I have a fire mountain which I have been riding for nearly a year now. I am very happy with it. It is built like a brick s**t house for what it costs but its very heavy and my mate's gt avalanche is much lighter at the same price. I've recently upgraded the tyres to fire xc pro's which have made a difference. Does anyone know how I can further reduce the weight of the bike without spending too much cash. Is it likely to be the frame which is really heavy or other components? Thanks for any comments.

I don;t know what teh spec is on your bike, but it is more thjan likely the componants. Easy items to reduce weight are the bars and the seat post. If you ride primarily XC, then swap these out for carbon (Easton Monkey Lite are nice) and you'll save quite a bit.

The fork is also a major source of weight on these bikes. I bought a used marzocchi X-fly and that dropped over 1.5lbs on my 03 Blast. Being used it saved me some cash. Wheels also make a pretty big difference. Right now there are a lot of internet sales going on with the XT hubs and Mavic 517 rims and that would be a good place to start for XC riding.