[newridr]

Ok, I'll admit it, I'm broken. Love my bike, a 2003 C'dale R2000 and am generally happy with component levels (which is why i bought it in the first place - I didn't want to buy something I was going to have to upgrade right off the bat). Of course, now I'm looking at doing Mtns of Misery in May and am thinking that I would like to drop some pork off my bike if I'm going to ride 10K of elevation. The bike came with Mavic Ksyrium SSCs so I think I'm good with those (want lightweight, but durability is also a factor).

So here are my initial thoughts on component swaps. Any input is greatly appreciated.

-Change brakes to Zero Gravs (currently Shimano Ulti)
-Change Bars, Stem, Seatpost (currently Deda Magic, 3T Forgi XL, Cannondale Competition)
-Change rear cassette (currently Ulti) Am thinking about one of the lightweight Token cassettes, anyone have any experience with them?

Let's hear what you guys think. Thanks!

 

[alienator]

Ok, I'll admit it, I'm broken. Love my bike, a 2003 C'dale R2000 and am generally happy with component levels (which is why i bought it in the first place - I didn't want to buy something I was going to have to upgrade right off the bat). Of course, now I'm looking at doing Mtns of Misery in May and am thinking that I would like to drop some pork off my bike if I'm going to ride 10K of elevation. The bike came with Mavic Ksyrium SSCs so I think I'm good with those (want lightweight, but durability is also a factor).

So here are my initial thoughts on component swaps. Any input is greatly appreciated.

-Change brakes to Zero Gravs (currently Shimano Ulti)
-Change Bars, Stem, Seatpost (currently Deda Magic, 3T Forgi XL, Cannondale Competition)
-Change rear cassette (currently Ulti) Am thinking about one of the lightweight Token cassettes, anyone have any experience with them?

Let's hear what you guys think. Thanks!

Well, aside from your corpus the component where you can gain the biggest weight loss is prolly the wheels. Mavic SSCs aren't necessarily light weight. For about 500 deneros you can get a wheelset from Odds and Endos ( http://www.oddsandendos.com/ ) or Ligero Wheelworks ( http://www.ligerowheels.com/ ) that will be on the order of 200g (0.44lbs) lighter than your Mavics (at least) and just as durable if not moreso. ZG brakes are definitely nice (I like mine), and they will save you 169g (0.37 lbs) over your Ultegra brakes. I have a Cycle Dynamics Ti cassette (12-25) for Campy that weighs in at 182g. A Shimano Ultegra 12-25 cassette weighs in at 242g, so you could save 60g (0.13 lbs) with a Cycle Dynamics cassette. A Ritchey WCS stem or a Syntace F99 stem will save you another 60g (0.13lbs) or so. A Thompson Masterpiece SP will save you 40-50g (0.088-0.11lbs).......and on and on and on.

I'd go for the wheels, first, then the brakes. The new ZG Ti brakes are plenty strong and will perform well for you on mountain descents. I have no issues w/ them descending mountains around Tucson, and I weigh about 178lbs. I think the gold standard in brakes are the Mavic SSC brakes. I used to have a set of those, and the difference between the performance of those and the ZG brakes is very, very small: less than half the diameter of a brown hair.

Remember what ever you do, though, that lightening your bike isn't going to make you fly up mountain cols. It will help you save some energy over the course of a day, especially on L'Etape, but don't expect miracles.