Hoping to get some advice… I got a new bike and I love it. I’m hoping to understand more about how to drop bike weight without losing the things I like about it.
I have upgraded the crank to an xx sl transmission crank with a power meter and I think that actually saved a few grams from my Garmin rally xc pedals and old crank.
Tires are Forekaster exo TR 2.4s
Bike weighs right around 27.5 lbs.
I’m coming from an sworks epic 2018. I liked the weight of the epic but I wanted a little more suspension, less “brain”, and newer geometry.
The things I like about the fezzari are the better stopping power of the brakes, the much longer seat dropper (150mm or more maybe?), and the slightly cushier ride that allows me to push it a bit on downhills.
How can I lose some weight… Tires? Handlebar/Stem?, different dropper? Is there a reasonably priced lightweight cassette for Transmission?
The cassette is as light as the XXSL as far as I know. There aren’t any aftermarket cassettes for transmission that will work well.
Edit: it’s surprisingly hard to find a weight comparison chart that includes XXSL but I think you could drop 40g with that cassette. Not really a great savings per dollar but there’s an option.
Maybe take a look at droppers? Fox transfer SL or oneup v3.
Tires will be the easiest and make the biggest difference. Swapping alloy bars to carbon can be cost effective as well.
How much did your epic weigh? We have a 2021. I have not officially weighted it but I know my case from Thule weight when I ship it. It has to be 25 to 26 lbs. wonder if the older ones are that much lighter?
Agree that tires are definitely an easy place to save weight. There are definitely lighter options than the Forekasters that will likely work well. Which tires exactly will depend a bit on where you ride. The XC Tire Thread has some good discussion on that. I also agree it’s worth looking at droppers. The Fox Transfer and BikeYoke Divine are both light options, but $/g that won’t be as big a gain as tires. Those wheels are reasonably light, so probably not much to be gained there.
Cockpit - MTZOOM Handlebar and stem
Saddle - Antares R1 or whatever suits you
Grips - Any foam grip
Tyres - Something else… The lightest option feasible for the grip/conditions you need.
Thing is, you can see above you are altering some of the most important contact points of the bike. You will have to give up some comfort & durability (performance in their own respect) for a very very marginal gain in performance through lowering the weight of the bike.
Of course, If you ride fairly tame and dry trails maybe speccing those weight-weenie components doesn’t matter to much. But if you do ride in loose/wet trails, natural trails etc. I wouldn’t swap out the forekasters…
I can’t see your bike loosing more than 1kg unless spending an unreasonable amount of money. So maybe just ride it and swap out components for those that fit/work better for you (and maybe there will be grams to be saved in the process).
What wheels did it come with? Lighter wheels and tires are the easiest low hanging fruit. I just picked up a base Epic Evo for dirt cheap and I’m currently upgrading it to be sub 10kg. The stock wheels are over 2000g and I ordered some sub 1300g 30m wide EIE’s. I also plan to swap to tubeless with lighter conti Race Kings, 500+g savings, picked up a xx1 cassette to drop another 200g, xx1 crank for 300g, and deleted the dropper for a savings of over 400g. All in should be around 4k.
I’m in Philadelphia and the trails that I ride the most are not tame trails. Lots of rocks and technical climbing and descending.
My older epic was probably around 25lbs with pedals and dropper etc, so yes it’s not like the new bike is crazy weight compared to that.
I’m feeling like maybe different tires is the easiest one, and upgrade parts like chain/cassette when needed.
The bar/stem combo is pretty robust aluminum too, I think the bars are 35mm so maybe that’s a cheapish swap out with not a lot of consequences to ride feel? Saddle?
The DT Swiss XRC 1501 are light (I’m assuming you have the Pro SL build), but not the lightest. If you have the Stans Arch, then there’s a ton of room for weight savings. Published weight for the DT XRC1501 is ~1540g range. The Stans are 1700g. Do they really weight that, or is the published spec optimistic? Strip’em down and weigh them. I9 UL300 gets you around 1400g. LightBicycke XC930 gets you sub-1300g with Bitex hubs, a bit less with DT180s.
Tires are probably the easiest place to loose grams. The Forecaster isn’t light. But, that’s also going to depend on the terrain you ride. A true XC tire is going to weigh less and roll faster, but could be sketchy for long days in the backcountry.
Bars and stem - weight them and see where they are. Usually not a cost effective place to lose weight, but I bet the OEM parts aren’t the lightest.
Brakes - maybe swap to an UL 2-piston setup? Like tires, this might not be the best idea if you need the braking capacity.
Really, you aren’t going to save a whole lot of weight - your drivetrain is pretty close to as light as you can get with Transmission. XTR might be lighter, but that’s a pricey way t save a few grams.
That’s a lil beefy for an XC bike. I have a large 2023 Spark RC and race ready with sealant, pedals, mounts and cages comes just under 24 lbs.
Your tires are heavy and more of trail weight. Generally 700-750g is a good range and you’re in the 900s. That’s 0.8 of a pound right there. Rims should no more than about 1500g depending where your budget is. Between a lighter dropper and saddle you could probably drop another half a pound. Carbon handlebars and foam grips a bit more. Pedals can be heavy depending where you’re coming from. So to get to 25lbs should be attainable without getting ridiculous. Much under that I wouldn’t bother. Drivetrain is the last place I’d look to drop weight.
