Making your mountain bike heavier is probably counterintuitive for the average rider, but in the world of downhill racing, adding weight to the bottom bracket is an easy way to find extra performance and a competitive edge. That is exactly why 5Dev has brought the Heavy Metal Spindles to market after prototyping several with the Frameworks Team throughout 2025.
5Dev Heavy Metal Spindle
5Dev
The Heavy Metal Spindle is available in two lengths (139mm and 145mm) and retails for $199 as a standalone component, or can be added to a crankset for a $100 upcharge.
- Weights
139mm = 616g
145mm = 649g - Made in the USA in San Diego out of 17-4 stainless steel
- Super Boost + and DH spacing only
- MSRP: $199 ($100 if added to a crankset)
The Benefits of Making Your Dh Bike Heavier on Purpose
Throughout the 2025 World Cup Downhill season, we saw plenty of riders adding weight to their frames, and it seemed to have a pretty noticeable benefit, with the overall winner, Jackson Goldstone, who started the 2025 season with 500g of lead weight, and ended up running as much as 1,800 grams by the end of the season. That’s quite a bit of weight added to his Santa Cruz V10 – and it seemed to work well for him. We are also seeing this as a factory option on bikes like the new Orbea Rallon, which offers configurable bottom-bracket weights.
Why would you want to make your bike heavier? Anyone who has ridden eMTBs will attest to how damped they feel, largely due to the extra weight of the motor and battery at the chassis’s lowest points. This makes bikes feel super planted and precise in corners and over uneven sections of trail, which is why many downhill riders and racers are looking to add more weight lower down on the bike.
Added weight appeals to those who don’t need to pedal uphill as often, since it obviously makes going up a little harder. This new spindle from 5Dev is marketed directly at downhill bikes and has reached the consumer market after a small batch for the Frameworks Racing team last year.
Frameworks Racing
“We are stoked with the simplicity of the steel 5DEV spindles. Adding weight low and central on the bike has been a trend over the past few years and is very common among World Cup Downhill teams right now,” said Neko Mullaly, “This spindle adds ~500g exactly where you need it, and can fit on any bike. We’ve been running it through the 2025 season and don’t plan on taking them off.”