In Part Two of our article on building a lightweight racing bike, we discussed the work done to lighten the rear wheel. In this article we will focus our attention on two other areas where considerable weight savings can be made.
We also convert the bike to a single speed bike to save weight and also solve a problem that many men suffer with on bad bicycle saddles. The place where we will focus our attention first is the seat and the seat post.
Many men complain of the problem of “Numb Nuts” when riding a bicycle. The correct medical term for this is “Tingling Testicles”. It is a result of pressure being applied to delicate nerves arond the male anatomy when sitting on a bicycle seat.
It is usually caused by the nose of the seat pressing against these nerves. Due to marketing pressures many manufacturers will not produce a bicycle seat without a nose. Keeping this in mind, we can modify the seat ourselves and thus save weight.
The seat and seat post before starting.
The above photograph shows the seat and seatpost before weight saving treatment. Keeping in mind that we don’t really need the nose of the seat, and the fact that we can’t buy a seat without a nose, we will modify the seat ourselves.
We have marked on the seat where we will cut the nose off. Just make sure that you are not sitting on the seat when you run the power saw through it. Most bicycles also have a seat post that is too long. This can be shortened as well.
Another issue with some bicycle seats is the fact that they are too soft, and this in itself can produce numbness. In this case, we will remove the excess padding from the seat and thus save some more weight.
The seat and seat post after losing weight.
The photograph above shows where the seat nose was cut off, the padding removed and the seat post shortened. If you find the seat post is too short, you really need to buy a larger bicycle.
The photograph below shows the padding that was removed. We have made considerable weight savings just in these easy modifications and also solved the problem of tingling testicles that is felt by most men on most bicycle seats.
More junk to throw away.
Single Speed
You have probably heard the term single speed referred to by many bike enthusiasts recently. By converting the bike to single speed we can make considerable weight savings by removing the extra front chain rings and front derailleur.
We will only have one front chain ring instead of the usual 2, 3 or 4 that is available on most bikes. It will become a single speed bike on the front, but still have the rear five gears, which we lightened considerably in the last article.
Chain rings and pedal before starting.
The photograph above shows the pedal assembly and chain rings before we started. Considerable weight savings can be made here.
Firstly there is a chain guard to stop your trousers from getting caught in the chain. We’re racers, we don’t wear trousers! We can safely remove this. The extra chain rings can also be removed.
We decided to keep the big chain ring, because this will give us a high gear for the extremely high speed that this bike will be capable of.
Egg Beaters
Have you heard of the term “Egg Beater” pedals? They are a racing pedal which a lot of people pay considerable money for. If you use them when on tour you are able to beat eggs with them when cooking.
It’s another thing that racers borrowed from us tourers along with touring bars (aero bars). We will convert the pedal as it’s a relatively easy procedure.
By undoing a few nuts and bolts on the pedal, we can safely remove most of the pedal and it’s cage thus converting both pedals to egg beater pedals and saving a lot of weight and money at the same time. Removing the pedal cage also removes the reflector. The reflector on the pedals is not required because we will not be riding at night.
Egg Beater pedals and conversion to single speed.
So after removing the chain guard, extra chain rings, chain ring bolts, and converting the pedals to egg beaters we were able to save considerable weight. But there was still more weight to be shed.
By using what was left of our angle grinder disk, we ground away the rear of the large chain ring. This was taking too long, so we eventually dragged it down the road and reduced it’s thickness by half.
More junk to throw away.
So now having solved the tingling testicle problem with the seat, converted the bike to single speed, made egg beater pedals and saved considerable weight, you may ask what’s left?
In the next article, we will show what can be removed from the rest of the bike. We will also have the test ride results where this bike reached speeds of up to 110 km/h.
