The German magazine TOUR featured an 8.something kg (17-18 lbs.) bike in the 1980s, i.e., the Nuovo Record era. Forget the hollow chains - if you are serious about saving weight, you need to take some serious measures!
I don't have the copy, but here are some details: - replace the frame with a Vitus aluminum one. - CLB Professional brakes and aluminum cable housing - Jubilee derailleurs (I believe) - sew-ups with light rims and tires
All the stuff was standard equipment available at your LBS, and they said that the bike should be as durable and safe as a standard NR bike.
I don't remember whether the bike incorporated the reworked parts that the then-technical editor (?), Mr. Smolik, liked to make. Filed-away stem bolts and such stuff. He wrote a whole book on that kind of thing. Included info on drilling, too. He had actual weight comparisons, before and after. Some of his stuff was very elegant, despite being lightened to the max. (In the U.S., a book like that probably couldn't be published. Imagine a reader filing a file stroke too far, and killing themselves when the stem bolt gives way!)
Anybody got the original article?
Of course, the question is why you'd want to slim down an NR bike...
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Jan Heine, Seattle
Editor/Publisher
Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
http://www.mindspring.com/