Triumphrat

Forchetto

Helps with acceleration and handling mainly, not much effect on top speed though, at least on an un-faired bike.

rmak

Yes, it is a fun and interesting process. Forget the dieting. Life is too short and unpredictable. If you want a double cheeseburger, go for it!

I can only tell you, al, that when I ride a classic British bike and then get on my Scrambler I experience weight-shock. The Hinkleys feels like Harleys after riding a 350 or so lb. bike. Anything I can resonably do to drop some of the tonnage I will do.

After dumping 20 or so pounds my Scrambler feels different to me. I think it's a quicker and flickier. It could be argued that some of it is in my mind, but riding is supposed to be an enjoyable experience and I enjoy working on and riding my Scrambler. I'll leave the in-depth analyses to the bean counters and brainiacs.

casida

The handling difference is pretty stellar. The weight savings switching to Bitubo on the front is about 2 pounds total of unsprung weight, I removed about 4 pounds of wiring, plugs, old O2 sensors, and just general emissions/non-used cruft. The wires were removed by the pins from the ECU to the rest of the bibs and baubs that got ganked, rewrapping it all in spiral loom and rerouting things in a more logical (for my application) way.

I switched to a Shorai battery after the ballistic battery was a massive failure for me, and am running the Zard Cross exhaust. Lost the rear fender, ditched the airbox, switched to velocity stacks, swapped the footpegs for aluminums offroad dealies from K&L cycles, switched the handlebars to aluminums, shaved a bunch of the wiring from the front clusters and ran it all through said aluminum handlebars, neatened up the nest under inside the headlight bucket, switched to a MOSFET R/R that is mounted to my battery box, nice and low, and shortened all that wiring to next to nothing.

Removal of air injection mattered, and some nice tires. The loss of huge amounts of weight high up mattered a lot for the handling and the confidence of the bike. The wheels are the next logical place to lose weight, since you'd reduce rotating mass substantially, and could ditch those tubes, as well as the difference in weight between steel and aluminum rims and any gains from the hubs would be substantial.

A LOT of the weight loss and wiring simplification can be done with time and patience, and a bunch of wiring know-how.

Overall, it's totally worth the time, effort and money I've put into it. To me. And probably to no one else. =)

Papa Weeley

Interesting! Any idea of how much weight you've trimmed?

__________________
“The strong survive, but the courageous Triumph.”
― Michael Scott, "The Warlock"

casida

A lot. =) A box-and-change full of stuff all gone from my bike. Were I to wager a guess, it would probably be in the 70-to-80-ish pounds range, and most of that is the exhaust and the battery, though the handlebars were SURPRISINGLY heavy. As were the foot-pegs and a LOT of the wiring. (And the stupid freaking alarm wiring was just EVERYwhere, too.) And the factory mirrors weigh a ton, too.

Here's a crappy pic of the bike from a couple of weeks ago:

o4petesake

Simple....just throw away anything that doesn't make it go faster.



http://flic.kr/p/dohW4C

casida

Oh, hah, and I converted the throttle to single-cable. It probably saved several ounces!

nametzj

Great looking pegs. Can you remember what they are called, how you knew they would fit?

What is "bitubo on front?"

Any idea how to lighten the massive casting the footpegs attach to?

Rear pegs weigh a ton as well, along with the triangle attached to frame. No idea how to address that; I do need them.

villageidiot327

something i haven't read on this thread is the bolts.

its part of the look of the engine case, i know there are stainless bolt kits available, but they don't do much, if anything for weight.

when i rode road bicycles, every fastener would be titanium, while it is expensive, and not necessarily the strongest bolt material, changing all the engine cover bolts to titanium bolt would save probably close to 10 lbs.

sometimes good deals for Ti hardware can be had on ebay, its just a matter of figuring out what sizes are necessary.

NorthernThrux

From my experience, I'd say it is pretty unlikely you removed 70-80 lbs. My Thrux was 471 lbs dry and I got it to 390. Rewired, removed all the emissions crap, airbox etc, just like you. But also lighter wheels, alloy tank, alloy fenders, cut the frame, alloy triple trees, alloy swingarm, motodaget chronoclassic etc. Even stripped off the paint for a few pounds and nickle plated the frame.

Its tough to lose 80 lbs on the bike. And expensive ;-). I'm 170 lbs and 6" 1', so its not like I'm packing extra on my frame. There wasn't anything to gain from dieting for me !


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2008 Thrux. 1087 TPUSA motor. For Sale in the classifieds