Hello all. I've been riding my 2009 SERacing Quad 24 at the local track and I love the way the bike fits and feels except for its weight (heavy!)
Has any done some creative part swapping to bring the weight down on their Quadangles? I know the frame is heavy but it is so cool it is way worth it.
Gracias.

I would try a carbon fork, a carbon crankset, aluminum rims and some lightweight hubs. That would do the trick.

I have a 2008 Floval Flyer frame build with carbon scyte fork, Shimano DXR crankset, aluminum Bombshell rims with Chris King Hubs and some other aluminum parts. The bike feels great but I think the frame is lighter in comparison with the Quad frame.

Good luck.

The Quad already has aluminium rims, they are just Chrome plated. I do not mind the weight too much. The Quad has stepped up my game from my old robinson pro 24 Chro-Mo. Love the geometry!

I looked at the specs on the SE website. It weighs 27.5 pounds. The carbon fork would drop at least a pound off the weight, but it would not have that old school look. The cranks may weigh a lot. A titanium spindle will drop 4 to 6 ounces. You might be able to get a few ounces each by changing the seat post, seat, and bars. But that's the problem, a few ounces here + a few ounces there = $$$$

The most important thing is that you know how much your current parts weigh and how much the proposed replacement parts weigh. You can weigh the parts on a kitchen scale. You don't want to pay a lot of money for just a few grams of weight savings.

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it.
I think I'll start with the tires, som eIRC 1.75's look pretty light.
After that probably seatpost and bars, I like the way the cranks and fork look so I'll keep them for now.
Fun bike!
Rodel

best thing you can do. maybe add some lightweight tubes as well.

other than that (and you can get most of that stuff 2nd hand):

forks: odyssey race (latest version = probably the best forks you can get) or s&m race xlt
cranks: odyssey twombolt or flybikes (light, strong and less expensive than wobbly profiles with a ti spindle)
stem: odyssey elementary (small enough for a stem pad, if you don't like the looks) or thomson
seatpost: macneil 330 or poverty pivotal (poverty is longer than most and the 330 is super long)
seat: any slim pivotal
pedals: if you want affordable light pedals -> ebay -> wellgo mg1 with ti spindle
brake lever: paul
bars: bars are somthing you have to find yourself. personally, i like s&m bars and the kink badger v2

there are also lots of light hubs and rims available, but a good set of wheels can be quite expensive.

i'm pretty sure, you can get down to at least 23 or 24 lbs.
you could also get nylon barends (cheap ones like flybikes) and a lighter seatclamp, if you are desperate.

it's 3:30 am, i'm really tired and english isn't my first language ... but i hope it helps.

roadie,

Just another thought here. Change the stem to a shorter stem and the front end will "feel" lighter. There is another member on Vintage that had his rear dropouts modified so he could push the rear wheel forward more. I am sorry but I can't remember the members name off hand. But, it is a killer mod that will help the bike "feel" lighter - when riding. I am sure a search will bring it up.........Just a few thoughts I had while playing with my retroquad.

jk

Thanks!
I'd be happy with 24-25 pounds. I will start with tires, tubes, lighter bars and stem. Looks like JR cycle has what I was looking for.
Any idea what the seatpost size is for the Quad 24?
After thatI'll do the post, maybe the seat but the SE seat looks great on the bike. It may find its way on to my PK Ripper though.
I have Crank Brothers Mallet clipless on there now but may just put on the Candy 4Ti's I have for when I ride the track. I think that will put me pretty close.
I have a Cook Bros crank on my PK Ripper, I could swap that out onto the Quad too. The PK is more than light enough now at 21 pounds so I don't mind adding a bit to lighten up the Quad.
Thanks again,
Rodel

It has begun..
I ordered up an S&M Race Cruiser bar, a Race XLT stem both in chrome, and a set of kevlar 1.75 small block eights.
That oughta do for now.
I thought about a UNI post/seat but am not sure how that would look on the bike. Might ruin the aesthetic which is such a big part of the Quadangle.
Thanks,
Rodel

You can get it to 24lbs easy .The landing gears are around 4 lbs like most stock stuff .
Get some supercross pro lt forks -2 lbs right there !
I run a 43mm rukus thats prolly Easy 10 oz reduction .Some saint /dxr cranks or ti spindle etc will help get it lighter .
Honestly the forks and stem plus the dropout mod makes mine ride great .Cant tell any difference between my alloy crupi except the alloy dont whip around the turns like steel does.

the 2010 quads will be 3/4 shorter in the rear -source todd lyons


Make sure to put in a washer for the freewheel to clear the looptail.Id shoot for 14.75-15.00 slammed just my 2 cents.

Thanks for the reply!
I rode my Quad 24 at the track today and had a blast. That bike certainly gets noticed.
I may do the cranks but I love the way Landing Gear forks look on SE bikes. I know, its only looks but really for me that's a big reason I got the Quad. It would have been much easier to build a light Floval Flyer.
Any pics of your complete bike?
Thanks,
Rodel

That 1-1/4 from 16.2 to 14.75 chainstay made all the difference !
Took 5 minutes with a whizz wheel.You will need pauls brakes at below 15.

All the peops chear and talk about it as your racing by at the tracks These bikes are the SHEET!

A general performance tip handed down to me from my bike shop daze long ago....well the early 1980's anyway.

"A gram in the wheels is worth a pound in the frame"

It was something that the 27inch track/veledrome riders lived by.

I know my brother Matt still works on the same theory for race wheels...
IE Titanium alloy spokes
Aluminium alloy nipples
20inch tubes in 24 inch tires + 16inch in 20 inch tires.
Pump up tires using any handy inert(ish) gas. Not normal air. Helium + Neon are the lightest , The Argon mix they use for welding is OK
Hubs , as light as possible , well maintained & oiled ball bearing hubs will have less rolling resistance than sealed bearing hubs.
Rims , again as light as possible + practicle. Do they still make a new version of the old "holy" pro class rim ?

_Every_ gram & grain of weight in your "rolling stock" counts BIG TIME.
Rolling resistance.....another subject....

Also look at your driveline components in the same manner as well , make it as efficient & light as practicle.
The human body has a limit as to how many watts of energy it can put out in an hour , so you want to be able to
transfer that energy as efficiently as possible during a race.


Gram in the wheel = pound in the frame.
Race by it.


JB

Thats the one I was talking about right there!

Best quad PERIOD!.......Well, my opinion of course......Mostly because its used and abused like it should be!

jk

Hey Steve, I tried to PM you regarding some of your for sale stuff but your inbox is full.
Can you please shoot me an email at padua@shaw.ca?
Gracias!
Rodel

I found out the the Kenda K-Rad 24x1.95 tires weight in at 640 grams a piece or 1280 grams for the pair. A tire like the Intense Micro Knobby Folding 24x1.75 comes in at 340 Grams/piece or 680 grams for the pair. Saving 600 Grams or 1.32 lbs (rotating mass). Couple that with some light weight tubes and I think 1.5 lbs or more can be saved. for less than 69.00. Not to bad. Anyone know of a good light 24" tube?

Well I weighed my stock Quad 24 on my digital scale and it weighed 28 punds 4 ounces.
Switching to metric the stock tires were 680g each, the stock bar 880g and the stock stem 445g.
Swicthed the bar for an S&M race 5.75 which weighed 100g less than the stock one. My S&M stem is still en route but should cut aother 150-200g off the weight. I also ordered a Thomson seatpost in silver.
Shoudl be around 26 pounds after all that. I'll do some light tubes and throw on a different cank and BB to get around my target weight of 25 pounds. The stock parts are proving to be mighty heavy.

very good information!!!!

Well the Thomson post was a whopping 20g lighter. Not the best upgrade.
The Stock seat weighs 270g, the flight SLR Ti I have is 134g. It doesn't have a bottle openner though.
I will be keeping the stock cranks as I was told by SE that it is very similar in weight to the Profile I was considering.

I was offered a ridiculously good deal on a carbon Answer fork. I think I'll try and spray it to match the colour of the frame.
Light Intense inner tubes should be here soon, looks like 24 pounds might actually happen.

Thanks to jtack for doing the applied work on the weight of the rotating mass , it really does count a _lot_ & is IMHO the best bang for yer buck when it comes to performance.
As far as looking/find candidates for lightweight inner tubes , look for something (wheelchair ???) that runs on ~22inch rims , as mentioned in my earlier post you can get away with running inner tubes that are made for smaller rims.

Reliability is a big part of high performance , as is safety , so when you are messing around with skimming those extra grams + grains (using unconventional methods) from your wheels & rolling stock , do a lot of testing before you max it out under race conditions.

Also , due to the smooth slick "pumping" riding style of modern BMX benefit from having a reasonable amount of weight in the frame & other non rolling stock parts ???

I think that Inertia thing they talk about in the "Laws of Physics Guidelines" comes into play here , I need to think a bit & talk to Matt about how "stuff" varies & reacts under race conditions.


JB

When I got back into BMX a few years back , I did try a lot of experimenting with adding extra weight to the OD of the tires & adjusting the gear ratio's to suit , got some very interesting results for general street riding , but nothing that could be applied as an advantage to modern day racing.
Getting the "dead weight" of a stationary bike up & moving ASAFP from the start gate using lightweight rotating components & turning your body weight from potential to kinetic energy at the drop seems paramount.

Off to my library book shelves where I have a few bikes sitting upside down to test/apply some other ideas I have.....

Sacrilage I know but I will beputting Answer carbon forks on my Quad 24.
Todd was nice enough to give me the paint code so at least they will match the frame.
24 pounds here I come.
Strange that it will still be 2.5 pounds heavier than my mountain race bike which has 4 inches of travel on both ends and disk brakes.
Rode the pump track toady, muy fun.
Rodel