The Enlightened Homer. Another misguided weight weenie thread.

[brendonoid]

Inspired by Bill Lindsay's recent posts about light builds and his new Charlie horse I had a little go at seeing how little effort I could put into making my former commuter Homer into a lightweight. The bike in full fendered dyno-lighted basketed form weighed in at 13.9kg, which actually isn't too bad. So I stripped it down headset out and all.

Firstly, I was surprised to find that the 63cm Waterford built Homer only weighed in at just over 3kg. Whilst I didn't write the specific number down because that's how I am, the frame was in the 2200g area and I'm pretty sure the fork was exactly 870g. That was a lot lighter than I was expecting, considering the 'heft' of the 57cm Charlie.

So just by stripping accessories, removing the front derailleur and granny ring, changing the crank and pedals I have reached the amazing (to me) heft of 10.71kg!

So, to the group: How do I get lighter with the smallest amount of money/effort?

• I would like to lose at least 720grams so I can sneak under the 10kg mark. I want to keep the B-17 (which weighs 520 grams!) Changing the saddle would be the easiest choice, but I really like that saddle.
  
• A new wheel set could save quite a lot, but is probably the most expensive option. My current wheelset is only 1410g rear 960g front (with 260g cassette) So I don't now how much weight I could really save without going ugly carbon or somesuch.
  
• The cassette? How light do roadie cassettes get these days? This is not my wheel house at all.
• TPU tubes and Rene Herse tyres. Probably a few hundred grams there.
• How much weight per cm of S-65 seatpost can I save if I chop it? Does anyone know?
• The BB weighs 260g, a titanium WI BB weighs 140g. That's an expensive 120grams
• A lighter crank. The XD2 isn't a lightweight, any recommendations?
• Obviously I could lose the chainring guard, get a proper 1x chainring with alloy bolts. 80-90 gram saving?
• The headset spacers are steel and brass, so I could change them but they are pretty, as are the brass ferrules.

Any other Ideas?

Thanks for reading!

Brendon McLoughney

[Nick Payne]

For a light cassette, steel monoblock cassettes save weight, as they're mostly empty space. I just weighed an Edco 11-34 cassette I have, and it's 197g, which compares with 345g for the same size Ultegra cassette. The same size Dura-Ace comes in at 250g, but it manages that by using titanium for the large cogs, and they wear more rapidly than steel.

Nick Payne

[brendonoid]

That is very useful info, cheers. It seems like I am getting very good weight value out of my cheap, 9 speed 11-28 HG-400 at 260g?

[Nick Payne]

On Sunday, 12 January 2025 at 10:50:42 pm UTC+11 brendonoid wrote:

That is very useful info, cheers. It seems like I am getting very good weight value out of my cheap, 9 speed 11-28 HG-400 at 260g?

Smaller cassettes are considerably lighter. According to Bike24, if you had an 11-34 in the same HG-400 series, it would weigh 380g (https://www.bike24.com/p296664.html).

[Davidbea]

I'm running some BDOP cassettes. I have some 10 speeds but currently they only have 11 and 12 with the 11 speeds weighing 185g. https://bdopcycling.com/product/bdop-steel-cassette-shimano-sram-11spd-11-28t/ 

[Eric Karnes]

I too have a 63cm Waterford Hilsen and was very surprised when it first arrived by how light it felt. Super interested to see how this progresses...

Eric

[Mathias Steiner]

Charlie horse LOL. That made me laugh.

I caught the bug, too, but my candidate is an 87 Cannondale ST600 with some pretense at light weight. Large frame, not much lighter than yours. If I go through with it, I'll show some pics and some numbers. It's the dead of winter here in mid-Michigan. I'm riding a 93 Rockhopper with studded tires and and a three-speed IGH.

Are the modern Homers still this light? Compared with the numbers reported by Ted D on his small-size Sam, which is supposed to be only marginally more stout, that's quite the gap. Horses for courses, but I like me a lightweight somewhat springy bike for countryside rides with minimal loads.

Regarding the wheels: I have a low-spoke-count wheelset that's about 15 years old and came off a Trek roadie. Aluminum, not carbon, and since rim brakes are out of fashion, you should be able to pick up a set cheap on FB or Craigslist. That's your best weight reduction right there. I've been riding these Bontrager rims/bladed spokes/SRAM Red hubs without maintenance or truing for maybe 4000 trouble-free miles. Great value if you can stand the look, and I don't really worry about it.  Conti GP 5000s in 32 mm weigh just under 300 g each. Great tires, roll well, I've had one flat that may have been the tube's fault.

cheers -m

[J-D Bamford]

It's fun thinking about lighter weight builds... but forgive me because Bill's already posted about all the bits and pieces that in sum can add/subtract weight. But you said a WI bottom bracket (roughly $100 more than normal BBs) is 'expensive'. There's no magic affordable weight savings when you're looking to drop 3/4 kilograms. Just sayin. RH cranks, Hunt (or similar DTC) wheels, perhaps RH tires, ti version of the B17 you already love... these are the big 100g, 250g, 500g weight savings you're looking for. But big changes cost real money. Differentiating the weight of inner tubes, bolts, spacers, chopped seatposts, is just pissing in the wind in comparison to your goal.

If you're not a Clydesdale, then wise money is on lighter wheels. If you're not a home wheel builder, and not stuck on 1980s (and US hand built) wheel dogma, then IMHO you should be shopping Hunt 'Superdura' wheels (their heaviest alloy rim brake wheels, wide'ish, still under 1600g) or something comparable. They're regularly discounted. I wouldn't ride your old heavy wheel weight unless I was pannier touring. Or you could lose half less weight than Hunt wheels by economizing on Ritchey Zeta Comp alloy wheels (hand built/signed by talented wheelbuilders in S Korea) at half the cost of Hunt (if you wait until the next time that Performance discounts the Ritcheys to $250, as I did for my daughter's bike on Black Friday).

[brendonoid]

Thanks for the leads on road wheel sets, I appreciate it. Pretty much accepted It's going to be wheels (and tyres/tubes) to make a meaningful difference.