Which World Tour Team Has The LIGHTEST Bike

We’ve already unveiled this racing season’s World Tour bikes, but which is the most superlight bike in the 2024 pro peloton? Alex weighs the pro cycling team bikes and using the raw data calculates how the weight of each bike could affect pro riders’ speed and power.

00:00 Intro
01:20 EF Education Easy Post
01:52 Intermarche Wanty
02:16 Lidl-Trek
02:23 Visma Lease A Bike
02:57 Astana Qazaqstan
03:14 Movistar
03:57 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
04:08 Bahrain Victorious
04:29 Arkea- B&B Hotels
04:49 UAE Team Emirates
05:24 Ineos Grenadiers
05:56 Team Confidis
06:03 Dsm-Firmenich PostNL
06:32 Jayco Alula
06:54 Soudal Quick-Step
07:19 Groupama-FDJ
07:40 The lightest bike winner
09:00 Does the weight make a difference to speed?
13:00 How could you make your bike lighter?

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Which World Tour professional cycling team has the lightest bike and which team has the heaviest bike well we found out because I went to a race and weigh them all this isn’t the manufacturer claimed weights this is what the bikes actually weigh in 20124 the weights of the pros bikes

Actually surprised us and raised several questions such as are the teams that have heavier bikes at a disadvantage and if so how much of a disadvantage is there to be riding a heavier bike and how does the weight of your bike compared to what the pros are actually

Riding well we’re going to answer all of those and it turns out actually wearing the bikes was the easy part the difficult part has been calculating the differences and trying to account for frame sizes wheel depths and the facts that for some reason some teams wanted

Me to wear a bike with the water bottles in place and the head units on as well so we’ve done some calculations to account for that and then later on in the video we’re going to go through the actual raw weights as I weigh them at

The race right shall we um kicks off with the heaviest in 18th Place okay so bottom of the charts yeah in 18th Place and this is a surprise is the EF what are they called These Days EF education easy post EF education easy post with a canondale

System 6 at 7.78 kg we should point out though that you only weighed the system 6 so they do have the Super Six which is lighter yeah I mean this is going to be the same I guess throughout a couple of different teams throughout this list

Some have got a lighter bike option but the race I went to tore down under generally people were using the more Arrow option not all 17th Place was inter Marche with 7.76 kg that’s a cube lightning Arrow again an arrow bike y yeah so already these bikes are all

Significantly over the uci’s minimum weight limit of 6.8 quite a lot by quite a lot yeah I mean that’s nearly 100 gr um well nearly a kilogram over what it needs to be uh so in 16th Place Le Trek with the Trek madon 7.61 kilg tell you what 15th Place

Surprised me 7.59 kg is the vimma Lisa bike this is the cell S5 which we’ve said about is more a a model not the R5 slight light away yeah which we’re going to assume because yumbo visma have such an emphasis on marginal gains with them going for example uh to that one by

Setup for primas rogl um to win the jir Talia you’d assume that that in that mode they were getting really close to that 6.8 you like to hope so wouldn’t you but reading between the lines you’d say that to get to 6.8 they’re having to

Make that bike one by yeah next up we have got ASA with the Vila filante 7.5 5 S kg this is one of the bikes I think has got one of the more intricate paint jobs as well which I think is probably going to contribute to the weight sightly yeah

I think it’s a small difference above that 13th Place 7.54 kg the mistar with the canyonero like you mentioned team which are likeed to use the ultimate in other races as well yeah and then interestingly in 12th place right next to them the other Canyon team um which

Was Alon deer with their Air Road 7.48 kg difference between those two though um one’s shano one’s sham Wheels as well yeah um but if you look at the list weights of Jor acd2 versus Shram red access yeah J sdi2 is slightly lighter kind of makes sense and right 11th place

Is a bike I’m actually really excited about seeing this year is the van rice rsr of the kathon ag2r Lal um 7 .45 kg respectable it’s like middle of the road there respectable I like that and then we had uh byin in 10th Place 7.43 kg but

That is for the reacto the marid reacto the AO bike again they do have the skull chora which is a very very light bike so you think that would probably get into more of that close to sort of seven dead yeah like this middle so this middle

Sort of batch and ground of bikes really small differences between these in Ninth Place uh 7.41 kg AR samic it’s the biani ultra RC um what do you think of this then another team that’s going to then switch to a lighter bike yes so they have the special iser as well that’s the

Sort of lightest out andout Arrow bike so far uh next we have in eighth place 7.4 kg yeah UAE with the kago V4 RS so they only run one bike the V4 RS yes 6 kg over 6 of a kilg over over what it could be what I do want to highlight

About this um this bike setup though is one of the teams which are using slightly more specialist Parts they using those carbon tied chain Rings um and those carbon disc rotors as well so they kind of got some tricked out Parts which is going to help save some weight

But clearly not enough to be in with the lightest Seventh Place yeah 7.35 kg so just over half a kilo over the UCI weight limit is inos strand ears with the Dogma F what’s interesting is that small amount of weight sa the new paint shop they’ve got yeah I don’t know if

It’s enough to bump them up the list anymore well I’ve weighed them before and they were coming out at more like 7.4 7.5 kilos when I was at UAE tour last year maybe the paint house out well they they did some other things as well cuz they put like Titanium or they

They’ve modified the little the Garmin mounts and stuff on on the front of the bike that um sixth place cofidis with 7.32 kg that’s a look 795 blade RS nice I do like that bike setup fifth place is a good one 7.28 kg now they’re getting progressively lighter yeah this was DSM

We should highlight some of here I didn’t physically weigh this bike in 2024 it’s the 2023 weight but the bike set up is exactly the same apart from a new colorway I think we can let that slide we can let that slide yeah we can

Uh so yes this is a Scott foil but they are using the same model this year so that’s impressive cuz that’s a fullon AO bike 7 .2 V kg fourth place jco alula the giant Propel yeah I really liked this bike um it’s stood out from me job

Look good yeah I think that’s what’s doing it for me and this bike’s gone on a diet as well cuz that’s a lot lighter than it used to be yeah but you can tell it kind of looks more allrounder is now next up we’re now the top three we’re

Into the top three the podium places so in the top three 7.17 kg sudal with the specialized sl8 can you believe we say we into the to Quick Step we’re into the top three places but the weights are still starting with a seven yeah how’s we how we ended up in this

Situation who knows um second place is it going to be is it going to be in the Sixers is the runner up is the runner up no it’s a seven 7.08 kilograms group armor fdj the Vila fante which means first place go I’ll tell you what it

Also means that paint job on the Aston bikes might be it has cost him a bit cost a bit weight hasn’t it compared to the fdj bikes um but in first place our winner at 6.98 kg we’ve got under 7even kilos still quite a way you could go to

6.8 um is Bora hands grower with uh specialized uh sl8 interesting what I do want to point out uh that bike was using it’s a small size we’ve accounted for all that but it was like the lightest setup I think you could probably get on the day small size bike shallow Wheels

Super lightweight versions like lightweight tires and inner tubes probably saving some weight there’s a few bits and Bobs there going on the other big takeaway from all of this is that BR bikes are heavier now than what they were five years ago shock hor because they’re no longer using tubular

Tires they’re no longer using Rim brakes um and as a result they’re fighting that way we used to be in a situation where the pros were adding well mechanics had to add ballast yeah we’re a long way from that to bikes to get them to the UCI weight limit like putting fishing

Weights down the seat tube yeah shock all the bikes are basically over the minimum weight limit which seems like an odd situation to be in but I guess manufacturers and teams are prioritizing other aspects of bike performance other than just pure weight but you want to

Know what does this mean you know what is the disadvantage and I’m sure some of the World Tour Riders might watch this cuz and those if you’re watching you want to know what disadvantage you’re at or Advantage you got over rity yeah and so we’ve done some map

You are we left them I left the math so if we take on the most famous toor France climb wall Al Duz and we model a 70 kgam Rider which is typical for a Tor to France Rider doing six watts per kilo um so if they were probably bit more

Than what they’ll be doing in the gretto but what they would be doing at the sharp end of the race where the time difference really matters then we can see that from the slowest to the fastest we’re looking at um around 26 seconds difference which is crazy so that would

Be comparing say the EF bike to the Bora bike yeah the heaviest to the liest yeah which is like mindblowing to think over one climb equipment choice if you just purely Focus you’re looking at around just over 800 gram so nearly a kilogram difference in weight what does that mean

In terms of Watts you only have to produce four Watts more if you look at that mid pack that that that area where team team are stuck and they are riding a 7 and 1/2 Kilo bike yeah you know versus a team that can get their bike right down to that

6.9 sort of area um and if you’re there in that range and you’re looking at around half a kilo’s difference you’re looking around 15 seconds three Watts which is probably what you could associate an attribute to the fact that now Primo’s rogl is riding for Bora has

Made a switch from yumbo well vimma Lisa bike that’s kind of almost the difference between the bike weights that we’ve got yes but as we said that’s for the S5 which is the AO bikes heavier and on a mountainous stage we’ve seen that Primos would always ride the the R5 from

SE so are we saying the bike weights are maybe not quite as important as lots of people make out I think yes the upshot of this is that well yeah the in terms of being being a pro I think You’ just put it to the back of your mind if

You’re missing in the tour and we’ve said it many times over aerodynamics typically Trump weight the majority of the time yes uh the because on the one hand you’d go well what about all the energy that would be saved over the course of every climb on the tour in

Terms of the kogs those that extra little you know three Watts that you might have to average on every climb it’s not much on one climb in isolation but when winning margins are so small maybe you could say it is a lot but also average you know when you add that up in

Terms of the extra energy expenditure over every single climb in a massive race like the for France it suddenly becomes quite significant but the counter to that is Arrow would still matter more for that also what will be fun and what I think I’d like everyone

To do is to let us know in the comments section down below how much your bike weighs compared to some of the Pro bike weights but crucially the best bit of information is to also put the approximate value of your bike so I think they’re going to be lighter and

Cheaper a lot of the time yeah um right so that’s the P bit ticked off but I think we should probably have a quick run through of the raw weights as I actually weigh the bikes at the race before I’d made the corrections shall we just put this in a chart and

Put it up on screen I think we should yeah to make our life a lot easier right take a look at the chart now then before we move on some of you will have noticed a mistake on my part here and rightly so because I’ve actually weigh the Canon Super 6 not the

System 6 for EF education the canyon ultimate not the air Road for Alpa syndic and the bian specialista not the ultra RC for ARA which are the lighter of their team bike options now hope you can all forgive me for this and for total Clarity here is me actually

Wearing each bike thanks very Much but what could the pros do to actually reduce the weight of their bikes to make them 6.8 because I think they could well crucially is it actually going to make any difference to the bike’s overall performance well I mean we’ve already shown that it wouldn’t You’ be 17 seconds quicker up up

Whatever so to them yeah but um but say for example if we took like inos with their 7.3 kg dogmas okay looking at the setup that they have I’m pretty confident that you could drop that down to the UCI weight limit Yeah by making a few changes what are you thinking right

So they’re running Shimano power meters yeah okay they’re like 750 G for gation parer swap that out for you know rotor Twin power there’s other ones available as well that are lighter but that’s 530 G dual sided done uh so what’s that a 200 300 yes you made like 200 gram

Saving there you know you look at the pedals typically they’re running Shimano pedals Jor Ace pedals are I made a note of it here 233 G versus the speed play Nanos with the titanium axles yeah yeah yeah they’re like 168 G so there’s some ways to try and save like by switching

Crucial Parts out but also well Saddles as well like it might you might not want it all the time but say like if you were you know gar Thomas and you’re doing that time trial bang on just the bare carbon Saddles that weigh like you know

70 gr or something you know like sell Italia do them you know like those those sorts of things compared to the normal saddle that the pros might run which is 170 G you know again 100 G saved it’s very quickly you’ve got to that 6.8 Mark

Yeah there’s a few different ways I was thinking of one of them would be to just generally run skinnier time Trav tires most of the time because some teams are still using a allrounder wide tire save some weight there yeah but that’s going to it’s going to negativ negatively

Impact you yeah I I was just throwing it out there I’m thinking of ways that won’t negatively affect the performance I don’t really want to say this cuz I think it’s really a really good point that we’ve seen evolve over the last few years lose all the custom paint

Jobs paint are faster the cooler your bite looks the faster it goes you’re just whatever but Los the custom paint jobs you’re going to save quite a bit of weight there I I I’m not saying I want to see that switch to shallow Wheels um people use like we’ve already mentioned

Switching from an AO bike to a lightweight bike and also switching out non-sponsor components in general kind of like what you’ve mentioned there um but there’s lots of different aspects and eras I think if you really want to trick a bike out you could but obviously teams are contractually obliged to use

The partners and the BRS that they’re associated with yeah I think it’s yeah I think there’s a lot of at the moment teams have become less obsessed with getting the bikes as light as possible and if they did actually put more thought into it I think there are things

That they could do to do it I know they’re Bound by sponsorship commitments but there are things that could be done and you know someone is going to put in the comments that roll back five six seven years or so and use that kind of bike and Tech where you’ve got skinny

Wheels skinny tires not really an aeroframe Rim brakes and mechanical gears the bikes were lighter but I do genuinely believe that as an overall package a modern bike is faster than a bike from 10 years ago but you know what they’re going to say they’re going to

Say that you’re part of the cycling Illuminati the global cabal of conspiracies that is just to sell them things that they don’t need and it’s not actually faster and it’s a big conspiracy but I agree with you it’s not to say the bikes from that era are absolutely rubbish at all because

They’re not they’re incredible bikes but I do think the modern bikes still do have that edge but one of the prices that you’re having to pay for it is that they’re now heavier it’s counterintuitive but when you look at the savings that we that you can see from weight the weight difference like

We’re saying the classic thing a kilo is worth less than five Watts on Al 5 wats gives you more performance alwar than a kilo and if you look at the classic example of say going from tub tires yeah to go into a tubeless setup that’s less than a kilo’s weight difference but the

Tub the tubeless more modern slightly heavier setup has much lower rolling resistance typically a bigger margin than that 5 wats so overall quicker and that is reflected in the times that we see the pros do these days okay well at the end of the day if you’re not racing the Tor

Of France who cares go out choose the bike that you like the most is most comfortable and actually fits in with your budget feel that’s a fair way to yeah um on that note please do let us know in the comments section down below about the weight you bik and also if you

Haven’t subscribed to gcn Tech already please do and um turn on notifications so you don’t miss out on future videos we make right see you later love you bye