Not as light as Dicko’s!

Back in April I changed from my FRM enduro I’d been on for nearly 3 years to the Whyte M109S. Sure it was heavier but I love the geometry and the 29” wheel size for enduro’s. So while I was totally in love with my FRM I soon fell in love with my Whyte. I spec’d the bike with SRAM XX and FRM components to take weight out and have had an awesome time on a bike that races well, takes rough hits and drops and also handles mud well, being a UK brand.

A couple of months ago I was told the new carbon version of my bike was arriving before Christmas…sold! I didn’t know what to expect other than I ordered the XTR version and it arrived this week while I have been at home recovering from surgery to my sinuses which will hopefully stop those bloody chest infections I keep getting grrrrrr.

So I’ve just been on the back porch building my new bike today. The difference between it and my other one are that it is carbon not alloy, black instead of a white Whyte, an up spec’d fork and has internal cable routing.

Next I set about making my modifications.

I haven’t used Shimano for a few years but at first glance it has gained weight at a similar pace to this Fatboy. It comes with a 180mm front rotor and 160mm rear. I weighed the front rotor – 134g! I quickly replaced both rotors with 160mm FRM versions which have performed fantastic on my current bike and weigh 78g each. Next I replaced the XTR crank & chain rings to FRM and saved more than 300g. I replaced the bar & stem with uber light FRM versions. I put some crappy grips on to take the pics but will be using silicon grips. My FRM components all have titanium bolts but the XTR doesn't so there’s an extra 50g+ as I changed them. I changed the axles to FRM versions saving another 90g. I also ditched the wheels for my FRM versions which are well under 1300g.

So its dinner time and I explain all of this to the boss of the house and of course I get the reply – “so you do know you could skip a meal and drink a glass or two of wine less a night and would save a lot more weight than all of those modifications combined and we’d have a lot more money in the bank?”

I think she likes my new bike...