Cheap Weight Tip #7: Cut the excess cables and housing

A few people sent this one in: trim those excess cable housings down. Cable housing is braided steel with a liner (typically) and the exterior plastic housing. And it weighs something. By trimming this down to the right length, you can save some weight and the bike will have a much cleaner look.

Notice, I said the "right" length. This tip doesnt mean that you cut your housing down too far. There is such a thing as too short. Too short is when you turn your handlebars, your rear brakes touch the rim.

Too long:



Photo from Park Tools site

If you have a weight loss tip email it to me at plusonelap at gmail dot com

Cheap Weight Tip #6: Drill it

Bruno from Davis sent this one in: Pull out the drill and drill stuff is another easy cheap weight trick.

You'd be surprised how little weight you will actually save with this trick. But it will help you with a few grams.

Things to drill:

chainrings
deraileurs
seatpost clamps

Think non-structual things mostly. Things that if they broke wouldn't kill you are always a good place to start.

Begin conservatively.

This is also a good time to say that if done wrong, you could seriously injure yourself and maybe others. The practice of drilling things will definetly void your warranty. Plus One Lap and its affiliates are not responsible for any of this.

Thanks to Ray Dobbins for the above picture of his drilled out chainring.

If you have a tip for the weight loss contest, email it to me at plusonelap at gmail dot com

Cross Crusade: Alpenrose; 1087 racers!

Went out to Alpenrose Dairy, site of the first Cross Crusade of 2007 today. I had fun watching the NW Crossers tear it up under cloudy but dry skies.

Most impressive was Erik Tonkin. The man raced fixed gear in the singlespeed race and then raced in the A's and got second.

The best costume award might go to the guy in the Single-Speedo division. See below.

My camera is crapping out lately, so I didnt get many photos.

There are more dollars spent on cross bikes up here in Portland than maybe the entire US combined. SF is a close second. Like every other person is riding a Vanilla up here, you'd think they were giving them away or something.

World's most awesomest seatpost?

If you want to see maybe the best looking seat post to ever exist, head on over to Kent Eriksen Cycles.

The design, similar to a Moots seatpost, is simple and yet very sweet. Bonus: the colors are designed to match your Chris King headset and hubs.

The cheapest price for one is 180 clams, so with awesomeness comes expense. But if you need that something special to make all your friends extremely envious. This might be the way to do it.

Cheap Weight Tip #5: A shorter chain

Josh has a got tip for us, which is to run a shorter chain.

"Run your chain as short as possible (should be just
long enough to work in big-big). This is a functional
tip as well as a weight tip- the bike will shift
better and the chain will be less likey to bounce off."


With the Sram PC69 chain weighing 2.6 grams per link, if you were able to drop 5 links thats 13 grams of weight.

We've been able to lose around 74 grams thus far with the 5 tips posted. 454 grams is a pound, therefore 113 grams is a quarter pound. And were almost there to the quarter pound mark.

Cheap Weight Tip #4: Chop that seatpost

Scott from Springfield submitted his idea for how to drop a little extra weight, chop the extra inches from the seat post.

Although a basic staple in the diet of any good Gram Freak, its still a great tip to mention to any new convert into the world of weightloss.

The basic creed here is to cut it so that the post still goes about 1 inch below the top tube.

Id wager you could lose around 10-30 grams depending on how long your current post is.

If you have a weight loss tip and want to enter it into the contest, email it to me at plusonelap at gmail dot com

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Cheap Weight Tip #3: Chop an inch from the bars

An international entry to the Cheap Weight Tip contest, this one from Netherlands. Cut the last inch from your bars. I've done this one and been pleased with it. I never ride the drops, when I did it, I was able to drop 7 grams off of my aluminum bars. Click below to continue reading this article

Cut the last pieces, say 1 inch, off from your handlebars.
- Low cost
- Saves weight
- Saves knees (you don't hit with your knees against the handlebar-ends)
- Saves you from falling because of nr. 2
- You don't need the extreme parts anyway...

Tools:
Hacksaw or pipe cutter
round file to remove burrs
measuring tape


WBR
HarrieH
Netherlands.

Another 7 grams lost, that brings the total to about 41 grams weve lost with the three tips thus far.

If you have a cheap weight tip, submit it for a chance to win a free Plus One Lap shirt. Email it to me at plusonelap at gmail dot com

Cheap Weight Tip #2: Tape instead of bolts

I got two emails this morning within about an hour of each other that both suggested to remove your waterbottle bolts and replace with a small piece of electrical or scotch tape.

Lets test this tip (its nice to have a gram scale that measures down to the tenth of a gram)...

Lets say you've got a stock bike with steel bolts in there (granted these bolts are a little long, but its not impossible that someone has a water bottle bolt this long on their bike):



Now, lets say you always run aluminum bolts:



Lastly, lets check the scotch tape:



Two pieces of Scotch Tape weigh less than .1 grams.

As Scott puts it, "I know you've covered the little plastic bolts that can replace bottle
bolts when not using a bottle cage (it's cross, right, we don't need no
stinkin' water). A lighter alternative is clear tape (scotch tape) to
cover the hole and the area around it (a square of tape does the job.
Tape is lighter than plastic bolts and I found the plastic bolts don't
create a complete seal; on really wet days you might get water in your
frame with the plastic bolts. On my new Ridley supercross I got rid of 4
bolts."

If you have the capacity for 2 waterbottles on your bike, and you have steel bolts in there now, you could save 12.6 grams with this tip!

That brings our weight loss total thus far to 34.6 grams. Dollars spent=$0.

Thanks guys

If you have a weight loss tip and want to enter the contest for a free Plus One Lap shirt, email me your tip to plusonelap at gmail dot com

Cross Vegas video

The video is edited in such a way that if I didnt know better I'd think that these guys were just out for a fun little ride over some grass and up some stairs.

Cheap Weight Tip #1: Front brake stop

This first cheap weight tip (don't worry I'm not going to give myself a T shirt, because I already have) is something Jonathan Page rocks on his bike.

Front brake hangers weigh a good amount. More than they really need to. Especially when there's an option like this out there....

By using a rear brake stop like this:



and putting it on your bike like this:


(taken from Josh's Rocklobster, Plus One Lap bike #10)

You can save some major weightage. How much you ask? Good question, look at this:

Before: 29.7 grams



After: 5.1 grams



Thats like 25 grams people. Hello? Do 10 more things like this and were talking over a half pound.

Issues: Some grinding may be in order and this only works for a stem with a front plate.

But it is super cheap, heck maybe free if you have a rear cable stop in your toolbox.

If you have a weight savings tip we need to know about, email me at plusonelap at gmail dot com Remember, while not critical, pictures are appreciated.

Win a free cyclocross shirt and lose some weight

Everyone wants a lighter bike. And if they don't want one, its because they don't know they do. Plus One Lap will bring you tips on how to drop a little weight from your rig easily and cheaply.

From now 'til the end of December, the best reader weight drop tip of the month will win a free Plus One Lap Cyclocross T shirt. I am the judge and jury. Added points for pictures!

So send the tips to me at plusonelap at gmail dot com. The fun is here.

That is all for now.

What I'm "Watching" in Ebay

A few items on my Ebay watched list:

Colnago Bike

Carbon Spooky brakes

Scott Race bike

Michelin Green Mud tires--rare

No updates in weeks? Whats going on?

Yes I've been ignoring my adoring readers. Yes I've been busy. Here's a quiz:

In the last month I...

A) Got married
B) Took a vacation to Maui
C) Worked my ass off on Business school essays and apps
D) All the above

Answer by clicking "more" below (as usual)

So yeah, most of the time, when you see all the above its the best choice. As it is in this case. My fiance and I drove to California and got married. We then went to Maui for a week for our honeymoon, and while there I began intently working on business school apps for a next fall admissions to which I've continued since being back in PDX.

Anyway, hopefully I will got caught up on the emails you all sent over the last couple of weeks. And get more reader's rides posted that are sitting in my inbox. Alpenrose this weekend, should be exciting.

Good news: the Colnago conversion is done. Pics soon.

Custom Cross #20: Leonard's Waterford

Leonard sent me some pics of the first Waterford to hit the Plus One Lap custom gallery. This bike has that bad ass look that makes you go, "yeah now I remember why cross is boss." Or some crap like that....

Thanks Leonard for the pics and info. We all thank you.







Leonard wrote:
Like the site. Here is a Waterford custom X14. 19 lbs. I think it might be the first on your site.

Campy
Pauls
Mavic ceramic/Camp Record/Mud II
FSA
Thomson
King
Deda



If you have a custom made cyclocross bike or a lightweight cross bike under 18 pounds, email it to me at plusonelap @ gmail dot com