00:00We all want to save more weight from our bikes, right? Well, after building up my new Armanda,
00:04I thought I would share five ways that I'm planning on shedding a few grams, but
00:09they might not be in the way that you would expect. First off, I'm going to start at the
00:15seat post. The first thing that we can all do is mark where our seat post height is,
00:20pull out the seat post from the frame, measure the minimum insertion, and then add that to the
00:25bottom of your marked seat post height because what you may end up with is a section of seat
00:31post that can be cut off. I've already done this myself and I ended up being able to take off about
00:3610 centimetres worth of seat post, which saved me a fairly decent 30 grams. For what is essentially
00:44a free win, I don't think that's bad at all. But it doesn't just stop there because I have found a
00:51solution to my fairly unattractive seat clamp collar. Instead of the original unit, I found this
00:56pro performance seat clamp, which isn't actually going to provide any sort of weight saving, but it
01:03does just look a whole lot better. And if you want one for yourself, then I have left a link down in
01:07the description below. Before we move on to a different area of the bike, I do want to share
01:12one more recommendation, which I myself won't be doing, but it could be ideal for one of you
01:17lovely viewers. And that is to look at a specialist seat post manufacturer like Doremo. Now, Doremo is
01:25a Spanish brand and they make some incredibly lightweight components. For example, they make
01:31a 350 mil 27.2 post, which comes in at a claimed 80 grams, which is seriously light. They also make
01:40though proprietary posts for the likes of the Tarmac SLA. So this gain isn't just reserved for those
01:46with standard components. Wheels are often seen as the place to drop weight. But what if you already
01:53have a set of swanky lightweight wheels? Well, you can't forget all of the things that are attached to
01:59your wheels. Firstly, the tires are a pretty large component and they obviously sit right at the very
02:05edge of the rotational mass. So weight saved here can return much larger gains in ride and
02:12acceleration feel. So if you're running some all season tires like I am in the form of the
02:17specialized S-Works Mondos, then consider opting for some summer specific jobbies like these GP5000
02:24TTTRs. These are going to save me about 200 grams compared to the Mondos, which is great. Of course,
02:33this is a change that I'll be making when the roads get a little bit drier, but the savings don't stop
02:38there. Cassettes actually carry a fair bit of mass to them since there is a lot of metal work going on
02:45there. So if you do have the funds, it could be worth looking further up the range and getting a
02:50cassette which adopts a more advanced construction method and makes use of fancier materials. For
02:56example, the difference between this Ultegra cassette and this Durace cassette is 62 grams. Yes,
03:03it's not cheap, but as a way to drop a fair bit of weight without needing to adopt a whole Durace
03:08groupset, this in my eyes is money well spent. I have also done some digging and found a pretty
03:14decent price on a Durace cassette, which I've linked down in the description. The other component
03:19to consider on the wheels are your rotors, and this is where you could end up spending a lot of money,
03:24but for a much smaller gain. Again, I won't be doing this one myself, but if you do want to be as
03:31cool as Tali Pagaccia, then you could opt for some carbon tie rotors. Compared to Ultegra spec rotors,
03:37they'll save you about 16 grams per wheel for a total saving of just over 30 grams, which is
03:44obviously very small, but maybe this one is more about the bling factor. Saving money and weight don't
03:52always go hand in hand, but when we look at the cockpit of the bike, there is an opportunity to do
03:57just that. I've been running the Garmin Edge 1040 Solar for nearly a year and a half now, but despite the
04:04vast amount of functionality that this thing provides, you just cannot escape the size of it.
04:10So downsizing to a 540 or an 840 will not only be a cheaper option, but it reduces the weight by nearly
04:1846 grams, and that's not bad at all. If you shop around, then you can often find really good deals
04:25on hedge units, and I've linked a really good one down in the description. That's not the only thing
04:31that can be done in the cockpit area, because much like how I was able to save weight by removing
04:36excess seat post length, I can also do the same at my head tube by removing excess steerer tube length.
04:43I can also replace these alloy spacers with carbon ones for an albeit very small saving,
04:49but these carbon spacers only cost a few pounds. For those of you running integrated computer mounts,
04:56like the one that comes with the Roval handlebars, it could be worth investing in a 3D printed option
05:01instead. For the real weight weenies out there, some aluminium mounts can actually weigh significantly
05:07more than a 3D printed equivalent. If we take the Roval one as an example, the standard unit weighs 53.3
05:15grams, while a 3D printed alternative comes in at 26.1 grams. That is certainly an easy win,
05:22and again, can often be cheaper. There are other things that most of us can do to help shave weight
05:27off our bikes, like adopting a carbon bottle cage. Thankfully, these no longer have to be super
05:33expensive. For example, if we compare a fairly standard bottle cage with a carbon one, there's
05:39a potential saving of about 20 grams per cage. Now, for an upgrade that doesn't need to cost the earth
05:45anymore, I think this is one well worth going for. One which certainly is not for the masses,
05:51and is reserved for those true weight weenies with money to burn a carbon tie chain rings.
05:58They are eye-wateringly expensive, but after seeing them on Tani Pogaccia's bike,
06:04I really can't stop thinking about them. However, these rings will never be going anywhere near my
06:09bike. For me, they just cost too much money to justify putting them on an aluminium bike,
06:15but I think we can all take a second to just admire quite how pretty they are.
06:19In total, then, across all these little changes, I think I'm going to be able to save a not-insignificant
06:26300-400 grams. Most of these savings have either been free or only cost sub-50 quid. It's the big
06:34ticket items like the cassette, head unit, and tyres which will up the price, but as mentioned,
06:40deals can always be found on these things, and I've done my best to link all of those down below.
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