Sweet looking rigs! I've always noticed that lighter wheels just make a bike feel like a rocket ship so those berd spokes are likely gonna make a huge difference in a race.
Love that Syd and I feel the same about being a weight weeny! I have said many of the same things about weight vs. performance and the just take a dump thing. But I also understand as I did and my daughter, Abbie, still does race XC. She was thrilled to get a pic with you both after your race, Macky, at Nationals.
I just bought my first front air shock after 50 years of bike riding, its unbelievably AWESOME, it's a beautiful looking rockshox 32mm Stanchions recon SL 120mm,my bike's like a magic carpet ride 🤣🤘🙏🇬🇧
Also, I have the drop lock and it’s definitely a learning curve when reaching over for split second decisions to lock like a unexpected punchy climb or dropping the post when seeing a drop you see at the last second.
One of my two or three favorite parts of riding is seeing wildlife and it's always a thrill to see a large velvety deer. I had really good luck sneaking up on deer this year.
I was wondering what you had on top of your bars in the last video, looked like it was asking to be broken off. Nice work on getting that weight down. I was really happy to get to 25 with semi meaty tires. It really does change the feel of the ride. How crazy is the difference in carbon rail saddles, not sure that agrees with physics but they somehow drop like 90% of the weight!
Nice stuff. I'm pretty sure my XC hardtail weighs more than those :) Also, I'm pretty sure, minimum insertion depth for a seatpost is 10cm, ask the guys at Niner.
Haha...it was so validating to see Syd's hair in the shot toward the end. My dreads end up in front of the lense all the time and I never use that footage. I will from now on use it, hair be damned 😀
I run the XTR race pedals on my enduro bike. The stiff shoes don’t contact the trail portion of the trail pedals nor will they snag the ground as easy. 100 grams lighter too.
Only has my niner air 9 aluminum hardtail for 4 months. I got it to about about 26lbs. After upgrading the wheels industry nine trail 1/1 . Titanium seatpost carbon saddle and handlebars.all ti bolts
My Lightcarbon frame build with XT and XTR components and amazon carbon seatpost, seat, and flatbars along with a uno stem and lightcarbon wheelset weighs in at 22.29 pounds (with pedals) and only cost me $4600 to build from scratch. I've podiumed in my first race on it and will be taking it to Thailand this winter to race. And oh yes I'm 5 ft 7" and down to 138 pounds. Not bad for 65 years old. those Thai competitors are really thin and very light!
Oof, I decided to buy the ibis Exie with xx1 axs and Xtr built with enve wheels and Chris king hubs ceramic bearings and exxis rekon race. Crazy 23 lbs. I would say the bike is too twitchy. I would say for racing XC short track ok. For fun no really. The sweet spot weight it will be around 27-28 lbs. but I would say rider weight also plays a big role, like me 138 lbs at 5’7”.
23lbs is pretty good while still having usable suspension travel. I know the top build on the Supercaliber is 19lbs, but that's with 50mm of rear travel and 90mm front with a SID so only a tiny little damper. If I recall the 23lb Exie has a Fox 34 with Grip 2 damper, so fully featured fork.
I love my exie. But I don't have a ton of elevation. Though I do agree with you that the exie is a bit twitchy and not so great down technical features.
I ran the drop lock for a long time and it’s okay, I would say just file down your levers a bit on the drop lock so that the knurling doesn’t wear through gloves, I’ve gone through four glove sets in under a year at the thumb due to the lever(although I do use lockout a lot)
Just sanded the (original) paint from a "Niner RDO" rigid fork, which took ages to remove like hundreds of layers of paint. Did not weight the difference but it must be like one KG of paint on a 800g fork. So you will fly on your paint free frames that is for sure
Exciting bikes! The discussion about weight is always interesting as long as there is some common sense in it. As for you, being professionals as you are, going xtr and what not is not much of a discussion and those spokes are just next level. But as Syd says, you can loose quite a lot from your body as well. However, that does not always pan out. Over the last year I've lost some kgs in weight. Does that make my bike feel nimbler or quicker? No. But I can go faster and longer. I changed saddle, and inner tube and tire on my front wheel and lost about 200 - 300 grams. And That I could feel directly! It's a tricky business ;-) Oh, and I love the content! Keep it up!
Neat! Thanks! Ive been playing with a 2021 Intense Sniper/100mm travel, making it lighter as I go. Its under 25lbs now with Speed Tuned carbon wheels/Ti railed seat/Renthal bars/sometimes no dropper post for gravel rides/composite flat pedals are light.....but more will be done.......... I like it much better than my gravel bike on gravel rides, really fun downhill...........there is no doubt its pricey to make bikes light...................life is short make it fun! Carbon rail seat goes on soon....XTR crank maybe at some point....The Sniper with slack front geometry really likes to go fast downhill!
Makes sense to take weight off bike and also body. Way more time is spent climbing than descending. The WC XC racers are on 18 lb full suspension bikes.
Only sub 20lb full sus is the Superclaiber and it barely qualifies as a full sus with only 50mm out back. 18lb XC bikes are usually hardtails. And given their diet and training regimen I doubt they're going to lose weight without losing muscle. They're both very tall for XC racers, and Macky's single speed training definitely builds a lot of muscle which you need to race single speed.
So, I was the only registered rider in the 60+ 12 hour endurance XC race at Oak Flats, Tejeras, NM, this Saturday. Now there is another registrant, Gary Johnson. Any advice? I have a Pivot Mach 4 SL, with Roval Control carbon Wheelset. I changed the rear cogs to XTR, and have taken about 1.5 lbs off the stock bike. I never climbed Mount Everest, and never before a broken leg was completely healed, so there is that.
I have the same Fox Transfer short travel dropper on mine. If you are a guy you really can do some painful damage if you press the release button with your legs bent!! Another drawback with this seat post is that it is either up or down so you cannot select an intermediate position. However, it is very light.
I have the Bontrager Droplock & I don’t like the fact you have to push really hard to lockout & unlock. As for the dropper I went with Bikeyoke Divine SL. It’s got 125mm drop and lighter than Fox Transfer SL.
It's stiffer and performs better for an extremely minimal weight penalty over the 32 and since we want our bikes to handle and descend really well, it's worth it to us.
You have less than 12kg of full suspension bikes. I'll be happy to get that on my hard tail. I know a professional race is a different thing and every advantage matters. But still. Good luck to you both! Hope you make your best race
I’m on a 2013 Cannondale Scalpel 1. I’m old and the bike still functions well enough for few so cal over the hum races I do. It’s 26 lb and an XL size. Probably better if I drop 5 lbs than my bike………….just saying.
If you want a lighter bikes, you just need to change that super heavy frames :) Here you have some frames weight, unpainted but with the rear shock mounted and hardware; Specialized S-Works Epic EVO - 1,659g - 120mm shock without brain Giant Anthem Advanced Pro - 1,735g Orbea Oiz OMX - 1,740g Specialized S-Works Epic - 1,869g -100mm with brain Scott Spark RC HMX SL - 1,870g -120mm integrated shock Cannondale Scalpel Hi-Mod - 1,910g Trek Supercaliber - 1,933g - 60mm shock Santa Cruz Blur 4 - 1,933g Canyon Lux CF SLX - 1,922g Merida Ninety-Six RC - 2,064g Canyon Lux Trail CF - 2,276g -120mm shock
What’s really cool about this episode is that you have shown that you don’t need a crazy light bike to compete in races. Fitness is a far better way to improve. You’ve won National titles on that HT. Doesn’t seem to have held you back at all.
Which trail is that? Is there a good trailhead or parking area near there? I've been meaning to get up to Los Alamos for a day trip, looks like a fun trail both ways, love the slabs and boulders.
We rode walnut canyon and school house canyon in this video. You can park at the south bayo parking lot by the roundabout and make a loop by riding dot grant to perimeter to schoolhouse. Ride technical perimeter if reeeeeally like janky rocks 🤣 all the trails are on trailforks!
I just got a second hand moots mooto - but w significant upgrades - i think the lighter Nox wheels (albeit no Berg spokes!!) make a HUGE difference in acceleration. (Also has Gemini Propius bar/stem combo, fixed Moots Ti post, Sram xx derailleur, Fox 32 sc fork etc). Taking a dump to lose a few lbs doesn't take the weight off the rims, unfortunately! i'm rn in search of a saddle. I wrote to Velo coz they don't specify cross section dimensions of rails. My seat clamp only works w round 7mm. Any suggestions? and are there any carbon saddles w the thinner round 7mm rails ? thanks
Would going to a wireless shifter (Eagle AXS) and dropper provide any benefit or additional weight loss? It would require 2 batteries and ensuring each battery is fully charged before each race/stage....just curious if you thought or have looked into that?
I know the feeling, I wish I had all the money, then I could build a 10.35kg XC and 11.4kg Enduro, so know thinking to build Enduro but not splashing out money for the ultra weight saving stuff on my bikes
Okay can I ask you how much the word the bird Wheels cost wise shipping and see receiving and how much was it for them to go down your wheels how much you put the string across from the spokes where we built you will when the new space you know what I mean
and roughly speaking for us non sponsored folk, how much did you spend per g of weight reduction? by the way, love the channel a ton of great how too videos
My newer XC Hardtail a has weight of 11,80 kg bone stock Orbea Alma M30 Size large whit 29er wheels and whit Maxxis 29,2,40 tires may older xc hardtail schould be around 11,6 kg stock weight 12,8 kg whit alu frame lots of upgrades Orbea Alma H20 Size Medium whit 29er 2,20 tires
I have come to find that it cost about $1000.00 per pound loss to make your bike lighter. At least that's what it cost me every time I want to make a bike lighter. I just spent $2000.00 making my Specialized Epic Evo Comp almost 2 pounds lighter. I can't really notice the weight difference however, I do think the ride feels a little better. Maybe it's the carbon wheel-set with the lighter XTR cassette, or the carbon bars.
Congrats on the lighter bikes! Jealous! I got a stock ripmo, where would I get the most bang for my buck to shave some weight out of it? Wheels? I run heavy rubber (maxis assegai)... what else?
I thought the reason to reduce weight is actually to reduce the inertia of the bike. Weight more or less translates to mass which is inertia but there is also rotational inertia in the wheels. Both hinder acceleration, but mass on the rims contributes to both. Therefore, shouldn’t you put more effort into reducing the mass of your wheels and maybe their diameter to further drop that component of inertia?
Wheels is an area where you need to compromise. They didn't build the wheels as light as possible because they still wanted some durability, but they still shed a fair bit of weight off the wheelset with the Berd spokes and XTR hubs. Diameter is going to stay 29 inches because the larger diameter wheel rolls over rough terrain smoother than a smaller wheel, taking less effort to pedal over rocks, roots, etc. 29er wheels also roll faster due to the larger diameter. The tradeoff is slightly slower acceleration and slightly less nimble.
Nope. It has a metal sleeve vs a plastic one on the previous bottom bracket, so it was a bit heavier, but it spins really nicely and has a lifetime warranty!
I remember my race bike from high school, 2003 Jamis Dakar XC Comp built up with XT/XTR weighed in at about 25 lbs with pedals. Been chasing that weight ever since. That was with an alloy frame too. Still nowhere close with my Specialized Epics.
