Weight weenies was originally a pejorative term for people who got too obsessed by the weight of their bike. They were considered to spend more time worrying about the weight of their bike rather than riding their bike. They would pay thousands of dollars to get a bike a few grams lighter, even if it sacrificed comfort.
The weight weenie for many cyclists was a person with more money than sense. Though now by using the weight weenies forum you’ll find that people who care about the weight of their bike have been retaking the term. Many though still spend way more money than they should in order to have a light bike.
We’re going to show you some ways in which you can have a light bike, that rides well and does not cost a small fortune in order to set up.
Weight weenie wheels
If you want to save weight a great place to save weight is wheels. We’re sure everyone and their dog has already told you this. We decided to put our Fast and Light wheels on a diet for 2019 and made our already light carbon fiber wheels even lighter.
For 2019 we launched our Aero range of wheels. Deep section carbon fiber wheels that are around 100g lighter per wheelset than our Fast and Light series. We can sense that the weight weenie in you is already starting to get excited by this idea.
We managed to make our Aero wheels lighter by changing the construction method. We knew we had to keep our loved wide, tubeless ready, aero rim with roughly the same great ride characteristics and keep them as strong and stiff as our customers had been telling us they were.
In order to do this and to help them lose weight we had to change our carbon fiber cloth. We moved from solely using Toray T700 in our wheel rims to using a mix of Toray T700 and T800 carbon fiber cloth. Doing so allowed us to keep the same excellent ride characteristic but save some weight. The only issue though if you buy a set is that your wallet will still stay reassuringly heavy.
To allow you to fine tune your bike setup we have the Aero series available in super lightweight 35mm deep rims up to 86mm deep carbon fiber rims. We also offer the wheelset with our own newly designed hubs, including a lower spoke count for our front wheel, or DT Swiss hubs. When using DT Swiss hubs, you can pick from the 240S or the 350S, quality and lightweight as standard.
Just how light are the new Aero wheels?
You might be wondering now how light our Aero wheels are?
|
|
Aero |
Fast&Light |
||||
|
|
Front(g) |
Rear(g) |
Total(g) |
Front(g) |
Rear(g) |
Total(g) |
|
35C |
534.85 |
715.70 |
1250.55 |
|
|
|
|
35C disc |
608.00 |
751.00 |
1359.00 |
|
|
|
|
40C |
559.85 |
733.85 |
1293.70 |
619.00 |
784.00 |
1403.00 |
|
40C disc |
605.00 |
750.00 |
1355.00 |
720.00 |
835.00 |
1555.00 |
|
50C |
591.90 |
764.50 |
1356.40 |
653.00 |
825.00 |
1478.00 |
|
50C disc |
645.00 |
785.00 |
1430.00 |
760.00 |
874.00 |
1634.00 |
|
55C |
560.00 |
780.00 |
1340.00 |
669.00 |
839.00 |
1508.00 |
|
55C disc |
657.00 |
810.00 |
1467.00 |
760.00 |
886.00 |
1646.00 |
|
86C |
740.00 |
900.00 |
1640.00 |
795.00 |
973.00 |
1768.00 |
Even our 86mm deep wheels will allow you to build a very light triathlon or time trial bike. Which is something not many weight weenies have thought about before as aero has always been heavier? At ICAN we feel that with a proper design aero can be lightweight as well, the best of both worlds.
Our Aero wheels are perfect for your weight weenie build, especially if you want to ride the bike you’ve just built and not have it as a permanent display. Our 35mm deep carbon clincher is light enough o save you from buying tubulars. As you can tubeless on the rim, you can still get the supple tubular feel but not have to worry about gluing your tires to your wheel rims.
Our disc brake options will even have you thinking about running discs on your superlight build. Yes, we know that idea may be heresy to some, but it is always nice to know you can have more stopping power than you could ever need and not worry about weight.
Can you create a weight weenie gravel bike?
It’s a great question. When riding gravel, you’ll want to mix low weight with strength. Something that may always seem hard to do. As weights get lower the assumption for many people is that so does strength. It is something that we kept in mind when creating the GRA02, our lightweight gravel frameset.
To allow us to bring you a lightweight gravel bike frame, one you can build up into a serious weight weenie machine, we have constructed the GRA02 from Toray T700 carbon fiber cloth. Toray T700 allows us to strip out unnecessary weight but keep strength in the frame exactly where you need it most.
You can even build the GRA02 up into a super lightweight tourer. That is a statement you can’t usually say about bikes for touring on. Matching the GRA02 with our lightweight Aero wheels will give you a gravel bike that lads that way in weight reduction but at the same time is still more than strong enough that you won’t have issues out in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes you need to mix the best of both world’s to build the perfect lightweight bike.
How about a road weight weenie frameset?
We have the perfect road frame to partner with a set of Aero 35 wheels build a seriously light road bike.
ICAN AC066 Bike Frame
Our AC066 is the perfect frameset to build a lightweight road bike, especially if you don’t want to spend all your money doing so. Coming in at $635 this frameset is a bargain, and you’ll be able to build your own weight weenie machine without killing your bank account.
On the Weight Weenies forum, you’ll even find AC066 builds that people have built that weigh below the 6kg mark. They have managed to do this without having to drill or strip parts of the usability in order to get as lightweight as possible.
If you don’t fancy having to custom build your own frameset we also offer the AC066 as a complete superlight road bike. You can pick from build options featuring Shimano 105, SRAM Force, or Shimano Ultegra. Alternatively, if you want to go really uber-light, you can contact us and ask about SRAM Red or Shimano Dura Ace builds.
