Does anyone have a REALLY lite DS? (and actually has a true weight, not an estimate?) I weigh 230, so i thought if i lost 30 lbs, and took another maybe 20 off the DS i would be in great shape (no pun intended [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] ) For those of you who have shaved weight what all did you exchange/trim/take off? One bad thing, is i have AC nerfs, and im sure those weigh a ton (maybe 20 lbs)

stock DS dryweight is what 490? how about for the new 04/05 models? (shorter swingarm must have done a bit, anyone have a number?)

I was thinking id like to shave down my hubs
Get a lite weight axle hub (called sprocket hub maybe?) [anyone know how much the new 04/05 one weighs, compared to the 00-03?]
Lightweight rear sprocket (TI?)
lighter chain (520?)
than i figured id run stock tires/rims (baja) for dragging

i ran through my friends dirtwheels and saw an ad for (sidewinder maybe?) sprocket and chain combo. Said it was like 7lbs lighter than stock, and was about 350 bucks. It was made of TI, so would it be stronger than stock? i would hate to spend 350 on a sprocket/chain that would snap/wear out on me!

so 7 lbs with chain/sprocket
2 lbs i believe for sprocket/axle hub?
Hightower if you read this, what was the weight difference in your hubs? 7 lbs?

so for like 500 bucks approx, im losing 15+/- lbs in the drivetrain. Anyone know how to convert that to HP? that should probably be pretty significant (even if its not, it should help it to rev faster right?)

 

on my DS i went to a light wieght Banshee swing-arm(stock banshee axle and hubs) aluminuim 520 sprockets and a 520 chain. then I took off the regular haulers and 190 rims, and put on some 8 paddle tripple buffs with 125 rims. Total weight saving in the rear was 40 lbs!!

and yes it made a big difference in acceleration.





bigger.

 

Do those Baja rims have the welded in rings? get rid of them and get some 160 wall thickness rims. 125 is better but too thin for the DS.
The concept is this, get rid of centrifugal weight. The more excess rotating weight you can get rid of, the better. But the most important weight is the furthest from the center of rotation-the tire, then the rim on inward.
What I'm saying here is that the best thing you can do is get the lightest and best tires you can find. Next after the rims would be to get an aluminum rear sprocket, geared correctly for the type of drag racing you do. I think your sprocket carrier is aluminum, a great improvement over previous years steel.

 

is the sprocket carrier, the part i was trying to identify? (i called it the sprocket hub/axle hub)

if it is, i thought the new ones (new being 04/05) had the aluminum, everything previous was steel?

And yes the baja has welded reinf. rings.

Does anyone know what thickness they are? (i assume they are aluminum as they are so lightweight)

i emailed ohtsu to ask what stock tire (on baja) is, and they said stock rear 20's are 14.5 lbs. I weighed one of my ohtsus mounted on a stock rim, and got 19 even (a bathroom scale, nothing high-tech) and that is with 50% tread left.... so i assume the stock rims are about 5lbs? how does that compare to a douglas .125/.160/.190?

i would be able to get an estimate on douglas red labels if i knew how much pure sport realtors weigh. Using the same old bathroom scale I came up with about 26 lbs (with about 95% tread left, mounted on douglas red label .190s)

i would hate to go to a LESSER strength chain (not that i know tensile strenght of a TI chain ) as i know a few people have snapped the stockers...

so maybe for now i should concentrate on not-so-chunky tires, and then maybe have the hubs machined (seems like a pretty easy 7 lb savings)

 

The '05 DS650 Viper weighs 465 dry, and you can loose another 15 lbs quite easily. I removed the front fenders and their mounting brackets; the headlight/tail light and their mounting brackets and wiring harnesses; and the heelgaurds and their mounting brackets. I use lightweight aluminum rear fender braces and Roll Design foot pegs. I have also changed to lightweight ITP T9 aluminum wheels, and have changed from the boat anchor stock exhaust to an HMF slip on (which saved 5 lbs right there).

I used to ride a V-Force that had a dry weight of 516 lbs. My Viper DS now has a dry weight of 450 lbs. So if you add the 66 lbs weight I lost by switching to a Viper DS to the 38 lbs I lost with a work out program, that means I have 104 lbs less weight to throw around when trying to ride aggressively, and that has made a big difference.

 

turning my hubs the way you saw them shed 2-1/2 lbs.
The aluminum sprocket hub is 3 lbs. lighter - it cost $75, I ordered it from MrHP but it is a Bomb part.
Aluminum rear sprocket drops another lb, and so far its wearing very well and I'm happy with it.

I have the Ti chain from Sidewinder, but in 530. Sidewinder is sure of ****, I will never deal with them again. Their so-called Ti chain - well they told me no the plates are not Ti just the pins and rollers, but I don't even believe that now because they are just as prone to corrosion as my stock chain was!! So the only real weight savings you'd see changing chain is dropping to the 520 in size, and doubt there is more than one pound to save there. And the stock sprockets don't weigh 6 lbs to start with so even Ti sprockets weighed zero you still couldn't achieve that claim of 7 lbs.

And Sprocket Specialists must make their sprockets, because they have the Stealth sprocket on their webpage, and Sidewinder's ads in dirtwheels also always picture it. I deal striaght with Sprocket Specialists and the price is slightly less than Sidewinder, I guess from no mark-up.

I weighed my bike last week, on a calibrated scale at work. w/ full tank - 12 lbs battery, 7 lbs of oil, 3 lbs of coolant, 27 lbs of gas = 49 lbs extra. Also wearing big 22" knarlys and holehsot xct's up front. But anyway my wet weight was 513. Wearing Ohtsus all the way around I think I would have been slightly under 500. That makes a dry weight of around 450 if I was wearing stock tires. All I've done to shave weight is remove the heelguards, aftermarket slip-on pipe, aluminum handlebars, and the axle weight described above. This is what makes it hard to understand why the standard DS that weighs 20 lbs less than the original old yeller, weighs 10 lbs more according to Bomb's website. When I bought mine, the dry weight was claimed at 460 (which I believe), and the new lighter DS weighs 470 even though they shed 20 lbs???

 

Well I took the Baja lights and the wiring harness off of mine last night and lost 3lbs.

 

alright thats all good info.
Hightower, is it 2 1/2 PER hub, or was that total between the two?

i think for now ill just turn down the stock hubs, and buy the new sprocket hub

 

the PAIR of stock hubs with lug bolts removed weighed 6.07 lbs.
after turning the PAIR weighed 3.70lbs.
I wrote this down when I did it, I just looked it up to be sure.
so its not quite 2-1/2 lbs.
But add that to the 3lbs lighter sprocket hub, and yet another pound from an aluminum sprocket, and its an acceleration difference that is noticable.

I had the hubs turned to a diameter of 2.000" around the spline, removed no material from the original surface the rims bolt up against, and had the thickness of each spoke turned down to .625"
it cost $30 at a local machine shop.

 

Check out pic 13 This baby will be lightweight when complete. Alum tie rods[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] stem, hubs, ultra wheels, shee swingarm in moly coming with alum axle & ti chain. Frame & sub cut to the max [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img] hope it holds with the hp coming[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]