Saving grams to justify grams.

In finalising the build of my new bike I had overlooked one component, the seat collar. I feel this is a part that is easy to overlook, and often one just goes with the stock collar that comes with a frameset – I mean – why not?

This is a Surly, and Surly hardware is overbuilt. The seat collar is made of stainless steel. Big deal, I hear you say.

But it weighs 50g (1.8oz in American), and it is black. I have chosen a silver Hope headset, silver Velocity Blunt SS rims, silver Hope Pro4 hubs, silver DT Swiss nipples and silver DT Swiss Revolution spokes. So I ordered a silver Hope seat collar (They only had one in stock, in 30mm).

Not only does it look infinitely better in my complete build, but I saved a whopping 27g (0.95oz) which, in a weightweenie environment, is a huge amount for a single component. On a Surly however it merely helps justify necessities like the Velo Orange Mojave bottle cage, which enables me to carry that extra 1l (34oz of the other kind) of water in a Nalgene bottle, and it weighs a svelte *cough*…

157g (5.5oz). Now that I commit this to blog, I think I should weigh each of the three Mojave I have and see if one weighs less than the other. Or maybe I should “add” some drillium.