The rise of obesity is not limited to living things...

[WWC]

Hi all

New bike arrived yesterday, titanium hardtail from Ribble, and I was really surprised how hefty it is!

The reviews did say it wasn’t light but I didn’t expect quite how not-light it’d actually be!

I think it’s an above average weight ti frame with tubed hope fortus wheels and the eagle nx group combined making it a bit of a lump.

The guy delivering assumed it was a ebike for context.

Needs a diet almost as much as me and makes most of my retros seem positively feather weight!

 

[2manyoranges]

hmmm up to a point Lord Copper. I know what you mean but I think we are on the right track in the industry.

In 1985 we were riding around on Raleigh Mustangs and Dawes Rangers. They were well over 30lbs.

Then came the 'development period', with good geometry emerging (Marin), great materials (tange, Columbus, Ti, 501) and good group sets (XT particularly)

Then in the late 80's and early 90's we chased low weight. This meant careful builds and filing bits off everything. The philosophy was 'reduce the weight until it breaks and then just add a tiny bit more material....'. KB said 'you can have light weight or high strength, but both is EXPENSIVE' and it was. The bikes were light (21lbs for a hardtail e.g. Marin Ti, 25lbs for a full suspension e.g. AMP B3) but those bikes broke a lot and punctured a lot. They were noodly. Fast uphill, terrifying downhill.

I now build contemporary bikes but still have some of the 'weight weeny' classics around. I know what I reach for when I ride. One of the latest builds. I have just finished a Transition Sentinel alloy, where the stock weight is 34.5lbs but with reasonable attention to build I have got it to 28lbs. I have a ti Stanton which comes in at 23lbs and is a hooligan downhill. Yes these are upmarket bikes but for the performance I think they are streets ahead of our weight weeny bikes and not much more porky. Leave off a water bottle and have a poo before I go out and the total rider-bike weight is about the same as at the weight of the weight weeny period.

DH is something else. I just sold one of the 'super weight' DH rigs - 2013 and nearly 50lbs. Sure the weight carried you through rock gardens but they were hell to change direction on. The latest DH rig for the Grom is a Canyon Sender and that's around 35lbs - and you can stuff that into anything with impunity and launch it into low orbit off the jumps.
Out of interest what's the total weight of the Ribble.

 

[adroitstif]

My Litespeed Obed from 1996 is 1.6kg; does Ribble quote a bare frame weight for the Hi Ti?

 

[2manyoranges]

Re:

....just building a Stanton switch9er ti.
Bare frame 1.9kg.

 

[WWC]

My Litespeed Obed from 1996 is 1.6kg; does Ribble quote a bare frame weight for the Hi Ti?

2.1kg for the medium...

 

[WWC]

Re:

Good comments!

I’m probably being slightly harsh on it as it’s meant to be fairly ‘all mountain’ but the blurb says:

‘the HT Ti is agile, light and steadfast, rockets up climbs and is ridiculously fun on descents.’

At around 30lbs for a ti hardtail I wouldn’t call it light.

I just finished building a 29er Yeti Bigtop (XT/XTR) and that’s a good few lbs less but then I would expect to do things on the ‘Rubble’ that the Yeti might not fancy.

Sure by focusing on the wheels I could get it a bit lighter but it’ll be a lot of fun as it is for the time being.

It was just that that thing when you first ‘weigh it’ with your hands and you know instantly if it’s light or heavy and it’s the latter!

 

[d8mok]

Re:

My Kingdom vendetta

 

[WWC]

Re:

Nice!

That is not dissimilar looking, what did it cost to build?

Frame only looks better value than the Hi ti.

Weight would be interesting too...

 

[WWC]

Re:

Looks a better spec considerably too!

 

[d8mok]

Re:

It’s not a amazing spec as it’s my winter trail bike ( which I also ride loads now too)

GX groupset but with XO cranks

M1700 wheels aren’t too heavy but not the lightest.

Magura brakes are fairly light.

I can weigh it but think it’s around 30 ibs. My Full sus is lighter I know that but that’s got carbon wheels and XTR etc.

Not sure on cost but frames are relatively cheap compared to others. Around £1k I think now as it’s the X2 model.

Before Covid and lack of funds I was going to sell my full sus To buy another and take all the goodies from that and put them on this. At some point I will as I bet it’ll be great with 3-4kg of weight less.