Well, as some of you know, I recently got a Ventana El Curevo, and reading the thread about the Demo 8's and other certain things, I really want to get the weight down on my Ventana. Right now it is in the range of 43-45 pounds. Any sugestions are welcome. Right now I want to get a Ti spring for the DHX. Don't mention things like, tubeless, or a different fork, but I am interested in what you guys think.
Tires are always a good place to start for saving weight... As for components forks, wheels, rear shock are where the noticable savings can be had. With everything else you are counting 5-10 grams and sh!t you know? We are talking about a DH bike right? What is a few extra lbs on a bike like that?
replace your cranks with some lighter XT hollowtechs and matching shimano bottom bracket. Would that help a little? Maybe some lighter weight bars instead of those Chromags?
This guy is trying to kill you! It's a downhill bike?! it's a tank at that... why do you give a sh!t what it weighs? Surely if it's heavier it gets to the bottom of the hill faster
Go whole hog, drill hole, pour molten lead in, let it solidify. Gets rid of all that pesky weight saving air space.
yeh tod im not a fan of the bars either but calm down man. trust me the dude knows what he is doing so lay off. if your not going to be nice dont say anything and if your going to critisize (****y speller) someone elses opinion then theres something wrong and it isnt us. i say wheels, hubs, new bars, ti spring, and from there count the grams. although 43 lbs isnt that bad its only a big deal ,or atleast for me, when you have to start pushing up the hills.
My home trails are all hike-a-bike. The bars are about the same weight as my old Easton EA70 DH, according to my gram scale. I deffinitly want to change cranks and bottom bracket, the tubes are an easy fix, but the DHX Air is something I really want to do, but according to Go-Ride, its in the 450 $$$ range, which is a big deal, but maybe around Chirstmas time I can gather some cash. My steertube is WAY long, would cutting that down to a normal legth make a differance? What about the Go-Ride lowrider crowns which I'm about to get? Thanks for the help.
ride your bike and enjoy it. unless you are racer joe or having burning holes in yr (or yr dad's) wallet, don't be a weight weenie.
The spec list is(the best I can) Marz 05' 888 RC with Heavy Ride kit Ventana El Curevo Medium Fox DHX with Steel Spring Sun MTX Wheel Set Hadley Rear Hub Sun Ringle Front Hub F & B Maxxis Minions 2.3 Truvative Cranks & BB Road Seat Thompson Layed Back seat post(need to change) Chain - SRAM holllowpin R. Derailure - SRAM X.0 Hayes MAG's F&B with Shimano XT rotors My bike is Shimano free besides the Rotors, which I really like, not sure why, but SRAM products won my affection with the X.0 derailure.
i agree with that. i think my bikes about as light as i can get without getting rid of my shiver. im running the new xt's, rhyno lites, single ply tires and regular tubes, im gonna be getting some carbon bars soon because mine are bent. i also have a thompson stem and seatpost. heres a pic
oh yeah get ti screws. and dont forget only three bolts in each rotor. and drill some holes in your bashguard
in the quest for lighter stuff, a lot depends on yr weight and riding style too...it'd suck to have to be constantly replacing stuff you've broken.
You could get an oxy acetalene welder and melt lead into the seatpost. You could open the front tubes and melt some lead in the there. That will weigh it down significantly. Personally, I wouldn't ever get carbon fiber bars; a crash could weaken them and they could brake just riding along. I prefer aluminum bars. A new wheelset would help, maybe a mavic ex. 729 with some lighter hubs. An integrated stem if you don't allready have one, maybe some TI hardware in places.
ti bolts and shimano hollowtech II xt cranks. unless you are a hack, theyll be fine. plus they are as light as xtr cranks with the granny tabs ground off.
My DHR is 45! And its got light stuff on it, cept for the shivver. 05 DHR medium Fox DHX with ti spring MTX wheels FSA carbon bars Thompson Stem American Classic Road Stem FSA xtreme v cranks Shivver Road Ti Saddle Road Casset Shimano 105 der. short cage E 13 guide Heres where the weight starts Kenda super thick DH tubes Kenda nevegal super tacky tires 2 ply.
My DHR is about 39... Boxxer w/mojo kit/Romic top crown direct mount stem Azonic WF Bars Thom. Post Ti- Road Saddle E-13 SRS XTR Cranks/38 tooth SS ring Time Z Maxxis 2.5 DFH/Maxxis TS strips/Stan's Single Track/14-15 double butted spokes/Hadley's X9 med cage/X9 trigger Hayes Mag Sram Road cassette Sram Hollow pin road chain ODi Lock`ons
This is my next move. I weighed my shivver the other day, damn near 10 pounds. Going to go for a boxxer world cup or somthing that i can afford.
You could cut your seatpost to the bare minimum if this is a race bike. You could shave some weight down off the chainguide by going with that new Evil guide or a Gamut, I know E13s aren't the lightest.
Functional weight savings: drop crowns carbon bars (less arm pump, and yes they are plenty strong) light tubes (depends on the rider) Just weight savigs: XT cranks Gamut or new e13 guide run a regular chainring insetead of a dh chainring (you have a bashguard) XC bb, with isis you can save a lot of weight here, they just dont last as long. SDG I-beam seat & post (heavy duty version only! carbon-look ones snap!) Ti spring You could also get a boxxer or dhx air and crap like that, but your adding big $$$ then, and maybeeee losing performance.
cut any extra leanth of your seat post. cut down the bars as skinny as you feel safe with. swap out the rear 8" rotor for a 6" you will save weight on the rotor and caliper mount. won't loose much power. take a few extra pins out of your pedals. take off all the decals. use masking tape insteed of the plastic rim tape. swap out heavy steel bolts for light ti bolts. swap out thoes heavy mtx rims for lighter rhynoXL's with butted ti spokes. (keep the mtx around for gnarrly days and only use the rhyno's for raceing) try a smaller road cassete, dereailer, hollow pin chain. carbon headset spacers. drill some speed holes in the bash guard. remove thoes bar caps. DHX air?
Just about everything you can do has been discussed, but there just isn't that much room to reduce weight without spending lots of cash or risking weak parts. The crankset is definitely one place to start, so are the rims and tires. I don't think you are going to save that much weight on hubs unless you go full bling like King. Ti coil will save you a little weight but you might put the cash towards a DHX air - the money saved plus the money you could make selling your DHX coil might be enough. Pepper Jester's ideas should give you an idea of what you're left with - in my opinion a lot of silliness that in the aggregate won't save anything worth mentioning on a DH bike. Those tips might make sense for an XC rig, but when you are talking about a few grams out of a 42 lb bike I don't see the point. Just eat one less donut per week and that should cover all the speed holes and carbon spacers...
Thanks for all the help. I really like the rims and they are perfect for me, im a bigger guy, around 200. I am getting a new seatpost and seat soon from SDG and new pedals. The DHX Air is my next perchase, but will I think I am loosing proformance with it?
Oh, I got one! Strip all the paint off the frame! Can look cool too. That's what I did to mine, but only because the paint looked like crap. Now I can just take steel wool to it when I get a scratch.