Sub 5kg of German lightweight engineering: AX Lightness Ultra 2017

[mrlobber]

After one and a half year, finally put together German lightweight engineering with some French, Slovenian and Italian inputs

Possible future upgrades to still drop up to 250g - AX Ultra 25T, 9150RD (looks much better because of being black) and some other small things.

[gewichtweenie]

did you verify the air mass?

[NiFTY]

Nice build. Maybe a bit too much red.

[JScycle]

Awesome build and an amazing weight.
However, I think there is a bit too much red. If there were black skewers, hubs, nipples and a black chain it would look much better in my opinion.

[RyanH]

Some of the weights seem off. I haven't seen a Veloflex extreme that was less than 240g and I have to buy 10 carbons to find one that is actually 250g, most are 255g to 265g. Carbon Works cages aren't 10g unless you got special ones but bolts are also another 6g. Your eeBrakes weight is missing spacers and other parts. Of the four sets I have had, they have all been between 170g and 172g.

All of that to say it looks like you're going off claimed weights on quite a few components and not actual, which means your bike isn't sub 5kg.

[bencolem]

Some of the weights seem off. I haven't seen a Veloflex extreme that was less than 240g and I have to buy 10 carbons to find one that is actually 250g, most are 255g to 265g. Carbon Works cages aren't 10g unless you got special ones but bolts are also another 6g. Your eeBrakes weight is missing spacers and other parts. Of the four sets I have had, they have all been between 170g and 172g.

All of that to say it looks like you're going off claimed weights on quite a few components and not actual, which means your bike isn't sub 5kg.

There's only one thing for it... to the scales shot batman!

[KCookie]

Agree with the 9150 RD & FD, will look a lot better. Ive some on order to for the same reason.
Great bike, but a little to much red.
RyanH so what your saying is a scale shot is needed.

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[sib]

I like the red accents myself.
Any feedback on the wheels?

[mrlobber]

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

Here's a scale shot:


Ryan, I appreciate your knowledge, but, unless my kitchen scales are way off at random times (since some components correspond to the known weights), the weights are all verified on them.

The Veloflexes on the wheels are at least 5 years old, which might explain the surprising weight - pre-2012, they were lighter.

Anyway, I do still have a couple of new Carbons, here's one of them:

Out of six I've weighed, the average for me is 251g, I've never seen one above 255g actually

Carbonworks bottle cages... here's a shot of one of them with screws:


The EEbrakes are 170-172g without pads, here's madcow's own scale shot if you wouldn't believe mine download/file.php?mode=view&id=62396

I like the red accents myself.
Any feedback on the wheels?

You can't beat them on price vs weight They cost me like sub 400 EUR in 2013, but are completely adequate for my 74kgs, have held up fine in Maratona Dolomites, some local races and so on.
I ordered them with red hubs & nipples because I had a SS Evo in grey/red at that time, so, unfortunately, can't really reduce the area of red on the bike Interesting, but you can't buy them anymore, as Farsports do not offer tubs less than 30mm at the moment.

[KCookie]

Your very lucky with your tyres, my last four were 259-262.
If one cage with bolts is 7g shouldn't your spreed sheet say 14g not 10g.

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[kgt]

lovely!

[dereksmalls]

Interesting, but you can't buy them anymore, as Farsports do not offer tubs less than 30mm at the moment.

You can from their Ali Express store

[Berk]

Great nice to see some more true ww builds!

[mrlobber]

Did a 150km ride today with some local hills included.
Did not set PB on the steepest of them, but I guess that's rather a testament of lack of my VO2max fitness

The bike generally performed very well. It isn't as smooth as my Evo once was (with the same wheels & tyres), but what it does like no other bike I've extensively ridden, is that it somehow "floats" over the largest patches of uneven road surface without "throwing" you up, so that you can keep pushing on the pedals (maybe that's a combination of Schmolke's seatpost and Berk saddle effect too). And, of course, all the bridges and similar ramps feel like they're not there at all, especially if accelerating while standing on the big gear.

What I also liked, that I could easily hold speeds 35 kph and above today on the flats, so even with the Tour saying the aero difference is 20W vs Cervelo S5 and similar, I actually did the same distance only 0.5 kph slower on average vs a month ago (probably this sounds like a sweet music to kgt's ears )

KCookie, luckily, my spreadsheet accounts for the "missing" weight, which is 30g total, let's consider the bottle cage bolts included in there

Juanmoretime, the MCFK stem certainly isn't the stiffest. But Fairwheelbikes did include it in their stem review, and exactly 120mm length, check it out there

[kgt]

What I also liked, that I could easily hold speeds 35 kph and above today on the flats, so even with the Tour saying the aero difference is 20W vs Cervelo S5 and similar, I actually did the same distance only 0.5 kph slower on average vs a month ago (probably this sounds like a sweet music to kgt's ears )

I would never trade your bike for an S5 or any of the aero 'marvels'.