In search of a two-wheeled unicorn...

April 29, 2018 5:55 AM

Mrs. Thistledown is an avid bicyclist and she's looking for her next ride. We're not sure what she's looking for actually exists, but if it does, we're totally open to suggestions: it needs to be light, flat-barred and have lugs for racks. Then it gets trickier....

Her current ride is a Trek hybrid/fitness - the model is a Seven Four. It's aluminum-framed and has, as I recall, Deore components. Weighs a hair over 25 pounds.

She wants something lighter, which, at this point I think means going to a carbon or titanium frame. She really liked the idea of the Specialized Sequoia (it is awful pretty, too) but doesn't like the road-type bar where the levers are only accessible on the hoods and it weighs about the same as what she's riding. I'm guessing the bar could be changed at considerable expense but I'm really looking to see what might else might be out there, turn-key, without having to make any (or very few) mods. Not specifically brand-loyal, either - just looking for the right combo.

A lot of y'all ride, so tell me: is the desire for a lugged, flat-barred, sub-25 pound bike with decent components a fantasy?

posted by Thistledown to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

Don’t include “lugged” in your search— that will lead you the wrong direction weight wise (towards steel). You don’t say front or rear rack, and I have no idea how much this weighs, but it should be on the right path. Almost certainly lighter than aluminum + Deore.

That said I don’t think carbon is necessary to get it lighter. There are nice light steels, and Cannondale, for one, is doing great things with nice aluminum alloys.
posted by supercres at 6:09 AM on April 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

(The Silhouette is the WSD model, and that page lists the weight as sub-20, doesn’t say which size.)
posted by supercres at 7:06 AM on April 29, 2018

Best answer: I think you mean brazed-on threads for racks. Lugs are typically collars that go around the tubes at the points where they meet. it’s not common to see a lug used for a rack attachment point on a modern bike.

The weight in her Trek is not in the frame mostly, it’s in the components. I have never seen someone load a carbon frame bike with much stuff on a rack - if you’re paying $500 more to make the frame 2-3lbs lighter and then you buy an extra jar of spaghetti sauce on your grocery run with your bike, what’s the point? The Sequioa is steel. A rackable bike with upgraded components could be steel or aluminum but will not weigh much less than maybe 22lbs with rack. Lighter bikes are not made to carry weight other than the rider

Don’t buy a drop bar road bike expecting to convert it, it won’t fit right if you do.
posted by slow graffiti at 7:28 AM on April 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

Flat-bar road bikes are often called "fitness bikes," and there are lot of options in this category. Here's one from Giant. Here's one from Surly. They're very different bikes (carbon vs steel, disk brakes vs cantis, etc).

I agree with everything slow graffiti wrote. Realistically, you're not going to be getting a bike with a titanium frame; there are plenty of carbon-frame options, and they will be lighter, but for the kind of riding she'd be doing, not worth making it a sticking point.

I recommend she go to some bike shops, describe her wants, and test-ride a bunch of bikes. We can sit around and debate the merits of bikes on the Internet all day, but the proof is in the riding.
posted by adamrice at 9:42 AM on April 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

The proof is in the riding, and I often wonder if people who want "lighter" bikes aren't just wanting a bike that fits and rides better.
posted by bongo_x at 10:49 AM on April 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

To clarify: when you're saying "[lugs] for racks," do you mean that she wants to put a rack on her bike to hold panniers/bike bags, such as those for touring? Or does she mean that she wants to be able to put her bike on a rack like those on the back of a car so she can drive the bike places? Agree with the others that saying "lugged" in this context is confusing and probably throwing off any internet searches, because lugs aren't generally intended as things you put things on, they're just a different joinery method, and appear more frequently on upright city and transport bikes, not road bikes, which sound more like what Mrs. Thistledown is looking for.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 10:50 AM on April 29, 2018

One thing she could do is replace the fork with carbon and the wheels and tires completely with something lighter. Go with a supple sidewall tire that can be run at lower pressure. That might save 1-2 lbs. But if she’s going to load the bike down with a rack and cargo, that kind of defeats the purpose. Like slow graffiti said about the spaghetti sauce. If her bike weighs 25 lbs with the racks currently, that’s already pretty light, and most bikes that are lighter aren’t designed for cargo. I’ve tried converting a vintage light steel Raleigh to a cargo-carrying machine and the handling never felt safe to me.
posted by oxisos at 11:29 AM on April 29, 2018

What's the budget?
posted by LoveHam at 2:28 PM on April 29, 2018

Response by poster: Y'all - thanks for the correction. By "Lugged" I meant "threaded braze ons for mounting a rear rack to carry panniers."

@loveham - budget is $2-3K.
posted by Thistledown at 3:51 AM on April 30, 2018

Best answer: At that budget, in my opinion, it would be a waste of money NOT to have a custom build, especially since you’re looking for something a little less common. Not a custom welded frame, but start with a frame that works with her geometry, and have all the components selected around it and her exact preferences.

Rough steps, at least when I did it looking for something out of the box: 1) Get a full fitting on an adjustable fit bike like the Retül system, 2) talk to the shop where you get it about frame selection relative to her geometry and riding needs, 3) go nuts with component selection with the shop’s help, 4) pick up the perfect bike for her.

In my experience decent components like a SRAM Apex/Rival mix add about $1200-1500 to the cost of a frame set. That includes wheels but wheels can get expensive fast once you start shedding weight.
posted by supercres at 6:30 AM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Oh, wow, that's a pretty fantastic budget. But I think if you're really spending that much, you really need to go to a bunch of bike shops and have her ride as many bikes as possible. Is she commuting or doing more longer rides on the weekends? If she's doing more in-town riding and commuting, then you might try looking for city/urban/commuter bikes, rather than hybrids.

If she's doing more longer rides on the weekends, then maybe look for a women's specific cyclocross bike, which usually can take racks. I know they have drop bars, but it may be that if she was on a properly proportioned women's bike, she would be more comfortable with the drop bars because she wouldn't have to lean so far forward. (Bikes proportioned for women typically have a shorter top tube to accommodate our shorter torsos.)

Or, it may be she needs another bike! (N+1 and all that.) If she likes the Trek for in town riding, maybe she should consider a more traditional women's road bike for longer weekend rides. I have a heavier bike for commuting and a lighter bike for longer weekend rides.
posted by bluedaisy at 1:30 PM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

bluedaisey: Or, it may be she needs another bike! (N+1 and all that.)

I agree with this. The specs sound like two different bikes. (As said: why spend hundreds to shave pounds, then add cargo to it?) And her budget will allow two different bikes. There's nothing wrong with having different bikes for different purposes. (Full disclosure: I have three right now.)
posted by The Deej at 6:24 AM on May 1, 2018