Question 3: I want to shave some weight off this bike where possible. I have ordered a Lithium battery (I needed a new battery anyway) and found a cheap Valeo starter on ebay. I am also planning on going tubeless when I order new tires. I will also probably swap the mufflers for shorter ones. Short of just removing stuff, are there any other easy or cost effective ways to shed a few pounds (off the bike)?
Battery and starter are good places to lose weight although personally I would have tried a smaller capacity AGM say a much cheaper 12AH which should work fine with the more efficient starter. I'd then spend the balance of funds on some other area of weight reduction
Wheels, tyres and tubes are great places to lose weight as you get two bangs for your buck with lower overall weight and lower rotational inertia both of which improve acceleration and braking, Shame there isn't a cheap way of using lighter wheels as well. I think LS wheel are little bit lighter but snowflakes are ridiculously heavy and the fact that they are heavier than the spoked wheels they replaced is something of a disgrace. I don't know how the weight of tubed tires compare with tubeless but the heavy duty tubes in mine weigh several pounds each.
With a better caliper it must be possible to make a single disc set up work as well as stock twin discs which is another possible weight reduction that should also have a dynamic benefit of less unsprung weight.
The composition mudguards are heavy and lighter alloy ones would save a few pounds.
For mufflers to be on the weight reduction list for me I'd need some assurance that there wasn't going to be a negative impact on performance other wise it would seem to defeat the object of the exercise.
