Think a titanium bike can’t be really light? Think again. I asked Carl to get me a light bike, but not to get crazy light. In other words, I value a bike that will be with me for a while. However, at 150 lbs, Carl was confident that he could build the thing to be in the 15 lb. range pretty easily. I’ve posted the frame weights and listed a few comparisons.

Frame:

• No paint: 2.4 lbs
• With Paint: 2.8 lbs
• With Fork and Headset: 3.7 lbs

I write this because at 2.4 lbs, this thing was light!!! If anyone doubts that titanium can be just as light as the anything else out there, here’s proving you wrong. Actually, there is some ultralight carbon fiber out there now, but some of this is getting stupid light. At any rate, here are some comparisons with other frames:

Frame only:

• Carl Strong Double Butted Ti: 2.4 lbs (unpainted ti)
• Carl Strong Double Butted Ti: 2.8 lbs (painted ti)
• Cervelo Soloist Carbon: 2.4 lbs (Excel Sports catalog #92, page 4) (CF)
• Look 595: 2.8 lbs (Excel Sports catalog #92, page 7) (CF)
• Merlin Extralight: 2.5 lbs (Excel Sports catalog #92, page 6) (unpainted ti)
• Moots Vamoots SL: 2.66 lbs (Wrench Science website) (unpainted ti)
• Indy Fab Crown Jewel Ti: 2.87 lbs (Wrench Science website) (unpainted ti)
• Colnago C-50: 2.43 lbs (Wrench Science website) (CF)
• Pinarello Dogma: 2.64 lbs (Wrench Science website) (Magnesium)

Frame with Fork and Headset:

• Carl Strong Double Butted Ti: 3.7 lbs (painted, Chris King Headset, Easton SLX fork)
• Cervelo Soloist Team: 4.9 lbs (Excel Sports catalog #92, page 4) (includes seatpost)
• Look 595: 3.57 lbs (Excel Sports catalog #92, page 7) (integrated seatpost)

Wheels:

• White Mountain Custom Wheels: 1460 grams (no skewers, +VeloPlugs)
• Mavic Ksyrium ES: 1485 grams
• Zipp 303: 1500 grams
• Campagnolo Eurus: 1550 grams

Full Bike:

The full bike weights are without any of the computer stuff (cadence sensors, magnets, etc…), no pedals, and no bottle cages. Everything else is on there and ready to ride.

• Full bike: 15.6 lbs
• Full bike with pedals and bottle cages: 15.8 lbs (Speedplay Zero Ti and Tacx Tao(2))

To be honest, this is exactly where I thought the bike would fall. I’m a bit disappointed as anyone getting a new bike wan’ts it to be lighter, and I secretly harbored hopes that it would be in the 15.3 or 15.4 lb. range. Having said that, I have done almost nothing to make this a light bike. I have a very standard Campy Record grouppo, the FSA carbon fiber stem, bars and seatpost are all pretty heavy, and I have the heavy-ish Arione saddle. If I really wanted to, I could swap out all the FSA stuff for lighter aluminum, and I could put my old Selle Italia SLR saddle back on. This would save me at least 0.5 lbs I’m thinking, but I don’t care enough.

Of course I had to do a few comparisons for price, weight and frame material.  I tried to keep the build list constant, but there were minor variations here and there.  In general, I was able to use the Record grouppo exactly as I built the Strong, same tires and tubes, saddle, and same FSA components.  The wheels didn’t always match up though, and  I’ll note that when appropriate.  (Thanks to Wrench Science which is great for this stuff)  All of these comparisons are against a 56cm frame, full Record group with Chorus cassette, same FSA bar, stem and post, same Michelin tires and tubes, and the Arione saddle.  In general I took whatever fork came with the frame.  Wheel choices are noted below.

Colnago C-50 Comparison:  I had to do the C-50 first since this is almost the bike I bought, and this is just about the exact set-up I would have used.

• Full Retail Price: $8027
• Weight: 16.04 lbs (wheels are Eurus)

Independent Fabrications Crown Jewel Ti Comparison:  Next I had to try another Titanium frame.  Might as well chose from another very well respected builder.

• Full Retail Price: $7592
• Weight: 16.52 lbs (wheels are Eurus)

All in all, this bike is both considerably less expensive and lighter than some other top contenders.  Getting a different saddle, post, bar and stem would all take off significant weight.  I could also go crazy and start buying things like the Zero Gravity brakes (1/4 lb lighter) but that’s just not my style.  At any rate, it’s a light bike without even trying, and I’m not complaining.

This entry was posted on April 4, 2007 at 5:44 am and is filed under Bicycle, Bicycling, Bike, Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.