The world's cheapest weight-weenie bike

In October I promised myself I could put my Caad away and build another bike out of all the frames and parts I have, October came and went, so did November.. still no winter bike.

I purchased a Muddy Fox bike as something to thrash around to the gym, local climbing centre and general training. I associate 'Muddy Fox' with crap early 2000s full suspension bikes from Asda but I just needed something that required very little work to get going, this was perfect. I have to admit this bike actually rides really nice, the frame weights a ton but it's pretty rigid.

Me being me I couldn't keep it stock or simple. I wanted to upgrade the bike as much as possible with 3 things in mind:

. weight reduction
. strength/ride quality
. parts I already have

...I stupidly didn't weight the whole bike before doing anything to it but I can work backwards when I'm finished with it.

Here it is in current state, I actually think it looks quite cool!

My photo-bucket isn't playing ball but here's the weight reduction:

Bar + Stem
Was: 531g
Now: 518g

Spacers + top cap
Was: 29g
Now: 22g

Saddle + post
Was: 725g
Now: 529g - 80g post cut down. Total 449g

Rear skewer
Was: 69g
Now: 59g

Front skewer
Was: 70g
Now: 50g

I've got plans to replace the current ones with carbon (current ones weight roughly 2.5kg, carbon ones I've got weight roughly 1kg with a super long steerer). I'd also like to switch the chain-set out to something a little better, I'll have a rummage around what I've got..

I'm going to go old-school drillium, stripping paint and doing just about anything to get the weight of this bike down. I know once I'm finished it will still be a tank and will probably be a very ugly bike but I enjoy these projects just as much as the expensive super light stuff and it keeps me occupied and doesn't drain my bank like car projects do!

Watch this space!

Are the pedals metal?

I can't remember the name, but I'm pretty sure the cheapest pedals on CRC are actually pretty light. Plus I'm assuming if it's a bike to get you to the gym etc you won't want clipless

Also could you manage with just one chainring?

I have the same dishwasher and it's pretty damn good.
What are your initial thoughts Re goal weight? Sub 8kg for this would be pretty achievable.

Followed

got any smaller cassettes, lighter chain? calipers with shorter tracts for the pads? could you drill the stis under the rubber covers. remove bottle cage bolts, use nylon ones if you want holes filled with an actual bolt otherwise you could cover them with a tiny sticker. replace essential bolts with titanium? - not very cost effective i know.

Fill frame, tyres and any other voids with helium...

I think we need to validate your choice of scales

Pedals are metal but think I'll quite literally change them from current ones to my Ultegra pedals on a daily basis.

Wanting to keep this dual chainring at the front as it's perfect for nipping around to the shops or taking a slow ride to work and I don't fancy being sweaty for the whole day I'll keep it.

I picked this bike up earlier today after convincing myself I could tell that it was getting lighter each time I drilled or cut something. Sweet jesus this bike is fucking heavy, possibly 11/12kg at the moment? I don't think I can drop any super amount of weight without changing the wheels, drive chain or forks or even the frame (obviously) but the whole point of the project is to really work for some weight reduction, drilling, cutting, swapping parts that I've already got.

I've got some Michelin pro something or other tyres to go on which are noticeably lighter and I haven't even put them on the scales. The rim tape weights a comical 40g which I can replace with some Velox which I'm sure is nearly half. I've got some spare inner-tubes which I know are light so hoping I can drop maybe 150g just on the rotational mass. Calipers will be next to go I think, drilled of course.

Changing forks or cutting steerer will be the next port of call but where from there? I'm aware drilling can be counter productive due to aerodynamics etc but this will be used mainly for getting to the gym so cutting maybe a whole second off my ride really doesn't matter.

if you have access to some basic tooling and are mechanically minded there's weight to be found all over .. aero be dammed !

Some cheap stuff for you ..
The skewers you've changed. But get an off cut of 5mm dia grade 5 titanium rod from a machine shop .. NC bar feeding lathes always waste about 250mm or more of material as they can't feed the last bit. An M5 die and change the shafts on the skewers .. roughly 10g per skewer saved per skewer. If there's solid closing levers you could also drill them at the 'spoon' end to grab an additional gram or two.
You're seat clamp looks like a heavy weight .. either change it or cut out the silver highlight part as part Token seat clamps
You've got mudguard eyelets on the frame and fork. If you're not going to run with guards remove and smooth that area.
Look at some older parts on eBay .. eg 3ttt LESS XL handlebar is about 220g Max and can be had for peanuts when they come up for sale. Or Zipp 300 cranks. Just get a well made Isis bottom bracket.

Personally I wouldn't touch your calipers at this stage apart from changing the pads to a set of brake shoe with changeable pads so the performance is improved .. Clarks do a cheap light weight drilled pad holder.

Whatever you do think about your safety first .. and weigh before and after for the component so you can track the gains

Oswald, some great advice, many thanks! Brakes will be upgraded purely because I've got them in my parts bin from a old project. They're nice Campag Veloce ones so quite a bit lighter than current ones plus aesthetically they're spot on.

Seat-post clamp will be seeing a drill hopefully tomorrow.

Not much has happened to this project (yet) other than a set of lights and a lot riding. All the bikes I've owned over the last couple of years that I've enjoyed riding the most have been my 'best' bikes but it's nice to have something I can just lock up and forget about which is also fun to ride. Since getting a new car which I enjoy driving a lot I've got a little lazy, small trips here and there really wears the car quickly not to mention the cost of fuelling the thing, since owning this bike and riding it whenever I can I've been saving on average £40 a week which certainly feels better in my back pocket.

Thought I'd get the ball rolling again, this bike is in serious need of a new headset which fits right in with my plan for some new forks.

I had these forks in my possession a few months ago but gave them to a friend, he's stripped some of the paint off as he wanted to do the prep work himself then get us to spray them, he didn't do a good job but nothing is damaged or gone through, they just look a little ugly. Do I finish the job and repaint or just lacquer them as they are? Haha

They're full carbon so pretty lightweight, current ones are steel and quite flexible and heavy.

Also would anyone tell me if I've got the levers too far down the bar? I'm used to compact bars but my back of my palm almost feels like it's resting on the curve of the bar rather than the flat top. The actual shifter design isn't as flat as what I'm used to (modern sram shifters) and just feels strange?

Also went for a 40 mile ride the other day with the flat pedals and actually didn't find them that bad, deffo keeping flat pedals.

Difficult to be sure from the angle the photos were taken, but it looks like the bars could be angled up a little: aim for flat tops so you're not sliding forward/down and squashing your hands against the hoods.

Then check the lever operation from the tops and in the drops and adjust as necessary.

PS I vote for spraying the forks: the bike looks quite tidy and no need to rat it for the sake of it.

There's no way your current forks are 2.5kg unless they are hewn from solid lead.

The carbon fork is a definite "yes" - you'll save about 600g over the (I guess 1kg) steel fork

Otherwise, this is a bit of a daft endeavour - you have a basic basic with heavy components - and no amount of shaving down brake blocks or changing skewers is going to make any sort of tangible difference.

Just swap the fork & the wheels (when you can afford to) - ride and enjoy.

• The next things to look at are the chainset, cassette and saddle (but for that money you could put towards a better bike on ebay)
  

That's not really the point of this project, I've got some other bikes which I'm pretty sure are not too far off 7kg which are faster, stiffer and lighter. Original price of this bike was £40 and just to have a bit of fun in the workshop using parts that I've already got, it keeps me thinking of ways I can save a few grams here and there and I enjoy doing it. I've bulked up a little and now weigh just over 13 stone so dropping a few KG on a bike won't have any major effect.

Enjoyment is the key word for this project, I enjoy cutting things down and shaving weight, thrashing it around filthy countryside lanes is also just as much fun.

Last night I went ahead with making a few changes to the bike...

First off the seat-post clamp. I have to admit I rushed this a little, I should have measured it up and marked out each point but I just went straight ahead with the drill. Not the neatest so definitely need to take more time doing it. I also filed the end of bottom of the clamp 1mm or so plus took some material from the rear edge. Not sure why but my scales have stopped working, last weigh-in is 15g but I believe it's now around 12 with the extra parts removed.

what it looks like on..

I did continue to upgrade a few extra parts but they will all be weighed when scales are working again.

Bontrager rear brake, unbelievable how heavy the original was compared to this!

I also put the new forks on but I've got a problem...
the inside of the fork has a aluminium internal which almost looks dislodged 1mm or so and not letting the brake bolt go far enough in to reach the thread. Really not sure where to go with it, to drill the area or file it or what, any help?

Picture below shows them fitted to the bike just to see how they'll look, decided I'm going to strip them and lacquer over instead of leaving them ratty

There's still material to come off that by joining the holes and making a slot .. so round two you can make it neater and polish or paint it.. this is what I was alluding too (from a World Cup XC bike)

On the fork .. Are you sure the brake bolt is long enough and / or the correct one? The reason I say the later is I had some Reynolds Onza forks that used a Reynolds brake bolt and any other would not fit correctly.

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Wow, this project has changed...

pedals were changed over to Shimano Ultegra, I upgraded the front wheel to a mavic tub wheel and the forks turned out to be cracked! I sold the frame and upgraded the rear wheel so from this build I just have saddle, cockpit, brake calipers left!

I came across another bike which had pretty much everything welded onto it, everything was a nightmare to remove but once it was all off it left a very nice frame...

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On Sunday I went to a hot rod show at old warden. For those of you who have me on Facebook, you'll know that I post something about a hot rod pretty much everyday..

My favourite rods are gasser style, like this:

Back in the 60s these were really popular cars to see at the drag strips. They fetch silly money now but back in the day this was the cheapest form of drag racing, you purchased a shell or rolling chassis from a junk yard, fit a small block V8 engine, jack the front up and pretty much strip as much as you can off the car. No interior, no lights, no glass, no nothing! Every penny went into making it grip better or more power to the engine.

I'm a lover of custom paint but I absolutely love Gasser history and hot rods in general. Seeing cars in primer is still really popular today, why spend your money on paint when you can make it go faster?

Anyway the frame I now have has a few rust spots so I also wanted to get it covered before it got any worse. I purchased the cheapest primer money could buy as it's pretty thick and has a rather strange inconstancy to it - perfect.

My computer is being awkward at the moment but pics soon..

Ha! Nice idea about the "primer-only" paintjob

Looking forward to see it

Here she is..

Some slightly better pictures..

not the best I know, I usually have quite a bit of room to shoot my stuff but that part of the house is packed with stuff at the moment so this is the best I could do..

Looking good. How's the ride?

I am disappointed by the lack of weights and drillium!

...and what's with all the excess brake cable!?! Surely you want that trimmed all the way down and use a dab of super glue instead of the end caps?

Mmmmm, ride is 'ok' - even with a nice carbon fork and slammed stem 1" is just way too flexy, wish it was 1 1/8th. Same again with bottom-bracket area, you just seem to torque the BB area up before you actually get the power, you also can't run the rear brake super close to the rim for this reason.

Brake cable is on the list to do, as you can see I've changed where the cable sits quite a few times, when I have some spare time I'll cut it shorter.

I don't think I'm going to pursue getting this any lighter (not intentionally) because I'm kinda held back by the fact it's a steel frame running 8 speed shimano and without changing the wheels and drive chain I'm not going to be dropping a massive amount of weight.

In all honesty I'm actually really happy just seeing bikes through different stages. Having them ride perfectly and take them to bits to build something different, sell them on or swap parts over, I don't really keep a bike for more than 6 months and as little as a week! I'm not indecisive with bikes, I purchase them knowing I'll do this but I get as much enjoyment of researching and hunting parts, building bikes as I do riding them.