The Tank™ is on a diet

As mentioned last time, I'm trying to breathe a bit of life into The Tank™, a 30yr-old steel mountain bike that has been through the mill but is seemingly indestructible.

Part of that resuscitation involves putting the whole thing on a diet, and I was quite pleased to have shaved nearly half a kilogram off last time. But why stop there? As it happens, the old girl needed new tyres, the old pair having clocked very nearly 4,000 puncture-free miles.

So my starting point was a 26 x 1.9" Schwalbe Land Cruiser on the front and a 26 x 2.0" Land Cruiser Plus on the rear. Don't ask why they were different widths - that's what happens when a bike shop only has certain tyres in stock. Anyway, they came off and a last-gen pair of new Land Cruisers went on, but narrower: 26 x 1.75". And I was amazed at the weight saving. My admittedly increasingly inaccurate luggage scale reckoned the old front tyre was 700g but its replacement was 350g. And an even bigger reduction came from changing the rear.

The upshot of all this is that The Tank™ now tips the scales at something like 13.25kg, more than a kilo lighter than it was this time last month. And because the tyres were last-gen, i.e. last year's model, they were only £11 each. So my secondary aim of rejuvenating the old girl on the cheap holds up too.

Wondering what I can do next? The seatpost is an obvious candidate but being an old-school MTB it's a funny size: 25.4mm. Don't find too many carbon posts that size. I might have to result to more rudimentary changes, as in pulling the post out and seeing if there's scope for cutting it down a bit. Now, where's my hacksaw...?

Life in the old dog yet?

You may have seen me refer to The Tank™ on here before. Well, here it is:

The only thing older and more clapped out than this bike is its rider.

For clarity, this is a Saracen Rufftrax that I bought new from Halfords in Folkestone, Kent, all the way back in 1995, for the princely sum (then) of £199.99 - as you can see, it is not all original (that's a padded but very comfortable Wittkop saddle from middle-Lidl, of all places, and Giant bar-ends, for starters) but is, for the most part, the same bike I did the 1996 London to Brighton bike ride on, incredibly.

It was starting to feel very tired though. Last October, I had to bite the bullet and find some new shifters, because I just couldn't change gear any more. I managed to find an as-new compatible Shimano set, still boxed, from an Ebayer in the US who bought them for his kids' MTBs years ago, never used them and then rediscovered them at the back of his garage. Result. They went on and suddenly I could change gear again. I put a new rear mech on at the same time.

I also upgraded the brakes, which felt like a more significant change because it meant a move away from period correctness - I swapped out the old cantilever brakes and fitted V brakes instead. I can stop a bit better now (though the gain is marginal).

I've been using The Tank™ all through the winter for commuting, which is why it's in the state it was at the weekend, propped up against the table tennis table in the back garden. But having spent time and money keeping it usable, money that could easily have bought something half-decent (and modern) on the used market, I suddenly realised that I have committed to keeping the old beast on the road. And that, having made concessions to modernisation with the change of brakes, the shackles were off in terms of other modifications.

Let's be clear, although it's technically a mountain bike, most of the time it's on the road, just in bad weather. So the fact that it weighs a tonne is an issue. Okay, not a tonne ... but I picked it up with a fairly accurate luggage scale on Saturday and it clocked 14.5kg. That's a lot, and needs to change. However, I also don't want to spend a lot on the bike. It doesn't owe me anything, but I have other bikes that I'd rather spend money improving. So, my goal is to see if there's life in the old bike yet, but do so without spending too much... and this is how I started at the weekend:

⮜	OFF:	Wittkop Medicus MTB saddle	-	430g
⮞	ON:	Giant Performance Road saddle	No cost (had it spare in the garage)	340g
⮜	OFF:	Saracen OEM alloy handlebar	-	416g
⮞	ON:	USE Atom carbon handlebar	£44.49 on Ebay	135g
⮜	OFF:	Giant Contact SL bar-ends	-	158g
⮞	ON:	Houson R15 bar-ends	No cost (freebie)	64g
⮜	OFF:	A leftover bolt from the old cantilever brakes	-	5g
Total weight saving:				460g

In other words, I battered the weight-saving rule of 1g/£, by a factor of 10! Hanging it back on the luggage scale returned a figure of 14.1kg though, so there's still work to do...

As luck would have it, The Tank™ needs new tyres. Because it is mostly used on the road, for commuting in inclement weather, I plan to downsize from 26 x 2.00 to 26 x 1.75. I'll be sticking with Schwalbe Land Cruiser Plus though, as they've served me brilliantly. The tyres have been ordered, I'll post here again when they've arrived and I've put them on. Maybe there'll be an "after" photo too, to go with the "before" above. I also plan to save a few cheap grammes with a new bottle cage. Whoop-de-doo, right?

Bargain bike challenge update

So far, I've replaced both wheels, swapped out the QR swekers for some bargain super-light confections, switched the bottle holder for the very light one on my old bike, and removed extraneous items (notably the bracket that held an ineffective pump). Oh, and I've upgraded the brakes, fitting a pair of Ultegra calipers I had spare, and put a new tyre on the back wheel. The bike, which weighed 9.6kg when I got it, now tips the scales at approximately... (drum roll...)

Total expense so far, if you ignore regular maintenance items like tyres and tubes, is:

• The bike (secondhand): £200
• Wheelset (secondhand): £100
• New QR skewers: £18.99
• Total: £318.99

Everything else I either had already or has been swapped for kit on my old road bike, or is an expense that I would have incurred anyway if I'd bought a new bike as originally planned, like an aero Wahoo mount and Bike Register fees. Basically, I'm only counting costs that are unique to my purchase of the project bike, and that wouldn't have been otherwise incurred.

Anyway, the next job will be switch saddles, putting my superlight sliver of carbon on the proect bike. But that's a job for another day.

Another update on Trigger's broom

In Only Fools and Horses, Trigger famously opined that, in his job as a council road-sweeper he's had the same broom for twenty years... just with seventeen new heads and fourteen new handles.

Only a totally unrelated note, I've been running the same bike for more than fourteen years, but with a few new heads and handles... here's an update on the current state of play:

Still original	Replaced or upgraded
Frame Fork Headset Front derailleur Rear derailleur Gear shifters Brake levers Brake calipers Grips	Wheels (M/U) Tyres (M/U) Inner tubes (M/U) Cassette (M/U) Brake pads (M/U) Brake cables (M) Shifter cables (M) Bottom bracket (M/U) Chain (M) Crankset (M/U) Chainrings (M/U) Handlebar (U) Pedals (U) Saddle (U) Stem (U) Bar ends (U) Top cap (U) Seatpost (U) Seatpost clamp (U)
Key: M = maintenance, U = upgrade

I've still got a set of Ultegra brake calipers to go on at some point ... beyond that, things will only get upgraded if they break and need replacing.

Anyway, as Del once asked, how can it be the same broom? But on the plus side, my bike is unique...

An update on Trigger's broom

In Only Fools and Horses, Trigger famously opined that, in his job as a council road-sweeper he's had the same broom for twenty years... just with seventeen new heads and fourteen new handles.

Only a totally unrelated note, I've been running the same bike for more than thirteen years, but with a few new heads and handles... here's an update on the current state of play:

Still original	Replaced or upgraded
Frame Fork Headset Seatpost Seatpost clamp Front derailleur Rear derailleur Gear shifters Brake levers Brake calipers Grips	Wheels (M/U) Tyres (M/U) Inner tubes (M/U) Cassette (M/U) Brake pads (M/U) Brake cables (M) Shifter cables (M) Bottom bracket (M/U) Chain (M) Crankset (M/U) Chainrings (M/U) Handlebar (U) Pedals (U) Saddle (U) Stem (U) Bar ends (U) Top cap (U)
Key: M = maintenance, U = upgrade

I've still got a set of Ultegra brake calipers to go on at some point, and a very light seatpost clamp... beyond that, I've only really got the seatpost to possibly upgrade, but it's already decent(ish) carbon, so it might come down to a question of cost, I guess.

Anyway, as Del once asked, how can it be the same broom? But on the plus side, my bike is unique...

May does bike stuff

We all know how to pump up our tyres, don't we? But it's James May, so let's watch anyway:

Trigger's broom

In Only Fools and Horses, Trigger famously opined that, in his job as a council road-sweeper he's had the same broom for twenty years... just with seventeen new heads and fourteen new handles.

Only a totally unrelated note, I've been running the same bike for more than twelve years, but with a few new heads and handles...

Still original	Replaced or upgraded
Frame Fork Headset Stem Seatpost Front derailleur Rear derailleur Gear shifters Brake levers Brake calipers Grips Bar ends Top cap	Wheels (M/U) Tyres (M/U) Inner tubes (M/U) Cassette (M/U) Brake pads (M/U) Brake cables (M) Shifter cables (M) Bottom bracket (M/U) Chain (M) Crankset (M/U) Chainrings (M/U) Handlebar (U) Pedals (U) Saddle (U)
Key: M = maintenance, U = upgrade

I've got a set of Ultegra brake calipers waiting to go on next time the bike is serviced, plus I may yet change the bar ends and top cap (and possibly the stem, though that's a lot of money for a tiny gain, so...)

Anyway, as Del once asked, how can it be the same broom? But on the plus side, my bike is unique...

Less is more

There are whole corners of the cycling web devoted to weight reduction. Go on, Google "weight weenies", I'll wait.

Quite a rabbit hole, isn't it?

Now I'm not going to get into a bespoke set of bike-weighing scales (yes, they exist) but I have been quite inspired by the thought of upgrading my trusty old road bike, in part inspired by this excellent video. The final push has come from the recent spate of punctures though, prompting me to replace my somewhat worn tyres. So out go the brilliant (until this week) Schwalbe Durano Plus, which have put in well over 2,000 miles in the last nine months. And in come... what?

After extensive Googling, in will come Hutchinson Fusion 5 Kevlar Pro Tech. Yes, you read that right. Kevlar! Whereas the Durano Plus relied on an extra 5mm of rubber on the outer surface to provide sterling puncture protection, the Hutchinson have Kevlar. That, and the fact that they're foldable tyres, rather then the wired Schwalbe, should equate to a fair weight saving. Ditto the new Schwalbe extra light tubes I'd ordered.

That's what I thought when I went to bed last night. This morning, I got the scales out, to see whether this was rational in the cold light of day or whether I was falling down the weight-weenie rabbit hole. The results are in:

Part-worn Schwalbe Durano Plus 700x25c wired	494g	(Unscientifically weighed with, er, kitchen scales)
Hutchinson Fusion 5 Kevlar Pro Tech 700x25c folding	215g	(Claimed)
Potential weight saving of (494g-215g) x 2 tyres =	558g
Schwalbe 700c 18-28c 60mm Presta tube	113g	(Kitchen scales)
Schwalbe Extra Light 700c 18-25c 60mm Presta tube	80g	(Claimed)
Potential weight saving of (113g-80g) x 2 tubes =	66g
Potential total weight saving =	624g

Now part of me thinks brilliant, that's a great saving! And part of me looks at my old-man's paunch and thinks that there are much bigger weight savings to be made, if I could only stay off the flapjacks and Minstrels. But the point is, I may save nearly two thirds of a kilogram just by judiciously replacing things I needed to replace anyway, and without breaking the bank. That's a win, surely?

Next consideration - the wheelset. I weighed the Giant IOU333 front wheel that came with the bike, twelve long years ago, and it clocked 865g with the quick-release spindle in. That's not bad, actually. But I've been looking at the Prime Baroudeur SE Road wheelset from Wiggle (Prime being one of their in-house brands), where the front wheel weighs in at 661g. Assuming a pro-rated saving on the heavier rear too and I could be looking at another 465g of weight saving, just by upgrading my wheels. Except, brilliant value though the Prime wheelset is in the Wiggle sale, it's £175 that I don't actually need to spend...

Diagnosing punctures

Yes, it's puncture season. Yes, my excellent tyres have ~2,000 miles on them. But having repaired an inner tube last night, today's fresh puncture crop seems excessive, look:

And yes, I have checked that there's nothing inside the tyre causing this ... this outbreak of punctures. Four on a five mile ride! Gah!

I've ordered some new tyres, and some brand new tubes. Until then, I've got more patches on the go than a smoking cessation clinic...

A small prick

5mm of thorn, cut from a hedge and left lying on a cycle-path, that's all it takes. And people wonder why I don't like cycle paths...

And I've got good tyres, with excellent puncture protection and durability, and the one that took this thorn only has about 2,500 miles on the clock...oh well.

The joy of brakes

After one too many near misses, I replaced (and upgraded) my brake pads recently.

Here are the pads that came off. They had done about 5,000 miles, in all weathers, and were shot.

Frankly, it's a miracle I hadn't stacked it...

These were not visibly branded but are likely to have been bog-standard Tektro pads, since that's what came on the bike when it was new, oh so many moons ago. Time for an upgrade then, I thought, and splashed out on these from the Clarks Elite range, which promise great performance in all weather conditions and have cut away carriers for weight reduction. I like the idea of weight reduction, even when it's only a couple of grams. Pathetic, I know. Anyway, here's a side-by-side comparison of old and new:

Yes, white carriers. What of it?

This isn't an in-depth review but I can tell you the new brake pads stop an old man on an old bike as well as any pads can reasonably be expected to, and allow you to feed pressure in nicely. Equally, it is once more possible to brake so hard that the back wheel locks up. Which is nice. Will be interesting to see whether I get 5,000 miles out of these...

TLDR: decent pads at this price point, docked a star because the carriers really show the dirt (who'd have thought?) ★★★★☆

BUY: Clarks CPS240 brake pads with extra cartridges, currently £10.99 per set from Cycle Replublic

Full disclosure: I bought these with my own money. If anyone wants to give me kit in exchange for an honest review, I'm open to that, but unless I explicitly say otherwise everything I review on here will be sourced and paid for by yours truly.