Help with my Ride please and on a budget!

[Plodder]

I know it's old but I love it.

Been back on it in the last couple of months but now not riding Downhill like I did way back when (bottles gone!) and want to change a few things around to suit what I am now using it for, 90% road riding / 10% XC.

I bought the bike around '97/'98'ish and changed quite alot from the start to accommodate DH riding; rode every week and competed occasionally. I'm now 10 years older and want to use it for enjoyment and increasing general fitness levels, cross training with 3 runs a week.

Can anyone please offer advice on how I could make the bike lighter for road use on a very limited budget; a new bike is out the question, so even 2nd hand kit I am more than willing to try out.

Current kit -

Aluminium frame, RST forks, Magura front brake, D/H SPD's, Shimano Deore LX gearing and hubs, Mavic 121 D/H rims, higher riser stem.

I know road SPD's, rigid forks, lighter rims etc will all help but where can I source cheap kit for my use? Any help or advice most welcome, just don't laugh at her, we've been good friends for many years!

 

[accountantpete]

The forks alone probably weigh more than my frame and forks put together.

That's going to be the main weight saver.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

I like the look of your bike. If I were you I wouldn't swap it for another either.

While your bike was set up for DH, your LX components will not be much heavier than those from the equivalent groupset today. In fact I will be surprised if you can save much more than 100g by replacing both your mechs with modern XTRs, Shimano's lightest and priciest. Many modern bikes also have disc brakes and disc wheels, which are heavier than rim brake equivalents. In terms of drivetrain, high end modern chainset/bb combos are lighter than your chainset/bb by say 250g, but imho is probably not the most cost effective way to reduce weight in your case.

I don't know which model your fork is, but some RSTs, even inexpensive ones, are quite light. For example the RST 281 is 2kgs, which is actually quite a bit lighter than the Dart or Tora shocks that weigh ~2.5kg on many modern £750+ mtbs. If your shock is a DH model, then it will likely be heavier than 2 kg, and for reference if you wish to lighten your bike as much as possible, a rigid carbon mtb fork such as this weighs around 1kg.

Key component improvements I think that will make your bike lighter and feel lighter involve tyres, tubes and rims (the wheels' rotational inertia has the most significant impact on performance gram for gram). Depending on your tyre model obviously, but some mtb tyres weigh as much as 1 kg a piece, while you can get puncture resistant, 1.3" wide 26" slicks running at high pressure delivering very low rolling resistance on roads while weighing less than half that; you will certainly notice that sort of improvement in a big way.

However, being heavy duty, quality, dh rims, I believe your Mavic 121's are 28mm wide and will not be suitable for the narrowest tyres. For your existing rims you do have a choice in getting lighter, wider, semi-slick mtb tyres. In the extreme Schwalbe's Furious Fred 2.0, or Maxxis 310 1.95 weigh only 300g a piece, but these are nearly paper thin, designed for racing, and are not durable. I don't know how heavy the 121 rims are, but they could well approach 600g each, while many narrower, quality, xc 26" rims weigh only 400g.

Because many people are switching to disc brakes/wheels, light, narrower, 26" rim brake xc wheels (e.g. Mavic 517 on XT/LX hubs, probably with lighter spokes than yours) are often available on ebay secondhand for a reasonable price, and could be a very cost effective step to reduce weight/inertia if one buys carefully and wisely.

In terms of inner tubes, most are over 150g a piece, some of the lightest (and thinnest) such as the Maxxis flyweight and Continental mtb supersonic are only 100g each.

To conclude, if I were you, I would probably try to identify the existing components and weights with more precision initially, to ensure a) one knows one will achieve an acceptable target weight reduction with certainty, and b) one has an idea beforehand how much it might cost.

Hope it helps.

 

[Plodder]

Thanks for your advice guys, particularly RecordAceFromNew - very comprehensive, knowledgeable and sensible advice.

I will take your wisdom and sit on it for a couple of days, breakdown the bike into what I could realistically change both within budget and within logic and think on from there.

The wheels, as you say, are probably the biggest consideration and I didn't actually realise rigid forks may not make that much of a difference.

Thanks again, will post back after much contemplation.