noglider 

Hey weight weenies, this is what you need.

non-fixie 

Love it! Thanks for posting this.

Kilroy1988 

I used to be an active member on the "Weight Weenies" forum, but as a university student could never dream of assembling all of the components to put together such a bike... And now that I've seen the light and only collect vintage bikes, I'm really pleased when I can approach 20 pounds with a build!

Thanks for sharing the video. Fun stuff!

-Gregory

RobbieTunes

Pretty cool.

I have a friend who's been chasing bike weight for years (and he weighs over 200 lbs). He's got his down to just under 13 lbs. I think the weight quest became the driving force, not really any advantage in riding. As long as there've been bikes being raced (or climbed, I suppose), the weight thing has been out there.

scarlson 

I'm kinda playing the weight weenie game with my Vitus 979 right now, but I'm nearing the point of diminishing returns. Getting all the low-hanging fruit sure was fun though! C&V (especially used) weight saving stuff is cheap, I think I've been averaging $15 per 100g weight savings. Hollowpin chain, spider cassette, used Ti-railed saddle, Ti skewers, folding clinchers instead of wire-beads, ultralight tubes, alloy stem bolts, and alloy toe clips are all I've got so far. I'd like to say I've noticed a difference, but I just haven't.

I want it to weigh less than my Maine Coon cat, who is about 17lbs. This video makes it look like that should be easy!

But isn't it a bit cheating that the pedals weigh so little but the cleats, which aren't technically part of the bike, weigh more? Same with tubs. Sure you save 100g per wheel, even over folding clinchers with superlight tubes, but you've got to carry an extra tire instead of just an extra superlight tube, so you're back where you started. You're just transferring weight to the rider and kit.

Last ride 76 

Curses! Now I'm farther away than ever from weenie heaven, with my old Ron Cooper. Not that there was any weight weenie cred before, measuring against 14 lb. bikes.

I figured there would be tech that was not available to the general public, but aside from cost issues, and some extraordinary hand craftsmanship, esp. regarding the frame, this is more or less repeatable, I think. Wow!

There are some really light wheels out there. Not so sure how I would feel descending on them.

madpogue 

Sorta like electric vehicles being called "zero emissions" -- if you don't happen to live next to the power plant.

This proves that a soul actually has mass -- this bike saves weight by having no soul.

SurferRosa

That's odd... The youtube comments are all negative.

radroad

People like this just make the sport a laughingstock. Dude could've just stopped eating Doritos, lost five pounds, and saved himself $15K in his gram shaving obsession.

John E

My Bianchi weighs 10kg. So what?

bikemig 

Heck I think 21 lbs is light for a racing bike . . . .

Fahrenheit531 

Realizing he could go no further with the bike itself, Steve next amputated both legs below the knee to clear space for a nifty pair of carbon-fiber prosthetics.

cudak888 

I don't blame them. Sat through all the weight weenie nonsense to see this thing being ridden and...nope.

Also, with exception to the drilliumesque brifters, there's nothing particularly remarkable here, is there? I don't see any hyper fabrication of unique parts for this thing - it's a production frame with very expensive production parts with fairly pedestrian mods.

This thing was bought, not built.

-Kurt

tyrion

My bike has about 20 pounds of soul.

RiddleOfSteel

I saw that video close to when it came out and never liked the stem. Just use a straight one! At any rate, it's cool, and a neat exercise. As a healthy 96kg (211 lbs or so) 6'5" American, I'm ok with some solidity in the frame. My Ridley is an easy 17.1 lbs with pedals and bottle cages and absorbs the road very nicely. However, it's 2.2-ish lb savings over my Prologue (formerly with the exact same pieces as this was a direct swap) have not been felt as the Prologue is springy, light steel and can "flatten" a hill better than the Ridley.

Stage 6 of this year's Tour de France, finishing 1km further up the road of La Planche des Belle Filles, had some brutal 24% grades right at the end, to go with the 15-20% inclines also in that last 1km and beforehand. Looking at all that carbon and them struggling mightily (for good reason!), I thought that man, some steel in those chain stays sure would help give them a boost. Or good aluminum (a la Trek Emonda ALR). That was an epic stage (check NBC's extended highlights for all stage coverage, which is so great).

Light weight it cool, and fun to track, but ultimately, I want to ride my bike, not fear it. A 19.0 lb fully dressed road bike is stupid light for me, and anything at 20.0 lbs is a win. My sprinter/puncheur physique needs strength....for all that slowness up hill and bombing down hill.

Jeff Wills

Hmmm... I could play that game. Mango, the bigger of my two orange Maine Coons, is 21 pounds. I could easily build a C&V weight-weenie bike that weighs less than that!

scarlson 

Perhaps this is the real solution to life, the universe, and everything: just get a bigger cat!! We giant-cat-people know what's up.

I think that Hi-E pedals and MKS alloy toeclips will actually make my toeclips setup lighter than many clipless systems. Plus, I'm pretty confident that those pedals will give it more soul!! The Superbe pedals I have on there now are 300g, which makes them comparable to a set of Look, Speedplay, Crank Bros, or SPD pedals (even some of the carbon/Ti models), if you include the cleats.

But you know, I only ride in crocs. For lightness.

Nemosengineer 

Weight weenie for me is more about the machine, capturing a period in time when new ground was being broken and new ideas were changing everything. So I guess I'm putting together more of a historic artifact than an actual bicycle, although my ethos demands my creation actually functions and is not overly fragile. My target weight for my Teledyne is sub 17 pounds and yes, it's not cheap to run the parts down but I enjoy the process.
As far as people in the bicycle sport making it a laughingstock... well your entitled to your perception, people use bicycles to train for other sports that require a different physique to excel at their chosen endeavor. I participate in a sport that requires a maximum effort endurance for about 25 minutes combined with physical strength so I do some weight training and ride my Bob Jackson quite a bit, by the way I weigh 200 lbs, 5' 9'' tall, 63 years old, have hair down to the middle of my back, wear cargo shorts when I ride my bicycle and wave to fellow cyclists.
Bicycles and motorcycles are different branches of the same tree and generally speaking both branches need more riders to keep the respective sports (?) healthy. If I look funny riding, o well, too bad for me. This is just the opinion of a old motorcycle racer and it's worth exactly what you paid for it.

SurferRosa

I always watch these things at 1.5x, so, not a big deal.

The late '70s Dawes I'm building will be about 20 lbs heavier. And I'm excited.

But it's been so fun building it up, I don't want to hurry too much...

crank_addict

Want.

But being this is a 'classic and vintage' forum, I'm nicely settled in with a 45 year old bike weighing double (18 lbs) the OP modern bike.

Its exceeded my expectations and is a rider with classic era trait, not necessarily with a weight sickness. Metal, leather and whips, it's also a killa-klimber.

Features:
Triple ultra wide range gear inch.
Pedals with toe clips and straps.
Brooks saddle
Quill stem
Bar-end shifters
Large flange hubs
32 hole 3X laced front and rear

Cheers-

Spaghetti Legs 

Did not watch video but can see it doesn’t have disc brakes so it must be a death trap.

Or not, I can’t remember if disc brakes are good or not.

Trakhak

The obvious rebuttal to the standard "don't make the bike lighter---lose weight" meme: why not both?

And, by the way, the "dude" recently won an extremely competitive hill climb competition in Great Britain, so he must have already lost that 5 pounds.

madpogue 

Maybe that's the "point" (albeit a pointless point...). Maybe they set out to demonstrate that such a bike could be assembled with off-the-shelf parts. Still a silly exercise, but....

Because the latter is good for reasons having nothing to do with cycling, and cheaper, whereas the former is mostly for its own sake, and expensive. The meme is not so much one "or" the other, it's a matter of where one directs ones limited resources of time, money and energy/focus. The latter gets a lot more overall "bang for the buck".

Our heaviest cat ever was Nigel, who tipped in at 18 lb. I don't think I've had a bike that light, ever. Well, my heaviest bike is still lighter than my neighbor's St. Bernard.

T-Mar

He might as well have left off the bottle cages because two full bottles will balloon the weight by 30%.

texaspandj

Steve, don't forget to drill out the water bottles.