Bike Fan Club By Flycor, LLC

High-end Custom Bicycles >> Calfee Design Fan Club

Bruce
contributor
*****

Reged: 12/27/03
Posts: 133
Loc: North of NYC
Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website
      01/03/08 06:19 AM (71.167.190.182)

That is basically correct. To get an ultra light bike, you have to consider "everything". An ultra light bike may not be very ridable for very long. For example, ultra light saddles, while 78 grams, are torture for some, depends on the person.

Also, be aware that most published weights are not 100% accurate. Some companies are very good about weights and give you a max weight. Your actual weight may be a few grams less. Tufo tires come to mind. Some manufacturers state a "we made one once that was that" weight, but your copy is generally 15+ grams heavier. While 15 grams may not seem like much, it is 1/2 an ounce, and if 16 components are all 15 grams over, your ultra light bike now weighs 1/2 pound more than it should / you expected.

Also, ultra light is ultra expensive. I did a 60 cm DFly when they first came out and got the bike to 16lb without too much weight weenie stuff, but I still had to count grams.

The basic formula is it costs about $1 per gram you want to remove. It gets expensive quickly.

The argument against weight weenieism is that full water bottles add about 28 ounces of weight (a fluid ounce of water is about 1.043 ounces of weight, not sure why these two obsolete English scales are related, but apparently they are), so why try to save weight when you have to carry water anyway. The counter argument is that weight matters, just try to ride a heavy bike up a hill. Weenie haters don't seem to understand this, or why they are really really slow on hills.

So the bottom like is how light a bike can you afford / want, and when does it become not worth it to lose more weight.

And all this does not address durability / safety issues.

Bruce

Post Extras Print Post   Remind Me!     Notify Moderator

Entire thread
Subject Posted by Posted on
* The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website asu_gt 12/28/07 06:19 PM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website dbarnet1   01/10/08 12:45 AM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website asu_gt   01/10/08 05:23 PM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website Bruce   01/12/08 10:28 AM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website dbarnet1   01/16/08 06:32 PM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website Bruce   01/21/08 02:49 AM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website dbarnet1   01/22/08 12:25 AM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website asu_gt   03/24/08 02:13 PM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website dbarnet1   03/27/08 05:21 PM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website asu_gt   01/13/08 08:11 PM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website Darby   01/13/08 09:32 PM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website asu_gt   01/14/08 02:41 AM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website Umlungu   01/14/08 03:21 PM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website dbarnet1   01/10/08 11:03 PM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website Bruce   01/03/08 06:19 AM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website asu_gt   01/03/08 10:17 PM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website Bruce   01/04/08 09:06 AM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website asu_gt   01/04/08 05:09 PM
. * Re: The 12lb Dragonfly mentioned on the website Darby   12/28/07 06:41 PM

Extra information
4 registered and 67 anonymous users are browsing this forum.

Moderator:  Kahuna 



Forum Permissions
      You cannot start new topics
      You cannot reply to topics
      HTML is disabled
      UBBCode is enabled

Rating:
Thread views: 5499

Rate this thread

Jump to

Contact Us Bikefanclub.com

*
UBB.threads™ 6.4