able, even if illogical, but is something I'd think a true weight weenie might consider for the sake of "low weight trumps all."

As such, I'm not that much of a weight weenie. I do obsess over how light (or heavy) my bike it, but my actual order of priorities at this point in my life are:

1. Comfort
2. Speed
3. Weight

Note that the these three items are all so important to me that it almost seems like they're all #1, but as I get older and my body becomes less tolerant to abuse, the reality is that I don't really enjoy riding my bike as much if I don't make it comfortable (which is why I ride an endurance bike.)

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wheelsONfire
Posts: 6280
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:15 am
Location: NorthEU

by wheelsONfire

A guy not afraid of using the drill, dremel and sanding :mrgreen:
Bikes:

Ax Lightness Vial EVO Race (2019.01.03)
Open *UP* (2016.04.14)
Paduano Racing Fidia (kind of shelved)


Ex bike; Vial EVO D, Vial EVO Ultra, Scott Foil, Paduano ti bike.

tete de la course
Posts: 163
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 8:26 pm

by tete de la course

I like the philosophy of lightweight being the highest priority. How you accomplish that will be different for everyone based on re$ources available. I've seen some pretty cool budget builds. Solid training wheels but the rest of the bike is trick gets me pumped.

My personal favorite is when the build is super light weight and still manages to be practical. It's a delicate dance.

poulhansen
Posts: 297
Joined: Wed Nov 25, 2020 12:49 pm
Location: Danmark

by poulhansen

Kazyole wrote:
Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:26 pm
.........
My descent into madness started slow and then accelerated out of control. But I think the critical breaking point was when I started having a document on my laptop with claimed and measured weights (stolen from here) of all the potential upgrades I could make to my frame, and then ranked them by breaking them all down in terms of dollars/grams saved. Which was pretty early on admittedly. To be honest the research process is almost as satisfying as the actual build at this point.
?? That's a very sane thing to do. I have a spreadsheet for flying, so I pack my bag at the computer and can add or delete stuff and then print out the list, before starting physical packing.

I modified that sheet with bicycle components weights and started building a lightweight on the computer and then used the list for bying components. And of course I have an "ideal" list and an "improvement" list with dollars/grams calculations. :D :D :D
Cannondale Super Six HiMod 2017 6.7 kg
Cannondale six13, 2004, 5.50kg
Focus Izalco Max, 2023 4.418 kg

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