Is Weight Weenie scene dying

[SK5]

Seriously I don't see many light bikes anymore . No one pushing the boundaries and just buying off the shelf stuff . Is the whole thing dying because I'm never stopping . Been over 2 years since coming to this site but looking around not much has changed .

[scant]

truly lightweight mtbs have always been a minority section, but also theres always been a year on year trickle down effect, IE the vast majority of parts are getting lighter. these days its a lot easier to walk into a shop & assuming you have sizeable funds you can buy a stock 23lb FS bike or 20lb hardtail. those weights might not be weightweenie light, but for a stock bike they're mind blowing compared to 20 years ago. I guess that partially answers your question, making truly lightweight bikes has become eye watering expensive & might put off all but the truly commited.

Maybe its more a question of visibility depending on where you look? there might be less builds on forums, but thats been replaced by other areas such as instagram (eg Dangerholm used to be on this forum, Nino used to be on mtbr, etc) or youtube.

french weightweenies is fairly active
https://light-bikes.fr/viewforum.php?f=45

personally from what i see, the nature of riding mtb has become a LOT more diverse. theres so many different types of Mtb these days & the majority of those require bigger travel/ heavier bikes. ... but that could just be a local riding scene thing...

[stoney]

MTB trails are getting more gnarly which requires heavier wheels and tires if you truly want to ride the trails instead of sitting beside the trail fixing your broken wheel and/or flat tire.

[js]

I think it's just evolved - as mountain biking and everything else has.

Example, I'm still keen to have the lightest parts, but that means getting the lightest 150mm+ dropper I can, then swapping in a Ti bolt kit and finding the cleanest way to run the lightest cable and housing for it. No doubt my previous bike's sub-200g rigid post was lighter, but I don't know that either one is more or less 'weight weenie'.

[voicycle]

I think it's just evolved - as mountain biking and everything else has.

Example, I'm still keen to have the lightest parts, but that means getting the lightest 150mm+ dropper I can, then swapping in a Ti bolt kit and finding the cleanest way to run the lightest cable and housing for it. No doubt my previous bike's sub-200g rigid post was lighter, but I don't know that either one is more or less 'weight weenie'.

Yes, certainly on the road side of things I've come to view this forum more as 'Performance Weenies' or 'High End Parts Weenies' rather than as strictly Weight Weenies. There's still more of a weight consciousness here than on other forums but I think it's a definite sign of an evolving mindset that this is still where people go to talk about modding things to fit or sourcing niche parts for aero reasons rather than weight (or any number of other reasons). It's the same people with the same desire to continue refining every little detail of their bikes, just in a world that's moved beyond the 'weight weight weight' dogma of the 90's-00's to recognise that top end performance is about a lot of other things too.

Obviously aero considerations pushed the roadies there first for practical reasons, but as mentioned above with the dropper post, MTB has its own string of 'weigh more but ride faster' tech and I think Aero is already making its way into MTB with these first few full-internal cable routing bikes. No UCI weight limit to set a clear stopping point for how light to go before focusing elsewhere, but it seems to be happening naturally anyway, at least in terms of mainstream manufacturing.

[Juanmoretime]

[quote=voicycle post_id=1840206 time=1701420983 user_id=101643]
[quote=js post_id=1840122 time=1701362157 user_id=10238]
I think it's just evolved - as mountain biking and everything else has.

Example, I'm still keen to have the lightest parts, but that means getting the lightest 150mm+ dropper I can, then swapping in a Ti bolt kit and finding the cleanest way to run the lightest cable and housing for it. No doubt my previous bike's sub-200g rigid post was lighter, but I don't know that either one is more or less 'weight weenie'.
[/quote]

Yes, certainly on the road side of things I've come to view this forum more as 'Performance Weenies' or 'High End Parts Weenies' rather than as strictly Weight Weenies. There's still more of a weight consciousness here than on other forums but I think it's a definite sign of an evolving mindset that this is still where people go to talk about modding things to fit or sourcing niche parts for aero reasons rather than weight (or any number of other reasons). It's the same people with the same desire to continue refining every little detail of their bikes, just in a world that's moved beyond the 'weight weight weight' dogma of the 90's-00's to recognise that top end performance is about a lot of other things too.

Obviously aero considerations pushed the roadies there first for practical reasons, but as mentioned above with the dropper post, MTB has its own string of 'weigh more but ride faster' tech and I think Aero is already making its way into MTB with these first few full-internal cable routing bikes. No UCI weight limit to set a clear stopping point for how light to go before focusing elsewhere, but it seems to be happening naturally anyway, at least in terms of mainstream manufacturing.
[/quote]

While concerned about weight, functional, longevity and aero is way more important to me. Followed by fit and comfort, I hold back my bikes way more than my bikes holding me back. Two road bikes that fit the same and yet I am way more faster on my 7232 gram road bike than on my 5921 gram road bike. For MTB I love my fat bike.

[nova16]

@SK5
Sorry for entering this thread, but can you please send me pics , zendatzki@aol.com , of your modyfied Tune Skyracer?
Thanks, Dirk

[JayDee81]

Seeing your latest mtb build it's no wonder WW mtb are dying in your eyes. I wouldn't want to ride that bike for more than a very short test ride, purely because I wonder how bad it would be, because it's basically unusable for mtb riding. For example Dangerholm builds are a completely different league. While far heavier compared to your build Dangerholm's bikes are actually perfectly usable for their purpose while still being far lighter than the lightest off the shelve bikes.

[SK5]

Seeing your latest mtb build it's no wonder WW mtb are dying in your eyes. I wouldn't want to ride that bike for more than a very short test ride, purely because I wonder how bad it would be, because it's basically unusable for mtb riding. For example Dangerholm builds are a completely different league. While far heavier compared to your build Dangerholm's bikes are actually perfectly usable for their purpose while still being far lighter than the lightest off the shelve bikes.

Well I respect your opinion .

[fatpinarellorider]

Personally I never really understood massively weightweenieing mtbs (as with bigger tyres and suspension you're fighting a losing battle).
Better to get a road bike if you want the lightest bike.

I have put a few 'lightweight' parts on my mtbs, but nothing compared to my road bikes.

I don't know about anyone else, but frankly I am a bit over having to change parts all the time.
If I have a fully functioning bike (or several), it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have to spend time working on it to make it 5 or even 50 grams lighter.

Sometimes you can fall into the trap of having a non-functioning bike for a few days, which is worse than having a heavy fully-working bike that is ready all the time. At least, that has happened to me on more htan one occasion, and I'm completely over it, because it has meant I've missed out on the actual riding side of things (which, let's face it, is what it's all about). Never weightweenie more than one bike at a time!

Other than that, the industry has moved on compared to where it used to be. I think some people simply can't afford to have a dedicated lightweight 26er, then a dedicated lightweight 27.5er, then a dedicated lightweight 29er, then a dedicated lightweight mullet. Who has that amount of money to burn every other year? I know I can't, and I am still stuck with 26" wheels.

[andreszucs]

I think weightweenie bikes are placed in a grey area these days.

1st type of consumers: The majority understood the assignment, that if you're Mountain biking for fun, meaning you're probably not a pro, likely to be middle-aged, followed by a pint of beer, well...why not go with an e-bike to rip on the trail even more, more fun.

2nd type of consumers: Pro level or competitive: reliability is more important than questionable weight savings, also, likely to have sponsors involved, so they are limited to what they can use.

You can see how Sram is pushing for reliable products like the SRAM transmission, although I only see a sense in using such a heavy drivetrain on MTBs and Enduro bikes, but, people are into building gravel bikes with Sram transmission, overkill in my opinion.

I come from being extremely active over here in the past, 10-12 years ago, today I have moved to Instagram with my https://www.instagram.com/themonstergravel/ page. I am still obsessed with weight savings, but, in exchange for more functionality for my bike, functional weight. I have a superlight road bike at 11.49lbs, but quite frankly, it rides like shit compared to my monstergravel, so its just sitting on a corner and I'll only use it when I feel on top of my game and I want to do a PR attempt at my favorite local mountain climb, otherwise I am riding my Do-it-all machine for overall leasure biking.

Examples of savings, giving room for funtional weight:
-158g RD, opening room for a slighty heavier 15sp cassette 9-48
Magura MT8 brakes on Dropbars instead of STI's, WAY lighter, giving room for a heavier 1564g fork with more travel at 150mm
-super light Saddle/seatpost combo, giving room for a very special crankset idea that I am working on, adding more functionality....

cheers.

[hannawald]

I find weightweenies much more road bike bike focused so you don´t see many mtb stuff here.But yeah, once the pros ride xc bikes weighting more than 10 kgs it is ok for others as well. It is quite rare I see Darimo stems etc there.Considering those girls and guys are 70 kgs max... I must admin I have also given up weightweenism. My road bike is 7 kgs. When I see pros riding heavier bikes than me I feel no desire to put even more cash into the overly expensive bike which rides beautifully... similar with mtb... Recently I was in need to buy new mtb pedals. It would be nice to catch the lightest ones. But those have titanium axles with 85kgs limit. I would be too close to the limit. I looked around and everybody is on Shimano pedals. Then I started to read about lower stack height of xtr, larger contact area etc, they were cheaper than some titanium Xpedos so I went this XTR way. I must say I was sad about the weight.... if there had been fellow weightweenies here riding them with good riding reports I would have gone this way but I just didn´t want to experiment, the stuff is so expensive:)

It´s similar with the wheels. It´s crazy top end DT Swiss XC wheels are more than 1400g and people buy it and racers win on them. With very light hubs those rims must be really heavy. Reynolds are heavy, FFWD heavy etc etc. Only Bontrager RSL or Roval SL are pushing it. I have seen quite a few destroyed Rovals. Then you have those Dukes, Bergs and chinese production with very light rims. But it is suspicious quite a few big brands don´t push it... it is similar with road bikes. Chinese make a lot lighter rims/wheels than big brands for half the money. Look at those Carbonworks CRW 5060 below 1300g. It is 200g below standard weight of top end big brands wheelsets. They even machine the freehub with dimples and machine the centerlock rotor holder. There is quite a lot of interest for these wheels but lots of people are afraid seeing they are that light. Everything looks good on paper but are they reliable? Are they comfortable? With lower mass does it mean they are easily pushed by crosswinds? Does it mean they are actually worse to ride not keeping the speed so easily? Is there something like "the right weight for best riding feel"?

Anyway I would love to see more weightweenism here but unfortunatelly I am more like follower than early adopter:)

[SK5]

It's hard to accept more people adopting heavier parts because they believe it's safer . I mean plenty of light parts can handle it . The main competitors in the industry don't make the light stuff because they know a lot of people don't trust them and also could get sued if a heavier rider decided to use a light part without reading the fine print and then crashes .

Been building light bikes for over 20 years and trust me they are not cheap by a long shot . Do some of my builds cost over 14k - sure but it's a passion and like with any project that involves making the best it will incur a high cost .

My latest build has taken many years of different versions, testing parts, making and testing parts and even having to order new drill press, sanders and other tools to make the parts . So not just the price of components or raw materials that add to the overall cost .

Will I ever stop....no . Does it bother me that less people are interested.....a little . However for me and all the years of developing my skills in metal work, carbon fiber development, parts designing etc it is worth it . There is always a turn around and when some things start dying sooner or later it returns in some shape or another .

[arcadia]

I am lucky to get a WW in my village, he collects bikes, more than 50 in his house, some are vintage some are cheap and some are weenies.
He is quite extreme, made some tuning and mods, sadly he is not really gifted for handwork, but still put some carbon parts on derailleurs and did (badly) some dremelling here and there.
Synchros made crazy MTB wheels, 1200g for the set,tubeless, integrated rays, I never saw them anywhere, my friend told me there is a locale shop here, which would have a pair in stock, that weight is crazy, it's already a good weight even for road wheelset, but those are designed for MTB, my friend built a light MTB using a scalpel frame, and carbon bladed fork, some other light parts, but not those wheels, yet.

[fatpinarellorider]

I'm making up some lightweight 26" wheels soon.
I already got the rims and hubs.