LIghtening the Twitter Carbon Fiber MTB

Wheels of Happiness

Rizal Philippines

7.06.2021

In order to excite yourself, you find ways to make your bike ride better and experience rise to higher level.  My pursuit is to make my twitter  carbon fiber MTB even lighter

           Reported original weight                                                                         12.7 kg

              Item                          Price                    Weight reduced

              Saddle                      P900.00                        100.

              XT group set         16.500.00                   `1,000 grams

                                            Crank set  500

                                            Cogs         200

                                            Brakeset   300

          Wheelset and tires    5,000.00   

                                           Hubs        200 grams

                                           Rimset     200 grams

                                           Tires            ---                 400

         I found out that even with those fancy sounding tires, rims and hubs, the savings is very minimal

         The tires and interior make them heavy.  I guess MTB are designed that way to be stable and 

         reliable.  and the penalty is being heavy

           Total savings                                                1,500 grams         

            Total cost  -    P22,400/1,500  =   `P150.00 gram     

                                                                             Net weight                    11.2 kg.      

    Is this a good weight for a cf MTB.   Other MTB weigh 20 kg.   Off shelf MTB weigh around

    15 - 17 kg even those that are alloy  

      The only way you can radically reduce weight is:

               Shift to  Rigid fork even  carbon      P4,500       `1,600 grams 

                                         P2.81 gram

              Carbon fiber wheelset =    P45,000.00   -    1 kg =   P45.00 gram

     

                                                                

Valuable lessons learned from the 5th Baguio bike ride

Biking and health

Angono, Rizal | January 29, 2013

Our goal is ride better.  Same mistakes can not be repeated.  The two days ride were tough:  the first day was bike marathon 200 km.  and many rode it fast.  Worse, the middle part was windy (Angeles city to Urdaneta) and it was during the hottest part of the day.  The second day was tough too:  it is nearly a l00 km, and the roads at Sison was tough.  Unlike the first day were there not too many vehicles, the speeding buses were whizzing by at that time of the day.  Worse, the concreting of Kennon seemed to have made some climbs stiff and steeper.

Here are some lessons and advice:

l.  Maintain a foundation mile of at least 60 km per week;

2.  Those who seem to be huge must reduce to say their ideal body weight:    l00 lbs for the first 5 ft of ht + 5-7 lbs for every inch.  You can do this by:   eating fruits and vegetables, planking and crunch exercise to remove the flabs.  I have made a number of posts on weight reduction.  You can search the web for the tips and there are many.

3.  For this ride, if you bring a heavy bike, you are handicapped.  Even if you bring an MtB, be sure it is light.  You cant ride the peloton with the road bikers otherwise you will cramp or bonk out.  Those who were at the peloton wore light bikes.

4. Practice riding at the hottest time of the day:  11 am to 3 pm.

5.  Save the best for the last.  For the Baguio climb, the Urdaneta to Rosario should have been ran at moderate speed;  same for Rosario to Black Mountain.  The best effort should be made from Black Mountain to Kennon view deck.  If you did not, then you will be distressed.

Ride your usual pace as you have practiced.  Do not race with the leaders who trained differently from you

6.  Get plenty of sleep before the ride.

7.  Hydrate and get energy food periodically say every hour or 50 km.  Otherwise, you run into calorie deficit or dehydrate - you hit the wall, you bonk.

8.  In your ride, practice interval high intensity training:    shorten rest periods between intervals, and put the hardest effort in the second part when you are running out of speed and strength.  The interval should not be more than l minute.  Try it and you will be stronger (take it from Joel Javier)

Try to consider these tips