-holiday76

I've gone ahead and just sorted this all out for you.



if for some reason that doesn't work this might:



OK, this is a last resort but IT WILL WORK.

jyl

Like classic & vintage in general, weight weenie-ism is seldom all about cut and dried functionality. There's not usually a strict functional reason why our vintage bikes wear drilled Stronglight cranks and graceful Cinelli quill stems, but not plastic Gripshifts and stamped steel Acera mechs. Such is the case here. I guess I could dump my sleek blue Cannondale and get my lightweight kicks with a skinny carbon bimbo covered with screaming decals, but I wouldn't be happy. I'd rather have my cake and eat it too - light and classic - although I recognize that in my case, "eating cake" must be strictly allegorical.

Okay, the functional part. I am trying to become a stronger climber, so I go to a local hill, put in an hour, do seven laps, it works out to about 2000 vertical feet. I want to get up to doing 5000 vertical feet sessions next summer. I'll use various bikes, often I'll buckle down and ride a heavier bike laden with fenders, lights, and racks (25 to 30 lb) but sometimes I just want to give myself a treat and ride a light bike. When I take the Cannondale, she is light but the tradeoff is that her gearing is limited, I can sit in 39 x 21 or 19, or stand in 39 x 19 or 17. It might be different if my legs were stronger, but dropping weight off the bike really does feel nice, by lap six anyway. I used to have clinchers on her, lost over a pound with the tubulars, that was a nice treat. I'm looking for another "treat"!

But I'm trying to keep the bike as period-appropriate as possible. Carbon fork - I can have it painted to be inconspicious, and anyway there were carbon forks in 1992. But carbon crankset or etc - naah.

canyoneagle

As far as "feeling" the difference in your case, you've already made the single biggest change you can make on the bike - wheels. The rest of it becomes a non-issue, really. The non-rotating weight is added to your body weight, so .5 lb difference there is insignificant. Choice of clothing and/or contents of your saddle bag would make as much of a difference for alot less cash (and stashing that spare tubular in your jersey is no different than putting it under the saddle)

However, staying with the weight weenie effort for bragging rights "see? my bike is <17 lbs and it is older than you are" is a fun challenge, and if that is what you're after, then go for it and have fun while doing it. Just don't expect to feel much of a difference on those climbs - you've already done what you can do for that.

-holiday76

I've got a few more ideas I've decided not to use so I'm just going to put them out there. If you make any money from them I just ask that you give me a shout out in your memoirs.

- helium in your shoes. Hear me out on this one. I realize that this might be hard to do, but imagine the added benefit of being "light" on your feet?
- helium balloon inside of a helium balloon, tied to a helium balloon which is in turn tied to a brick. Why tied to a brick you ask? So you can put the brick in your saddle bag. A better idea might be to use a water bottle instead since you can't drink a brick. This one never made it to the testing phase.
- helium is atomic number 2.
- helium helmet shaped like a top hat but it's not, it's a bike helmet. I know this one seems obvious but I wanted to throw it out there.
- helium inside your bike frame. Again, a no brainer but sometimes it helps to just go back to basics.

enjoy.

Drummerboy1975

An anti gravity suit?

-holiday76

listen, can we keep this serious? That doesn't even exist.

degan

They do exist, though if anything that would add weight.

Captain Blight

My Pro is 20 lb 4 oz, with a Shimano UN-xx bottom bracket and a San Marco Regal saddle-- and it's the 25-1/2" size. Under 20 would be no problem, under 19 would get expensive fast.

JunkYardBike

Don't take this the wrong way, but that frame is neither classic nor vintage.

That said, Helium wheels: https://www.mavicusa.com/en/history/1...elium-wheelset

jyl

Alas, I don't think I can save much weight on the wheelset. The existing wheelset is quite light. For example, the front including skewer but of course without the tubular, only weighs 471 grams. I looked up the Helium and am seeing 670 grams for the front.

Italuminium

I asked this question before, in reference to my ALAN (the weenie's choice BITD) and back then the responses were not so derisory... I wonder why. For one, I agree that weight weenieism isn't just simply discounted with the oft-heard "just lose five pounds on the engine" - there's also a lot of fun in optimizing the engineering solution for the task at hand, that is, getting your bike to move with the least material.

So, on to the components: The wheels are already very light, vintage wise. Frame and fork, that's just the canvas so keep it that way. My tip for the first splurge is the saddle/seatpost. You can get some really lightweight posts, all alloy, some of them as low as 120 g (cut). I don't know if you like to climb out of the saddle (I do), and a light saddle and a light post really make for less swaying mass between your legs (sex joke in 3... 2... 1...), which I like a lot while climbing. the advantage there is not in benefit gained by less mass overall, but less mass in the side-to-side motion. I noticed this effect quite pronounced on two bikes, one vintage, one modern.

miamijim

Super light Dia Compe calipers are $30/set. Look for the ones with alloy pad holders and alloy nuts.

RaleighSport

>.< a BB change alone would probably do it!

Rokit Powered

This thread made me laugh several times. Thanks guys!

+1 on changing the starfish crankset, it's way too chunky ...