Originally Posted by
rajbcpa
ok - purchased a kinda heavy mountain bike - bridgestone. ....considering [1] carbon crank, [2] carbon fork, [3] carbon wheels and carbon handelbars to save weight...
looking at cranks, a shimano [ultegra] weighs 3 pounds. the campy aluminum alloy crank [centaur] is 1.8 pounds...
I thought this was a misprint. the carbon crank should weigh less; right?
You can throw a whole lot of money at that bike and still not get it appreciably lighter. Tires are a place where weight can easily and inexpensively be saved. Rims are another, but don't just assume that carbon will weigh less than aluminum. As someone else mentioned finding a good carbon 26" wheel with rim brakes may be a challenge. I'll bet there are some bargains on good quality 26 inch rim brake wheels to be had. The weight difference between good quality carbon bars and high quality aluminum bars is generally negligible. Road cranks on a mountain bike may not work. With a threaded English bottom bracket, you can adjust the chainline, but the with the wider MTB stays, your inner ring may not clear it. Bottom line in my opinion is that you can do a build with top quality aluminum components and be in a better place than you would by going with carbon.