Under 200Kg wet is reasonably easily attainable, much less than that will get very expensive! Here are some weight loss ideas…

Battery: A suitable size lithium battery weighs 1.6Kg and the OE Yuasa weighs 3.4Kg, so 1.8Kg can be saved here.

Exhaust: The lightest titanium single cans (like an Exan or Akrapovic) weigh in at around 1.6Kg including the link pipe and fittings, whereas the OE system weighs 7.2Kg, a saving of 5.6Kg.

AIS: The total weight of all the AIS plumbing and valve is about 0.5Kg and could be removed.

Tail tidy: Aftermarket aluminium ones weight about 0.5Kg; the OE one weighs 1.2Kg. That’s a saving of 0.7Kg

Wheels/hubs: The stock hubs are heavy (less so the rims), my rear wheel with 525 sprocket, disc, spacers and Metzler Enduro3 tyre weighs 18.5Kg, a Talon Excel rim, sprocket disc and tyre as supplied by OTR weighs apparently weighs 14.5Kg, so that’s a 4Kg saving. For argument’s sake, let’s assume another 4Kg can be saved up front too making a total on wheels and hubs of 8Kg (maybe a bit more with a single disc/caliper). However, that 8 or so Kg could cost you anywhere between �900 and �1800 depending on where you source the parts and whether you build the wheels yourself or not.

Doing all of the above will save you a grand total of 17Kg. Now the snag; it could cost you anywhere between �1500 and �3000 to achieve!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… Don’t forget, by far the cheapest, easiest, best and most effective way to shed weight is off your own body (if you've got room to of course). There's little point in scrabbling round for the odd kilogram here and there on the bike (at great expense) if you could potentially lose 10-20Kg yourself! Even emptying your bladder and bowels before a ride will save nearly as much weight than a lithium battery would, and it’s free!

Power/weight ratio is the biggest beneficiary of a trim rider. Let's assume a baseline of a stock bike, with no rider with 43.5 rear wheel hp (rwhp) and 206Kg (wet). This gives a power to weight ratio of 211rwhp/tonne.

Stock bike with 70Kg rider on board = 158rwhp/tonne

Stock bike with 80Kg rider on board = 152rwhp/tonne

Stock bike with 90Kg rider on board = 147rwhp/tonne

Stock bike with 100Kg rider on board = 142rwhp/tonne

The difference between the 70Kg and 100Kg rider is about the equivalent of fitting a PCV, DNA stage 2 and a set of cans, which would easily set you back �600 or more if you factor in dyno time!

Also don’t forget petrol has a mass of 737g/L, so your bike will have the same power to weight ratio advantage as losing 10Kg of hardware if you run it with no more than 10 litres in the tank.

I know the above theory doesn't help with un-sprung mass, but the rider's mass sits almost entirely above the bike's centre of gravity, so has a very significant effect on handling, not just power to weight ratio.

I see where folk are coming from when they quest for weight loss from their bike; I too have tried to minimise the bike's unnecessary additional mass as much as possible. However, other than junking the standard exhaust, it's all small on the grand scale of things… or phenomenally expensive.

Less pies = More power!

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