The Lightest Rivendell

[Brent Eastman]

Who's got it? 

I've seen beautiful lightweight lugged road bikes with super light modern components, but they usually are not Rivs. Has anyone gone full out shaving grams off a Roadeo, Roadini, or older Riv model?

I know we're not weight weenies here, I'm certainly not. I did get the itch after building up my Roadini to make it even lighter (and faster?). However, the reason I love Rivs is that they are IMO the best blend of aesthetic beauty, reliable, durable, (fast seems to come last which is fine). My build was a tightly budgeted mix of parts bin, eBay NOS, and new parts. Would I try carbon wheels on it? Yes! Would I spend a bunch of money? No.

It does seem like in the last decade, the gravel itch has spread, and there could be some high end road bike parts floating around for low prices. I'm just brainstorming about what my winter project will be. 

[Stephen]

I'm sure I don't have the lightest one, but I've put a little effort into turning my ram into a lightweight road bike. Splurged for king Ti bottle cages, ti brooks, and ebay curated the drivetrain to be a STI shimagnolo. Only things to lighten up at this point I think would be to switch to a titanium seatpost and switch up the wheelset. I'll try and take an updated photo today.

[Bill Lindsay]

I approached the build concept for both my Legolas and my Roadeo with a focus on lower weight.  Both are under 20 pounds.  The Roadeo is under 20 pounds with full fenders and with a front rack, which I'm pretty proud of.  

Patrick Moore has a far lighter "Rivendell" but it's his custom with small wheels and a single fixed drivetrain and only one brake.  I think he's in the 17-pound neighborhood.  

I assume your conceptual winter project is to swap parts to make a bike you already have lighter.  That's almost always a pointless proposition unless the real point is just to entertain yourself with the work.  Replacing stuff that does not need replacing is obviously kind of wasteful.  Doing so on a budget makes it even harder.  Maybe it would be just as fun to just experiment with a more stripped down configuration.  Like, just remove a chainring and front derailleur.  That's "free" weight savings and just find out if you can live with a 1x.  I find that if you really want to pull together a light build, you should plan from a blank sheet of paper and build that thing from the ground up.  If you just did an overhaul on your Leo and weighed the frame and the fork bare, you would find that it's a pound or two heavier than a "light" steel frame and fork.  So I think a fun target for a Leo Roadini is 10kg, which is far more reachable than 20 pounds.  

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Stephen]

[Patrick Moore]

In fact, if Bill has derailleur drivetrain bikes under 20 lb they beat -- for weight skimming -- my Joe Starck gofast. That's 18 lb on the nose with heavy Phil hubs and 360 gram Dura Ace (MTB) SPD pedals and 52X 17/19 Dingle and old Dura Ace QR on the rear, the only "stupid light" part being a titanium stem binder bolt. 175 gram Elk Pass tires.

And two! Iris bottle cages -- had it originally built for just 1 cage but Chauncey added a second.

I know that Bill has showcased the Legolas and Roadeo before, but perhaps he'd be kind enough to restate how these are built up and link to a photo or 2.

[Patrick Moore]

With fenders and rack under 20 lb: Bill's Roadeo must take the prize! I figure my custom would be 20 lb min with 2X10.

IIRC, I did get my 2003 Curt (frame was clone of the Joe Starck) in its original build as a gofast 1X10 in at 20 lb with Speedplay X-1s and 2 Iris cages. But no rack or fenders. Both 2003 and 1999 are medium sized frames; I'm about Bill's size.

[Bernard Duhon]

Because of the rush to carbon wheels & disc brakes the Ebay market for rim brake “racing” wheels if very soft.

I have seen 1,500gram wheelsets that were $1,100.00 new selling for $400.00.

 

OF course with wheels you are taking a chance on the wear they may have been thru.

 

I have some lightly used campy protons I could let go if you are interested.

 

Bernard

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[Bernard Duhon]

So stephen, what did you get the weight down to??

 

From: rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Stephen

Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2024 11:53 AM
To: RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com>

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[Patrick Moore]

Hah! The very standard 26" wheels for my 2003 Curt -- Sun M14A "semi-aero" rims + 32 Revolution spokes with alum nipples and 8 speed Ultegra hubs + Velox -- came in at under 1550 w/o QRs.

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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[char...@gmail.com]

Oh ho! I'm actually attempting to build a (relatively) lightweight Roadeo but with 2 caveats – as much silver and no carbon. I built it originally up with a Nitto lugged cockpit, racks, and a dynamo setup but wanted to change it up. I took inspiration from this build:

https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=105552

I had an old RB1 with a mix Suntour Superbe/Shimano 600 parts (which would satisfy the silver and no carbon) but the short reach brakes won't work and the ergonomics of those old Suntor Superbe Pro didn't outweigh the weight savings of my old brake levers.

All that said, here's a partial build list (not quite done):

Handlebar: Whisky 12F in Polished Silver

Stem: Ritchey C220 in silver

Seatpost: Thomson Masterpiece in silver

Levers: TRP RRL in silver/black hoods

Shifters: Silver downtubes

Brakes: Paul Medium Racers

Crankset: White Ind R30 crank but black VBC chainrings 44/28  (I haven't been able to find these in silver)

Derailleur: Shimano CX70 and Deore M591 - all black so looking to change them.

Wheels: Boyd Altamount with 11-32 8 speed cassette (in the picture is a 11-36 that I already swapped out)

I've gotten it to about 21 1/2 pounds but aiming for sub 20. I know I can do it by taking the frame pump (that's about half a pound already), swapping pedals and getting some lighter wheels. 

I was looking at getting an old campy groupset in all alloy/non-carbon (so I figure that's around the 8 speed generation).

Appreciate any thoughts/suggestions.

[Stephen]

Bernard, I'm not sure what the weight is actually. Haven't had the opportunity to weigh it but I'd be interested to find out.

[Patrick Moore]

I've been using the ineffably wonderful Dura Ace SPD pedals (MTB-type pedals but 1-sided) for years and I even use them on the stripped-down, 18-lb gofast fixed gear, but I could drop 1/4 lb by swapping them for the Xpedos that I've been hoarding, also for years, because they are so light: about 250 grams the pair to the DA's 360. This model of the Xpedos has titanium spindles with a 185 lb official weight limit -- this has the aluminum body, not the ultra-chi-chi magnesium body. I'm at least 10 and perhaps 15 lb below that but I've hesitated to install them since occasionally I torque the pedals considerably when climbing -- tho' at my age this torque has much diminished. And the Xpedos are 2-sided to boot.

On Sunday, August 25, 2024 at 2:38:06 PM UTC-7 char...@gmail.com wrote:

Oh ho! I'm actually attempting to build a (relatively) lightweight Roadeo but with 2 caveats – as much silver and no carbon.... I've gotten it to about 21 1/2 pounds but aiming for sub 20... Appreciate any thoughts/suggestions.

[Piaw Na]

Shimano now makes the ES-600 which weigh 280g. REI currently has them on sale for $75. My Roadini that I built without particularly light parts came to 23 pounds with a Topeak mini morph, bottle cage, and pedals (https://blog.piaw.net/2022/10/putting-together-my-roadini.html). My suspicion is I can shave a couple of pounds by going with my now favored Neugent TwoTwoX EZ Mount Wheels.