Ebike: just how light can it go?

5MV-M20k – Ebike: just how light can it go?
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In an earlier video (https://youtu.be/of_M-ym05IE?si=ZUeuBctXfSfCJ0ws) I lightened my Orbea Gain ebike, dropping the weight (mass) from about 13kg down to just under 11.5kg. I managed to keep the total cost of the lightened bike below £2250. In this video, I look at what weight I could have achieved with a more careful selection of components and an extra £250 to spend. The hint and tips in this video work for acoustic (muscle bikes) bikes too.

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fiveminutevelo

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About the 5MV channel
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My name is Terry and I love cycling. I have named my channel “Five Minute Velo” (5MV). I have called it 5MV because the videos I upload will (mostly) last no longer than five minutes. Each video will cover just one subject that is described in the title. Although the channel is mainly about cycling on the road, I will also cover some light (gravel) off road riding and cycle touring from time to time. No matter what, much of the advice will be pertinent to many branches of the sport/pastime.

I am new to posting videos on YouTube (May 2020) and I have much to learn, particularly in terms of presentation style and production quality. As such I welcome constructive comments that will help me improve the videos that I produce and upload.

There may be some dry humor in some of the videos, so dry it may not always be obvious :-).

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My strava profile can be found here:
https://www.strava.com/athletes/7723982

Cambridge Cycling Club website:
http://www.cambridge-cycling-club.org.uk/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/fiveminutevelo/

Photos of 2019 Tour of low countries:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3ierczDfurM1gTGi7

Random cycling photos (will be updated from time to time):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/VZBhCWcQZtynsJF1A

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Terry

In an earlier video which is referenced up here I looked at the weight of my Ora gain ebike that’s the bike that you can see behind me here now when I bought the bike it was a m30 and as it came out of the box it weighed in just under 13

Kg after I’d finished making the changes to lighten it it weighed in at just under 11 and a half kilos before I delve into the details I should say I am an engineer and with my engineer hat on I know that lightening a bike or buying a light bike is a

Relatively expensive way of getting a very small performance Improvement however I know that we cyclists like to break the laws of economics and physics or is it we just like our light bikes probably the latter and that’s why despite me thinking as an engineer I still went ahead and lightened the bike

Anyway however I decided not to get carried away and I decided at the time that I would limit my budget to a total of 2,250 that includes the purchase of the bike and the upgrades that brought it down to 11 and 1/2 kilos in this video I decided I can spend an extra

£250 and I’m going to look at how much further I could have lightened this bike by spending that 250 okay then let’s go over to the computer look at what I could have purchased and see how much lighter I could have made this bike a relatively

Easy first thing I can do is revert to the original headset spaces and steer expander that’s 32 G saved next I’ll turn my attention to the wheels and in particular rims where I made a more substantial weight saving I started off with these normal weight 50 mm deep rims

And I purchased them through AliExpress if we look at this table the 50 mm rims are 475 G each however if I’d gone for the 30 mm deep lightweight rims they would have come in at 360 G each although that’s not the full story as the shallower rims would require

Slightly longer spokes the extra length equates to just under four spokes now if I were going for a lightweight wheel option I would drop the spoke count on the front wheel from 24 down to 20 and therefore compensating for those extra spoke lengths if I’d gone for the 30 mm

Deep lightweight rims the total additional weight saving would have been 230 G the additional cost is around £70 the chain set is an area where I could drop some Mass to I’ve identified this set of cranks which weigh just 388 G I would marry that up with a 46 30

Chain ring so the replacement chain set would come in at 533 G or roughly 150 g less than my Shimano altegra chain set the additional cost was just £30 as I’ve already sold my altegra chain set I’ve gone through the list of changes that I previously made to the bike and to be

Honest I can’t see any scope for other significant weight savings without spending quite a lot more money or compromising some of my riding experience there are some small things I can do for instance I can remove some of the links of the chain because I’ve gone

For that smaller 46 to chain wheel trim some more off of the seat pin and the ends of the handlebar drops these minor changes save an additional 50 g the total cost of the bike and the lightening modification came to just under 2,500 and for that I got an ebike that

Weighs just under 11 kilos put that in perspective the top of the range or Bay gain m10i with duras equipment on it is purported to weigh 11.77 kilos okay it’s not quite like for like comparison the newer bike has a 40% larger battery which adds around 800 G

But it does bring it down to around about the same weight as my bike oh and did I mention that m10i is over £99,000 or nearly four times as much as my bike cost so I think the point of this video is that you can go out and buy a lower

Speec cheaper ebike model carry out some targeted and wellth thought out upgrades and get a bike that’s as light or lighter than a much more expensive model I should say this doesn’t just work for ebikes it can work for acoustic bikes too so I got my Ora gain ebike this one

Down to just under 11 kilos which is comparable to a top speec current Ora gain model now at the outset I said Lightening the bike really doesn’t make that much sense so I’m going to stop here stop lightening the bike and just ride and enjoy this 11 kilo monstrosity that I’ve

Produced however my curiosity doesn’t stop there so in a future video I’m going to look at removing all of the constraints Financial constraints and other practicality and desirability constraints and see just how much more weight I could have taken off of this orbe again if you’ve enjoyed this video

Please give it a thumbs up and if you want to see the next theoretical video about lightening this bike even further please consider subscribing from me until the next video it’s goodbye