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FastDad and Cola Wheat are Back, This Time with a Stunning 80g SRAM Red Derailleur

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FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (1)

The duo responsible for turning ordinary derailleurs into highly functional, light weight works of art is back. This time with a tuned SRAM Red derailleur, ironically in all black. You may remember the team from our last post where we showed off their incredible 64g Shimano Dura Ace derailleur. While their latest Red creation isn’t as light, it is just as beautifully machined and tuned down to the last gram.

Curious how you remove 53g from an already impressively light rear derailleur? Check out the details after the break!

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (24) FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (17)

Starting with the remains of a 2012 SRAM Red 10 speed rear derailleur, Stefan (who goes by FastDad on Light-Bikes) had a 133g starting point as the claimed weight from SRAM. Busting out his skills with the Dremel tool and file, Stefan got to work removing all of the unnecessary material.

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (23) FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (22) FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (21)

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (9)

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (8)

Wow.

20131029-20131029-P1010152 FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (19)

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (10)

Like the last derailleur, Stefan had some help from Thomas who goes by Colaweizan. Using his lightweight wizardry, Thomas provided parts like the new 3g main bolt and 5g ti b-spring as well as the carbon b-tension stop.

20131030-20131030-P1010154

20131101-20131101-P1010158

Thomas also fabricated and installed new and slightly lighter axles for the parallelogram pivots on the derailleur body.

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (18)

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (16)

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (15)

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (13) FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (12)

Of course, who could forget Thomas’ incredible Tron-like derailleur pulleys and carbon cage. The difference in design of the SRAM derailleur versus the other Shimano derailleur meant that only one of the pulleys could be hollow in the center.

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (7)

As the result of their combined effort, the new highly tuned derailleur weighs in at 80.45g. And it’s beautiful.

klein_IMG_0978

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (6) FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (5)

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (4) FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (2)

FastDad SRAM Red 80g derailleur light weight tuned (3)

Thanks to Stefan for sending this in!

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22 Comments
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mike
mike
10 years ago

does it work well or is it just a showpiece? either way, it is fabulous.

anonymau5
10 years ago

Perfect for my cross bike

impressive
impressive
10 years ago

definitely far easier to clean than original, hope they do super record next drooling :D.

xcgeek.com
10 years ago

thats neat

Slow Joe Crow
Slow Joe Crow
10 years ago

It’s undeniably pretty but how durable is it? Cutting all that materiel out has to affect strength so I’m thinking this like one of those old BMW F1 qualifying “grenade motors” that made 1500hp out of 1.5 liters, but would only last 4 laps.

cstew78
cstew78
10 years ago

+1 on perfect for my cross bike.

Tom
Tom
10 years ago

no way will it work well with indexing. So much rigidity is lost in the parallelogram section due to material removal – the lower end would twist out of plane from cable tension fighting to move the chain. This is purely a show piece, and a beautiful one at that.

sam
sam
10 years ago

Are there bearings in the jockey wheels?

Aaron
Aaron
10 years ago

As BADASS as this is… I’ve never really understood show-piece, non-functional bike parts. The whole idea of weight-weenie-ism is to get the part as light as physically possible whilst still maintaining functionality. Just dremelling the crap out of a derailleur to make it lighter while also making it useless defeats the purpose of all that… so I really hope this thing actually works.

tom
tom
10 years ago

Why is anyone assuming this derailleur is non-functional? The creators are not really known for maying “art pieces”. While I am sure but not positive of performance loss I would imagine it works. But in my opinion it’s a fun experiment in enginerding and I think they succeeded. Hopefully more info gets translated soon.

caliente
caliente
10 years ago

awww skeet skeeet!!!!

Wolfie
Wolfie
10 years ago

Again, these guys are killing it! The retro-grouches and hyperventilating hand-wringers should sit back down… this does not concern you. Pure bike porn. FastDad and Cola Wheat, I salute you.

greg
greg
10 years ago

shimano, campy, and to a lesser degree sram, all overbuild their parts. first is to account for manufacturing variances. second is because they have to build their parts to take a certain level of abuse. third is that sometimes mass production means a part may have some leftover material.
on the subject of accuracy and stiffness, sure, some parallelogram arm stiffness is given up. it is also possible that by machining his own pivots and bushings, he tightened up the inherent slop found in sram products. the b-bolt is a big one there.
while i assume this is more fragile than stock, i wouldnt write the thing off completely. and, it looks sweet.

MaLóL
MaLóL
10 years ago

Make it 110g and it will be perfect. Looks awesome. I specially like that it has no branding, no logo, no make up, no bullshit. Awesome!!

Carl
Carl
10 years ago

I don’t get it. Each to their own I guess.

Nicholas
Nicholas
10 years ago

Cycling equipment is constantly progressing. If we dont have people like this the bikes dont become what they may be tomorrow.

FastDad
FastDad
10 years ago

Hi,

this is not a show piece! The owner did test it at the mounting stand and it works well.
He will make the first real tests on the streets soon. I do not doupt that he will be happy with his new RD. For all I know he is riding a lot of km per year at his race bike. Maybe he will chime in and keep us in the loop.

The main point in the pivot bolts is not their weight. You can screw them. So you are able to do a full service at the whole RD. You can clean every single part, regrease it, or even anodize every single piece of alloy in a new color if you do not like to look at the current color anymore.

Greetings
Stefan

Seraph
Seraph
10 years ago

Shut up and take my money! You should work your magic on a short-cage XO 10-speed derailleur, or a new XX1.

Colaweizen
Colaweizen
10 years ago

Hi guys,
my name is Thomas aka “Cola wheat”.
I can assure you that all these derailleurs are not built for the showcase. On my MTB is a 88g XTR Shimano, fitted with Tron rims. This derailleur is doing his job as the Qriginal. Stefan and I have just realized a new dimension or vision of a derailleur. And it will be even better …. I promise!
Sincerely yours, to America.
Thomas

LULZ
LULZ
10 years ago

Thomas and Stefan,

I love you both. I want to buy you a beer. Keep up the incredible work.

<3

81
81
10 years ago

Incredible beautiful !
A piece of art, ones more. Pleeeeease continue with your work.
Wow. I’m speechless.

BKSams
BKSams
10 years ago

Great piece of work, now for the real question , How Much????

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