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I couldn't decide whether to put this into the youth section, the weight wienie section, or the 26er section so I decided to just throw it in the general section :lol:
My son is 10 and until recently rode a 24" Diamondback Insight 24 Hybrid bike. Main reason I bought that bike for him ~2-3 years ago was the low standover height and it was the lightest bike I could find in a 24". I threw on some old LX Rapid Fire Plus shifters cause he had a hard time shifting the grip shifters and he's been riding ever since.
It was good for gravel roads and around the neighborhood but the last 2-3 months he's been really getting into mountain biking and has me taking him on real trails. I put a triple on there to give him lower gearing and when I went to put wider more aggressive tires on there I found out the 24" tires are really 540 sized tires and off road tires in that diameter are very few and far between (Only one I found was a Kenda tires sold at wheelchair stores).
Instead of putting money into a bike he's about to outgrow my dad gave him his old Raleigh M50. It's a 15" size steel frame with a Girvin Vector 2 and old horseshoe style brake boosters on the front and rear. My son fits on it with good stand over height and can ride it comfortably.
The first ride on it with the added traction and with the suspension fork he was quite a bit faster at first but soon hit a wall and tired out quickly on the bike. We've done longer harder rides where he was ready for more after the ride but on the 26r he was miserable the last mile of the short 5 mile ride as he was getting gassed. Going from a 25.3# bike to a 31.8# bike was a huge change for a 78lbs kid and he really felt it by the end of the ride. Anyone one else face this when trying to transition a ~10 year old from a 24" to a 26-27.5"? Looking on Trek's web page most entry level bikes like the Marlin 5 (my son's dream bike for some reason) are around 32lbs so my dad's old bike seems about on par with what is currently out there.
I'm contemplating the knobby wheelchair wheels for the 24" (There is a chance the front won't fit). I tried moving some conventional 24" mountain bike wheels over to it but the brake bosses are too high and the brakes don't have enough adjustability to make up the difference. I'm also contemplating putting the 26" on a diet. Since I need to replace the old rubber anyways the first thing I did was weight the wheels:
Rear wheel (with cassette and QR) 1556g
Front wheel (with QR) 1018g
Tubes 202/185
R Tire 892
F Tire 684
I seemed to recall 100g tubes being a thing a long time ago. Best found in a 5 minute googles was a 125g Maxxis ultralite tube. And good light weight tube advice that won't break the bank?
I remember thinking 15-20 years ago ~600g was a good weight for a tire. We do flowing type single track trails mostly clay and dead roots. Just looking at Nashbar I could get a ~600 gram tire from Michelin or Continental from $20-32. Any suggestions here?
So with just a tire change which needs to be done anyways I can probably knock off over lb of rolling weight which will be a good start. I'd like to knock another lbs or 2 as cheap as possible. 25.3# of his old bikes isn't realistic but if I could get it to 29lbs that would almost be splitting the difference between his old bike and the starting weight of this bike.
I could drop the Vector 2 as it's 3.8lbs (including the stem) for a rigid fork and knock off a lb but I doubt my son would like that. That's more of a last resort
I have no idea how much the steel frame weights but I imagine it has to be close to 5lbs going by the feel test. I've been contemplating vintage aluminum 26" frames thinking I might be able to get another lbs from a frame change. I've seen some old aluminum frames go pretty cheap and swapping parts is always a fun project.
I don't know what a good weight is for a set of wheels but I imagine whatever came on my dad's old bike were not light. Has the market on 26" wheels dropped enough that you can get some rim-brake light weight wheels cheap or do good wheel sets still command a premium?
I figure some of you know the state of the 26r market better than me. I don't really want to throw a lot of money at a old 26er bike but I'll throw $100 to have a fun weekend project for the son and I to get the bike closer to a manageable weight. Any suggestions on what to look at for the biggest bang/buck to try to knock another 1-2lbs off the bike?
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My son is 10 and until recently rode a 24" Diamondback Insight 24 Hybrid bike. Main reason I bought that bike for him ~2-3 years ago was the low standover height and it was the lightest bike I could find in a 24". I threw on some old LX Rapid Fire Plus shifters cause he had a hard time shifting the grip shifters and he's been riding ever since.
It was good for gravel roads and around the neighborhood but the last 2-3 months he's been really getting into mountain biking and has me taking him on real trails. I put a triple on there to give him lower gearing and when I went to put wider more aggressive tires on there I found out the 24" tires are really 540 sized tires and off road tires in that diameter are very few and far between (Only one I found was a Kenda tires sold at wheelchair stores).
Instead of putting money into a bike he's about to outgrow my dad gave him his old Raleigh M50. It's a 15" size steel frame with a Girvin Vector 2 and old horseshoe style brake boosters on the front and rear. My son fits on it with good stand over height and can ride it comfortably.
The first ride on it with the added traction and with the suspension fork he was quite a bit faster at first but soon hit a wall and tired out quickly on the bike. We've done longer harder rides where he was ready for more after the ride but on the 26r he was miserable the last mile of the short 5 mile ride as he was getting gassed. Going from a 25.3# bike to a 31.8# bike was a huge change for a 78lbs kid and he really felt it by the end of the ride. Anyone one else face this when trying to transition a ~10 year old from a 24" to a 26-27.5"? Looking on Trek's web page most entry level bikes like the Marlin 5 (my son's dream bike for some reason) are around 32lbs so my dad's old bike seems about on par with what is currently out there.
I'm contemplating the knobby wheelchair wheels for the 24" (There is a chance the front won't fit). I tried moving some conventional 24" mountain bike wheels over to it but the brake bosses are too high and the brakes don't have enough adjustability to make up the difference. I'm also contemplating putting the 26" on a diet. Since I need to replace the old rubber anyways the first thing I did was weight the wheels:
Rear wheel (with cassette and QR) 1556g
Front wheel (with QR) 1018g
Tubes 202/185
R Tire 892
F Tire 684
I seemed to recall 100g tubes being a thing a long time ago. Best found in a 5 minute googles was a 125g Maxxis ultralite tube. And good light weight tube advice that won't break the bank?
I remember thinking 15-20 years ago ~600g was a good weight for a tire. We do flowing type single track trails mostly clay and dead roots. Just looking at Nashbar I could get a ~600 gram tire from Michelin or Continental from $20-32. Any suggestions here?
So with just a tire change which needs to be done anyways I can probably knock off over lb of rolling weight which will be a good start. I'd like to knock another lbs or 2 as cheap as possible. 25.3# of his old bikes isn't realistic but if I could get it to 29lbs that would almost be splitting the difference between his old bike and the starting weight of this bike.
I could drop the Vector 2 as it's 3.8lbs (including the stem) for a rigid fork and knock off a lb but I doubt my son would like that. That's more of a last resort
I have no idea how much the steel frame weights but I imagine it has to be close to 5lbs going by the feel test. I've been contemplating vintage aluminum 26" frames thinking I might be able to get another lbs from a frame change. I've seen some old aluminum frames go pretty cheap and swapping parts is always a fun project.
I don't know what a good weight is for a set of wheels but I imagine whatever came on my dad's old bike were not light. Has the market on 26" wheels dropped enough that you can get some rim-brake light weight wheels cheap or do good wheel sets still command a premium?
I figure some of you know the state of the 26r market better than me. I don't really want to throw a lot of money at a old 26er bike but I'll throw $100 to have a fun weekend project for the son and I to get the bike closer to a manageable weight. Any suggestions on what to look at for the biggest bang/buck to try to knock another 1-2lbs off the bike?
