I weighed the Hillborne and Bombadil bare frame and forks out of curiosity

[Jason Fuller]

Like just about every Rivendell rider, I am not a weight weenie. But I have always wondered where the weight of my 51cm Hillborne and 52cm Bombadil (2TT) would land in the grand scheme of things. I do think frame weight is a helpful indicator of how a frame will feel, provided you have the background knowledge of how to compare that value to the frame geometry and tube diameters. 

My expectation was that while the Bombadil is obviously a more stout bike, being Waterford-built in 2009 it might be surprisingly moderate in weight. And the Hillborne, being ten years newer and MIT, I figured would have stouter tubing than one might expect and therefore the two frames could be not too far apart in weight. 

I was wrong!  

The forks were not too far apart: 860g for the Hillborne's, 940g for the Bombadil's.  The Bombadil has 10mm more steerer tube. This is with crown race for both. 

The bare frames with headset cups and bearings (the latter didn't want to move so I didn't force things) were:  2827g for the Bombadil and a scant 2144g for the Hillborne. My guesses were 2600 and 2400 respectively, so this was quite surprising! 

Knowing this doesn't make me feel any differently about either bike, they both ride superbly. In fact it gives me renewed faith that the Hillborne is not overkill as an all-road bike! 

[Armand Kizirian]

Wow, I'm actually shocked at the hillborne. 860g for a steel fork is impressive, most modern unicrown steel forks with similar tire clearances are typically 1100g. The 2100g frame, with lugs to boot, is actually very lightweight. I know Fairlights heavily engineered reynolds tubeset on their secan/faran models weight about the same. Granted yours is a smaller frame size, not sure how much those numbers jump in the 54-57cm+ sizes. 

I'm going to be stripping down my platypus soon and was also curious to weight it just for kicks.

[Mathias Steiner]

@Jason

Thanks for doing that. I'm keenly interested, because I do believe frame weight tells a story about how a bicycle rides. A 2000 g steel frame will not be happy as a loaded tourer, but may feel wonderful with a light rando load. 

Riv forks tend to be fairly light weight, even on tourers.

Here's what Ted Durant wrote in another thread ("Sam Hillbornes go live tomorrow"):

"51cm Sam just arrived, it is 2637 grams for the frame (including headset cups, water bottle bolts, and seat post binder bolt) and 844 grams for the fork (including crown race)."

That's more than a pound difference for the same frame size, and 16 g -- basically nothing -- for the fork.
Nuts.

I just got a first-run 56 cm frame, single top tube, no headset installed.

With everything off -- only the binder bolt and BB cable guide still in the frame -- the weight was 2398 g per my kitchen scale.
The fork weighs 954 g, 110 g more than Ted's. Given the difference in frame size, that's probably from all from the longer steerer tube.

cheers -m

[Jason Fuller]

That is super surprising that the same size Hillborne, a few batches newer, is a full 500g heavier!?  I would question my measurement but I was quite careful, and to be honest the frame felt about that light in hand (versus the obviously heavier Bombadil) 

[Ted Durant]

On Monday, March 2, 2026 at 12:10:24 AM UTC-6 Jason Fuller wrote:

That is super surprising that the same size Hillborne, a few batches newer, is a full 500g heavier!?  I would question my measurement but I was quite careful, and to be honest the frame felt about that light in hand (versus the obviously heavier Bombadil) 

Well, someday I'll have to strip mine and re-weigh it!

Ted Durant

Milwaukee, WI USA 

[st nick]

I'll add a different Riv model as a data point. 

The first week of February I received my new 57cm Charlie Gallop frame and fork and weighed them before building it up.

I left only the cups and crown race before weighing.

My hanging scale showed 5.61 pounds or 2544 g for frame and 2.04 pounds or 925 g for the fork for a total of 3469 grams.

So that's 7.65 pounds for frame and fork with cups and crown race. 

Built up I'm rolling at 28 pounds before adding bags and pump.

Paul Cunningham

Dallas,  TX area

[Andrew Letton]

Another data point:

My 65cm (!) 1999 All-Rounder frame is 2551g and fork is 907g. (with no headset parts)

cheers,

Andrew in Sydney

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[Bill Lindsay]

My 59cm Roadeo (with cantilever posts) Frame: 2174g. Fork 886g

My 57cm Gallop Frame: 2528g Fork: 930g

My custom Falconer ("Bambi") Frame:  1870g. Fork: 1006g

Bambi is a 650B road bike, wrapped around 48mm tires with fenders or 55mm tires without fenders

https://www.flickr.com/photos/45758191@N04/53544583284/in/album-72157720131270829

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Jim Whorton]

My 55cm Atlantis, 2022 model, frame and fork with headset: 8.6 pounds, or 3900 grams.

I didn't think to weigh them separately before I put the bike together.

Jim in Rochester