Improving a Scott S50

Hey guys,

I am pretty new to biking. For $ reasons I got a Scott S50 (It was the cheapest with triple chainring). I think that it is not a bad bike for the price I paid (550 US dollars). My concern is about the weight (21.1 lbs). I know that in cheap bicycles everything is a bit heavier than in high end bikes. However, the frame is just about 2.7 lbs and maybe there is somebody out there that can detect a component that is especially heavy and easy to replace.

The pedals are cheap but they do not seem heavy.

Thank you for your comments.




These are the specs of the bike

Weight

9.6 kg / 21.1 lbs

Frame

Lite Alloy tubing Road geometry 7005 Alloy D. Butted Integrated Headtube

Fork

Carbon 1 1/8" steel steerer integrated

Headset

Integrated Steel Cup

Rear Derailleur

Shimano Sora RD 3303 24 speed

Front Derailleur

Shimano Sora FD-3303

Shifters

Shimano Sora ST-3303 Dual control 24 speed

Brake Levers

-

Brakes

Scott Pro SCBR-530 Cartridge Pads

Crankset

Truvativ ISOFLOW 30/42/52 T

Bottom Bracket Set

Truvativ 07BB 68/113

Handlebar

Scott Road Drop OS Anatomic 31.8mm

H-Stem

Scott Road Team OS 1-1/8" / four bolt

Pedals



Seatpost

Carbon / Alloy 31.6mm

Seat

Scott Road

Hub (front)

Scott Comp

Hub (rear)

Shimano 2200

Chain

KMC IG 51

Cassette

Shimano CN-HG50-8 12-25 T

Spokes

DT-Swiss Champion Black 2mm

Rims

Alex-R500 black Front / Rear 32H

Tires

Conti Ultra Sport 700x23 C



THANK YOU




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The rider .........

You can spend a whole bunch of money an not lighten the bike that much, but if you dropped 5 lbs of body weight it would be a much bigger gain.

+1. Forget about spending money to save a pound or two on the frame; just diet and build up your power. Bike weight matters little to most of us anyway; exception being a competitive crit racer who has to accelerate hard dozens of times in a race, then worry about winning by feet (or inches) in a final sprint.

Faster tires would be an easy upgrade to gain a little speed. You could switch to race tires (eg, Conti GP 4000s or Michelin ProRace2) to gain maybe a few tenths of a mph. Downside is the cost, as well as less puncture/cut resistance and possibly less wear life. If your roads are decent though, this is one upgrade I'd consider.

I know you are right, but I am already relatively thin (though I could manage to lose a couple of extra lbs).

If anybody else has a more technical comment it will be welcomed

Thanks

You could spend a fortune shaving weight off the bike - where do you start? Remember that the most economical way to buy expensive gear is as part of a whole bike. I would second the others - work on the engine and resist upgrade fever as long as you can. When you finally succumb, then get a new bike. In the meantime, you can upgrade anything that you wear out or break.

__________________
"All that we see and seem is but a dream, within a dream..."

The difference between your bike and a 16-17lb one is not all in one spot, but 50-100 grams in every component and probably 200-400 gm+ in the wheels. You got a good deal for $550. Enjoy it. It is not such a great deal to buy a $550 bike and then plunk down another $300-400 to replace perfectly functional parts.

I would ride it and gradually upgrade to lighter, better things as components wear out.

If you do want to make a single purchase to improve performance, a nicer set of wheels would be my suggestion.

i would suggest sell the bike & start again

OK, so ya just are itching to spend some cash. Wheels. They will be your best upgrade for the money AND will be easily transferrable to the new bike you're gonna buy next year. Couple of grams here and there for brakes, deraillers, shifters is meaningless. My crit bike is an AL frame with 105 components (actually Tiagra 9 speed shifters too). In a crit, the few extra grams are meaningless since positioning and strategy rule the race. Plus, crashing a DA bike is not a pleasant experience.

I would get better wheels, but realy a bit of extra weight don't make that much difference, aerodynamics are more inportant.

I appreciate your help guys!

I will keep my bike as it is, save the money for later and get a better bike after some thousand miles.

To summarize I am taking home these messages:

Body weight reduction, training and aerodynamics are the key aspects.

A set of light wheels is not bad for the money and can be reinstalled in my next bike.

Thank you.

And that from an Insaneclimber!!

__________________
"All that we see and seem is but a dream, within a dream..."

You realy don't like me much do you? Im hurt

I agree with capwater.

If you want to spend some money on your bike, get yourself a low spoke count wheelset. It's visible so it adds a bling factor, a lighter wheelset is the biggest performance improvement upgrade, and you can take it with you when you decide to sell your bike.

Spare wheels are handy otherwise too. You can mount puncture resistant tires on one wheelset and lighter high performance rubber on the other.

And if you do any racing, you're going to want a spare pair of wheels to put in the wheel pit.

Unless you just do something like handlebar, seatpost, seat, stem... But you are talking a total of an ounce per component MAX and big bucks to get an ounce per component.

Otherwise you have 8 speed Sora, to upgrade moves you to 9 or 10 speed, so you need to do everything at once... a thinner chain... so new RD, FD, cluster, crank, chainwheels, shifters etc. all at once.