[beastwood9]

1. Best bang for buck on lightening up a El Mariachi? Any of you folks race this bike?


2. What would be a good hardtail or rigid 29er for my wife who's 5' 2" (rides a 15" usually) that wouldn't be super spendy?

Thx

 

[Rainman]

1. Best bang for buck on lightening up a El Mariachi? Any of you folks race this bike?

2. What would be a good hardtail or rigid 29er for my wife who's 5' 2" (rides a 15" usually) that wouldn't be super spendy?

Thx

1: Wheels / tires / tubeless.

2: For some real world info, ask on the womens forum, plenty of small women riders on there...:thumbsup:

R.

 

[chumbox]

1. Wheels / tires ... rotating weight furthest from the centre then work your way in... cranks / forks are also useful

2. As above

 

[shishku]

I race a mariachi. It is pretty light, built with stans rims, hope hubs and minipro brakes, carbon stuff, and sometimes a reba. I usually race longer stuff where a comfy steel frame is an advantage. Here is a nice pic :

 

[RJR]

Shed some weight

1) Get rid of all extraneous gears.
2) Tires...I'm loving the Racing Ralph 2.4's
3) Light weight 26" tubes...I'm using some Specialized Turbo race something or others. Have had great luck with them but can't find them any more. Have Maxis Ultralights on deck.
4) Wheels...I've got a set of DT240's 28 hole laced to Bontrager rims...much lighter than my previous set. A little flexy but I don't mind it, especially on the rigid set up.
Other than that, I've made no attempt to shed weight, though I'm sure for enough money I could.

RJR

 

[wedge]

Damn those Superior Blue El Mar are nice!!!

for your wife, they're is an ebay shop that's blowing out some 15" Redline Monocog Flight framesets (frame+ fork + Headset) for 249$...(PM me if you want)

or perhaps a Misfit DiSSent 15"...

 

[beastwood9]

Thx guys

Yea I figured the wheels were the first change to make. The stock hubs are XT are are prob pretty light (?) so maybe just new rims/tires. I like tubeless. What's a good cheap, light rim?

Those stock tires (as monster truckish and fun as they are) must weigh a TON.

I got on my 26" commuter (an old KHS comp) this a.m. and it felt like a tricycle compared to the El.

Got the El over the weekend for 1200 complete w/ tax on sale ('08)

Already broke it in with a crash on ride #1 , just some scrapes ( the bike anyway)

Thx

 

[shishku]

Xt hubs would be about the heaviest you could get. But they are durable.

You can't have good, cheap, light, tubeless all together.

Try expensive, but works really well. I like the Flow from notubes.

 

[beastwood9]

Xt hubs would be about the heaviest you could get. But they are durable.

You can't have good, cheap, light, tubeless all together.

Try expensive, but works really well. I like the Flow from notubes.

point taken, must be why I like the SLR's on my Epic. Better start savin my pennies.

Thx