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NAHBS 2012 – Crumpton’s 666g Frame Becomes Sub 10lb Road Bike, Plus Colors!

NAHBS 2012 Crumpton isogrid carbon fiber super lightweight road bike under 10 pounds
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NAHBS 2012 Crumpton isogrid carbon fiber super lightweight road bike under 10 pounds

Nick Crumpton is always good for something super lightweight. In years past, his show bicycles have been built up by Fair Wheel Bikes (here and here) to weigh in at some pretty feathery numbers. This one takes the cake.

When we talked to Nick a while back about his Corsa M stock road bike offering, he hinted at using a new US-made carbon fiber tube set. Called Isogrid, it’s allowed him to create this 666g frame (55) that’s still as structurally and torsionally as stiff. It’s a carbon cord wrapped in Kevlar with super thin wall tubes. This bike is one of one. There are plans to make it available to customers, but Crumpton says he is still investigating the material. He says this bike’s tubes wall thickness comes in at 17/1000″ and they could get it down to 12/1000″ with better molds. Normally, his carbon tubes range from 40/1000″ to 60/1000″.

NAHBS 2012 Crumpton isogrid carbon fiber super lightweight road bike under 10 pounds

The inside of an Isogrid carbon tube.

NAHBS 2012 Crumpton isogrid carbon fiber super lightweight road bike under 10 pounds

You can just barely see the grid pattern on the outside of the tube as long as the light’s hitting it the right way.

NAHBS 2012 Crumpton isogrid carbon fiber super lightweight road bike under 10 pounds

The bike, sans pedals, comes in at 9lbs 12oz. They said the customer sent in the full build kit along with different wheels that were even lighter, but they wouldn’t show it with them because they didn’t think they were safe. This frame is about a 55 size.

NAHBS 2012 Crumpton isogrid carbon fiber super lightweight road bike under 10 pounds

Crumpton had to design new molded cable guides with a larger footprint to give it a big enough surface area to safely bond to the tube. They tested it with smaller mounting areas and the tubes were flexing when they braked, so the larger footprint was necessary to maintain frame integrity and keep the guides from delaminating of the frame. Similar reinforcements happened at the bottle cage mounts

NAHBS 2012 Crumpton isogrid carbon fiber super lightweight road bike under 10 pounds

Seatstays are Crumpton’s design, made by ENVE with Dedacciai chainstays like on the Corsa.

NAHBS 2012 Crumpton isogrid carbon fiber super lightweight road bike under 10 pounds

No set plans to offer it as is, but it will come in some iteration mid year in limited quantities. It’ll likely be around $6,000 with an ENVE 1.0 fork.

“I want to do a really light frame that people won’t get hurt on,” Crumpton said. “This (experiment) is the path to that.”

NAHBS 2012 Crumpton isogrid carbon fiber super lightweight road bike under 10 pounds

Just for fun, a few of the parts sent in by the customer (yes, it’s a dentist) were worth sharing. Apparently, the glossy coating on SRAM Red levers weighs too much, so that was sanded off. A small grinder/drill was taken to the rear derailleur, then metal stop screws were replaced with plastic.

NAHBS 2012 Crumpton isogrid carbon fiber super lightweight road bike under 10 pounds

NAHBS 2012 Crumpton Corsa M stock carbon fiber road bike now available in painted red or blue

In more down to earth news, his bikes will now be available in a red or blue matte paint option for a slight upcharge. It’s shown here on the stock Corsa M frames.

NAHBS 2012 Crumpton Corsa M stock carbon fiber road bike now available in painted red or blue

NAHBS 2012 Crumpton Corsa M stock carbon fiber road bike now available in painted red or blue

With not-new SRAM Red group and ENVE cockpit, it comes in at 14lbs 6oz.

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18 Comments
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dave
dave
12 years ago

that dentist is going to be embarrassed when he shows up at his club ride with that thing and STILL gets dropped.

WV Cycling
12 years ago

MMMmmmmmmmm. I loves me some weightweenie bikes/news.

MTB
MTB
12 years ago

Hahaha….I clicked on the other fairwheel bike stories on bikerumor.

A $40K sub 11 lb bike for a 215 lb man? Now, that’s funny bec. that guy would be much more wealthy (and much faster on his bike) just losing another 10 lbs off his body.

Robin
12 years ago

Maybe “the dentist” will just be enjoying his ride while everyone else gets their panties knotted about “the dentist” owning that bike.

Cyclists really do worry and think a lot about what someone else rides. I must be doing something wrong ‘cuz I’m just thinking about the ride when I’m out on my bike.

tom
tom
12 years ago

You can follow this build on the weight weenies forums. Pretty impressive. Also to consider a lightweight Berk saddle I think is planned for this. Though, I see a skewer that could be shortened 🙂

harro
harro
12 years ago

weight could be dropped if he just slammed the stem

Will
Will
12 years ago

@Robin: well said.

Tom
Tom
12 years ago

@harro: true, but I think in this case the rider wanted the bars higher and a spacer stack was lighter (albeit, less aesthetically pleasing) than more headtube.

Meta
Meta
12 years ago

@Robin it hurts that much that you’ve not been working hard to make money to afford such a bike. The dentist earned his money by working hard everyday. That wasn’t complicated was it!

Meta
Meta
12 years ago

Still, if I want a tube based bike, I prefer to ride Ti. Show a beautiful custom mold bike that doesn’t say Trek os Specialized on it and I’ll buy it immediately.

compositepro
compositepro
12 years ago

Isogrid New?? Might be new to crumpton

Its a good 6 or 7 years old

baynoli
baynoli
12 years ago

Very light, but is this race proven? I wonder how this performs on cobbles or even the tour de france. Just curios, then I would say this bikes is buyin’ for.

The Rude Awakener
The Rude Awakener
12 years ago

666g? oh noes! the mark of the beast

Dustin
Dustin
12 years ago

I’m all for dropping weight wherever you can find it .. but.. sanding the gloss finish off the levers.. and the derailleur. I can only hope they were REALLY thorough and sanded the nubs (aka spew) off the tires. Those pesky little rubber whiskers can really add some grams to your ride if you’re not careful.

Gyro2
Gyro2
12 years ago

Not complete unil the rims, bottle cages, spokes and nips are sanded matte. Looks like another goofy weight weenie special. Tricks are for kids, lol

tjw
tjw
11 years ago

Here’s his build log with lots of photos and part list:
https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=98607

Greg
10 years ago

Wouldn’t it be a little easier to just not eat breakfast on race day and save 8-10 oz. ?

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