Lightening a Mighty Enduro?

Lee, I just picked up an ’06 enduro expert per your review. I love it, but I was wondering if you could help me with it. I do light DH but mostly hard/fast trail riding. What are the best ways to lighten this bike up? Should I go carbon DH components? Thanks for your help, your site and book have really helped me get into driving bikes!

Jason

Yeah, I rode from home on the mighty WTB 2.4 Mutano Raptors.

Hi Jason.

Enduros (and other All Mountain bikes) are tricky. You want to make them light for XC, but when you ride them to their potential, light parts just don’t cut it. Here are some ways to make the Mighty Enduro pretty light and sufficiently durable:

Easton Mag stem. 50mm, with two bolts instead of four. Kidding! Four bolts.

Easton Carbon DH bars. Full width ever since I did the pushup test.

Light XC front wheel. Take your pick. I’ve had good times with WTB Laser Disc. I’ve tried XC rims in the rear, but the bike felt noodly, and light wheels can’t handle my awesome power. The WTB Dual Duty has been my friend, as have Mavic 521s and 823s.

WTB Lazer V saddle. Pretty light. Very well padded. Great shape that lets me sit on my sit bones instead of my soft stuff.

DH wheels with Specialized Pinn’er rear, Pin’it front. Not so nice on the ups, but extra lovely on the downs! Photo by Rip “F-stop” Ripley.

Clever tires. My favorites: WTB 2.4 Mutano Raptors. They’re light, they roll fast, they have plenty of volume and they corner very well on medium to hard dirt. I rocked the light/fast Race version in back and the sticky Team FR version in front. I did the 20″ tubeless conversion. It was my Super D setup of choice — until WTB discontinued the Team FR. … If you run another make of tire, think single ply, hard in back, soft in front, tubeless.

And say BRAAAP!

— Lee