A lightweight womens road bike won't necessarily make you ride faster, and lighter bikes and components are often less durable and require more frequent maintenance. However, there's nothing quite like riding a super light bike.
Maybe your Garmin computer will tell you that you have not actually entered the KoM cycle that you love, but you will immerse yourself in this happiness. A lightweight road bike brings lightness and a feeling of speed. Speed = pleasure - even if it's only in your head. There is a special type of rider - Weight Weenie seekers, who take the pursuit of lightweighting to the extreme.
You can see the Weenies tinkering around in their garages, replacing the aluminum screws on their bikes with titanium screws, sawing off "useless" parts like the drop handles and the Drill holes for the transmission kit. But you don't need to do such radical DIY work for this.
There are plenty of simple upgrades you can make to reduce the weight of your bike that don't cost a fortune (although having a budget can help). This time, we bring you 7 upgrades that can make your bike lighter, and each one is affordable and saves you money.
1. Wheel set
Older wheelsets are often not very light, which affects the potential of lightweight bikes. Upgrading wheel sets usually brings many benefits - these upgrades to new wheel sets are not only in terms of weight, the new shape design can bring a comfortable riding experience, and the vacuum design can bring ideal puncture resistance. Effect.
But we pay more attention to weight. Take the DT Swiss 1800 disc brake wheelset as an example. Ordinary specifications weigh about 1800g. It still sounds good, but upgrading to Hunt's 32 Aerodynamicist disc brake wheelset can save you about 600g. On a bike, every time the road gradient goes up, you feel incredibly relaxed. Because it brings the advantage of low rolling resistance, it also makes your bike more agile.
If you have enough budget to upgrade, you can choose the Hunt Hill Climb SL disc brake wheelset which weighs only 936g. If you have no budget constraints at all, you can quite frankly grab the Lightweight Meilenstein Evo wheelset for a ridiculous $7,000.
2. Brake
This works best for riders using rim brakes, but if weight reduction is your main goal, your brakes may be slowing you down in ways you don't like. A pair of SRAM Red rim brake calipers weighs approximately 260g, depending on specification. SHIMANO Dura-Ace R9200 calipers are slightly heavier, with a pair weighing about 327g. Both are also quite expensive – the suggested retail price of Shimano's top-spec brakes is £159.99 each. By comparison, these cheap Planet X CNC brakes (also sold as Fouriers CNC brakes) weigh just 205g per pair. They have been discontinued but are selling off in large quantities for around £50 a pair.
If you're flush with cash, you can dig into a pair of Cane Creek's ee brakes. Weighing only around 170g, the pair look incredible, and cost around £370 each. Disc brake calipers can also be upgraded. But compared to rim brake calipers, the possibility of mixing and matching is very slim. There aren't many differences between Ultegra brakes and Dura-Ace brakes. In fact, their weight only differs by 15g. So unless you have the budget to spend on brakes, we wouldn't recommend spending it here – there are better places to save weight.
However, you can also replace the regular discs with lightweight discs, which can save a little weight. ASHIMA is the brand of choice here, but replacing the floating rotor with a one-piece rotor may increase the risk of the rotor overheating during braking.
3. Supporting components
Lightweight handlebars, stems, seatposts and seatpost clamps can help your bike save weight and make it stand out from the crowd. But you don't have to go all carbon fiber to get a lighter groupset – the relatively low-cost, high-performing MT Zoom and Thomson's alloy stems and seatposts are great options. The 110mm MT Zoom Ultralight stem weighs only 103g. Considering this stem only costs £40, it's really hard to forget.
If your conditions are very good, the two brands Darimo and Schmolke should be able to attract you. They build some of the silliest carbon fiber components in the world, and they weigh unbelievably well. However, they will cost you a staggering price.
Take British Hill Climb Champion Andrew Feather's Schmolke components, for example. He uses the brand's lightest TLO series, with a 140g Evo handlebar, an 89g stem and a saddle that weighs just 65g. How much does such a small amount of components cost? Oh my god, it only costs 1,755 euros (approximately RMB 13,798).
Changing to a lighter saddle can save significant weight, although you may not enjoy riding for five hours on a full carbon saddle with no cushioning. The lightest saddle we know of is the 47g Becker Typen, although the brand says it can only be used on flat surfaces, so it's not very friendly to British riders. Meanwhile, the Selle Italia C59 cushion, which weighs only 61g, appears to have been discontinued.
However, there are some weight-saving cushion options that are less flimsy and relatively comfortable: the Fizik Vento Antares R5 claims to weigh only 210g, while the 00 version of the same model is as light as 118g. Whether you're working with cheap or expensive lightweight components, keep a torque wrench on hand. When installing lightweight components, it's important to make sure each screw is installed correctly - a regular wrench won't work on them.
4. Kit
Kits make up a large portion of a bike's overall weight, so changes here can make a big difference. For example, switching from SHIMANO's 105 kit to the high-end and exquisite Dura-Ace kit can save you about 400g in weight. There are of course other more affordable lightweight options, including the approximately 300g THM Clavicula crankset and Carbon-Ti carbon fiber chainring, which should save about 250g compared to the 714g figure of the Dura-Ace 54/40 crankset. The weight of the Recon Racing alloy flywheel is less than 100g, which is about half the weight of Dura-Ace.
Unfortunately, upgrading to a top-of-the-line package or components of a package is an expensive way to save weight. Instead, be honest and search online for some second-hand parts on sale and you can save a ton of money while providing hours of shopping fun. While the latest bike groupsets are mostly focused on 12-speed products, you can now get older 10- or 11-speed groupsets at a fraction of the price (don't tell the bike shop this), and they're actually better than 12-speed groupsets. Much lighter.
If you have a bike that is compatible with multiple speeds, a popular option these days is for some bikes to use the older 11-speed SRAM Force (or Red). BikeRadar video manager Felix Smith uses these interesting mechanical rear derailleurs and levers. While the popularity of derailleur groupsets has increased in recent years, older rear derailleurs still work well, and the smaller cassettes that go with them can be a lot lighter. They may not have the high ratios of newer groupsets, but you won't necessarily need them on your lightweight bike, right?
So before you spend thousands on the latest high-end kit, take a good look at the upgrades you want. Chances are it will save you money and weight all at once.
5. Tire
Getting low rolling resistance by fitting high-end tires has been a key topic for years, and it's still a simple trick to make your bike lighter and ride faster. Many bicycles are equipped with low-end tires from the factory, which not only increases weight but also reduces the riding experience value.
Well, this upgrade can be said to be of great help. While the cycling world has been moving towards tubeless tires, some tubulars are available at very attractive prices, and they are often lighter. Tubular tires can have lighter bead and sidewalls than tubeless tires, and if you pair them with a latex or TPU tube, you get a great combination.
Although many pro teams have switched to tubeless tires, you can still see a small number of tubular tires on pro bikes. We spotted Ben O'Connor's Factor O2 VAM equipped with standard Pirelli tubular tires at the 2023 Tour de France. We suspect that he installed a 35g Pirelli TPU inner tube in his tubular tire, which is about half the weight of a latex inner tube.
Tubular tires are a special type of clincher tire and are usually the lightest. A tubular tire like the Vittoria Corsa G 2.0 would be a good choice, but if you're willing to keep the puncture force as low as possible, you can even go for a lighter tire. Time trial tires such as the Vittoria Corsa Speed are increasingly used in the road stages of the Tour de France. So if you want to create the lightest weight possible by utilizing them, go for it! Just make sure to avoid any foreign objects on the tarmac perfectly.
6. Personal equipment
You may not have considered this, but the gear you're carrying adds significant weight. Shoes are a great way to save weight, and upgrading from bulky leather shoes with composite soles to carbon-soled shoes with lightweight synthetic uppers can make all the difference. If you want to further reduce weight, the Nimbl Air lace-up shoes used by the Jumbo-Visma team in 2023 are the ultimate lightweight choice. The pair of size 44.5 shoes we reviewed weighed only 465g.
Cycling jerseys can also be a great way to save a little weight compared to a standard sports top and shorts combo. That said, it can make it difficult to get off and hang out at some points, let alone rest comfortably, so they probably won't be the best for riding to a café. The cold winds of winter won't stop you from losing weight. A few years ago we replaced our awkward packable winter jersey with a lightweight winter jersey from Castelli Gabba and never looked back.
But freezing your investment in a bike just to save that little weight isn't the best idea, so give it some thought.
7. Free weight loss tips
So, if you don't have the means to spend money to make your bike lighter. So how do you lose weight for free? Well, if your ride is short, or you just want to do a short climb, take those cycling bottles off the bike. Hydration would be great, of course, but the water in two 500ML cycling bottles combined weighs 1kg, and even the lightweight Elite Fly cycling bottles weigh 50g each.
Who needs to bring tools anyway? The tail bag and portable pump can be left at home and headed out for the KoM, but we recommend bringing them back on long rides. Or if you're riding with friends, ask them to bring these tools for you. We're sure they'll thank you.
If you're not sure enough to save enough weight, you can always punch holes in the components. This will reduce the weight of the bike and give it a roaring sound in high winds. In fact, I advise you not to do this, as it may damage your bike.
