Wileyrat

Competitive Cyclist has a Ridley Helium house build with Sram Force 22 for 1750 right now. It's not the real Helium frame, it's probably the Helium geometry with the Fenix carbon lay up.

I have a similar Fenix I bought from them a couple of yrs ago, had them put on some Hed Ardennes wheels instead of the stock Mavic's and got it out the door for around 2300.

I'd guess my bike as it sits it's high 15's to low 16's. Stock it was around low to mid 16's.

EBDB

I bought the Cavalo Squadra Dura Ace on Nashbar.com on sale for just under $1900. Weighed in at 16.4 before pedals.

I would post a pic, but I guess I am too new to post URL.

Dmtdreams

​​​​​ bought a 2011 focus izalco pro frame for $250, sensha empire groupset $250, China temu carbon $ 40 bar, $30 stem $20 seat. Super team carbon wheelset 369$, 40$ ? Pedals. 16lbs 1000$ there was some shipping but I'm pretty stoked 🤙

Sierra_rider

According to the inflation calculator I used, the price cap for bike suggestions on this thread can now be $2498.76.

Outrider1

Sy Reene

ah well then, should be lots of options at that pricepoint.

Maelochs

He built a Workswell 066 Cervelo clone back in 2013 or 2014 .... the same build would cost a fair bit more nowadays simply due to parts cost inflation. The frame is no longer available, but there are a lot of good, lightweight Chinese CF frames out there for under $1000 which weigh less than 800 grams for a 56.

Your best bet is definitely to buy used, because the prices of everything bike-related have risen sharply in the past ten years, not just because of inflation but because sellers realized that people were willing to pay extravagant fees for bikes and parts---adult bikes transitioned sharply form athletic equipment to luxury goods.

Another issue is that for a while everyone wanted the lightest everything, because that was assumed to be the key to speed. Manufacturers realized that it was easy to quantify weight, so "XX grams lighter" was a good selling point. Then engineers figured out that except for actually climbing steep mountains, aero gave a bigger boost to speed, so frame designs moved towards stiff and aero, which weighs more than ultra-lightweight (obviously) but since is actually faster in use, "XX percent more aero" became the new selling point---and since there is a limit to how strongly and cheaply things can be designed a built more lightly, aero is a simpler, more profitable direction for both engineering and marketing.

I have a couple lightweight Workswells, inspired in large part by rpenmanparker's build, and honestly, at this point, spending a few fewer dollars and putting on less than featherweight pedals when the super-light, super-expensive pedals wore out just made sense. A few more grams for many, many fewer dollars .... yeah, the ride quality doesn't change. The bikes will always be light, just not weight-weenie ultra-light .... and I don't care. If I enjoy riding them just as much at 15.5 pounds and 16.2 pounds, or whatever ...... After all, I am not racing anybody up mountains.

Sierra_rider

In the spirit of the thread, I'll quit making fun of inflation and I'll post my weight-weeniesh used bike build. Started out as a rim-brake Canyon Ultimate SLX with minor damage on the chainstay...these 10 year old rim-brake climbing frames are hard to beat for light weight...the whole frame/fork/bearings was around 1200 grams. I did my own carbon repair on the chainstay...doing carbon repair might not be for everyone, but I've got 100% confidence in the repair I did.

Some other odds and ends...I bought like-new condition shallow carbon wheels. I already had the groupset, mostly a well-used Ultegra 6800 set up, Ultegra 8000 crank, and some Ridley/4ZA brake calipers. I have the Ultegra calipers as well, but the 4ZAs were lighter weight and came off a Ridley that I previously rode. The only other components I bought were the handlebars, stem, bottom bracket, and seat.

All told, I've got around $1k-ish into this bike and it sits at about 15lbs. I could spend some more money and drop the weight even more. The bars are flared aluminum bars that I really like(I've got them on another one of my road bikes too,) so I could drop some weight there. The seat post is pretty light, but not exceptionally so. Also, the seat is a very not weight weenie-ish Fizik. While shallow, the wheels aren't exceptionally lightweight either. Anyway, the point is that I've got my el cheapo(but high-end) climbing bike that is 3lbs lighter than my carbon disc-brake bike that I normally ride.