Although the Specialized Aethos is a very lightweight road bike, the reality is that some accessories need to be added to the bike in order to make it more practical.
Bottle cages and lights are necessary, as well as some simple tools to fix a puncture. You can always leave out some of these items, but there is a risk that you might get stranded if you can't fix a puncture yourself.
In this post, the weight of the bike accessories will be measured, to see how much weight is added onto a bare bicycle.
Specialized Zee Cage II side load bottle cage. A bit heavier as it is made of plastic instead of carbon fibre.
Generic carbon fibre bottle cage. Reason I got this is due to the gap between the two screw holes that allows an Airtag holder to be slotted in between.
Airtag holder to be mounted to the bottle cage mounts, under the bottle cage. This allows the bike to be tracked in case it goes missing.
Long aluminium M5 screws, which are one-third the weight of steel screws.
Garmin cycle computer holder in plastic, which is lighter than the aluminium versions.
Moon Nebula W front light, to be mounted under the Garmin mount.
Here are the tools and spares that I will use. Instead of using a hand pump, a CO2 cartridge is used instead to save a bit of weight.
2x Schwalbe tire levers, the best tire lever that I have used.
Standard butyl spare inner tube, rather heavy at 110 grams.
I considered using the lighter and smaller TPU inner tube as a spare, but I don't trust it enough yet to save me in case of a puncture. Maybe next time.
Lezyne CO2 cartridge and trigger drive is 83 grams. Actually only about 20 grams lighter than a normal hand pump.
Topeak multi tool, at 99 grams. Good for mid-ride adjustments, but I find that it is usually used to adjust other people's bikes instead of my own.
Empty Lizard Skins saddle bag.
Saddle bag with all the tools and spares squeezed inside. This bag can be taken off the bike to save about 400 grams if you think you don't need it.
Total weight including the Garmin Edge 530 cycle computer and mount, Quad Lock mount, front light.
If riding in the dark, a rear light will be added. Most likely I will use the Cycliq Fly 6 Gen 3 rear light + camera, which adds about 100 grams to this setup.
In all, adding all the accessories and spares to the bike will increase the weight by 800+ grams. Sometimes I feel that it is pointless to cut a few grams here and there to save weight, when I can save much more by leaving the spares and tools at home.
Another way of thinking is to ensure that the bare bike is as light as possible, before adding the weight of the accessories and spares. This minimizes the final weight, as compared to starting with a heavy bare bike.
In conclusion, this is the approximate weight of the Specialized Aethos, at different conditions.
Bare bike with no pedals or accessories: 6.2 kg
Including pedals: 6.5 kg
Including pedals and accessories/spares: 7.4 kg
I guess the weight of 7.4 kg with everything on is a good weight, because there are many bikes that already weigh this much, without pedals or any accessories on it.
After writing this blog post, I feel the urge to look for lighter multi-tools and perhaps a lighter hand pump instead of using a CO2 cartridge.
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