10kg is fine - it's all Placebo effect in you head, remember!

If you want to battle the placebo watch some videos, I remember GCN added some on the impact of weight - and it is quite negligible except hill climbing races.

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https://www.strava.com/athletes/13873052

For me unless your talking a route with either multiple punchy climbs, technical and little to no flat or false flat sections or a long, steep climb followed by a descent without flat or false flat I'd say that it isn't worth worrying about weight saving on a Tri Bike. If you use the tri bike for the race I'd say that aero is the deciding factor and by putting on lighter parts you are likely to make minimal gains and potentially losses if they are less aero or less comfortable.

That said, if you have the money to get the lightest, most aero equipment then why not, if you can go lighter without impacting aero/comfort then that is worth doing as there may be a some seconds there.

(just my musings, I happily bow down to those more versed in this kinda thing)

thanks, yeah had a feeling not much could be done without deep pockets. I have FSA cranks with oval rings which are pretty worn, so may look to change these soon. Other than that, I can only really think of the bar risers adding an extra bit of weight, but I would rather comfort over that weigh penalty so won't be removing them.

Sounds like 10kg isn't so bad, so will forget about it :-D

Even with deep pockets, I think there is only so much you can do without sacrificing aero. All the typical 60-80mm depth fast wheels, and discs, are within the same weight range regardless of price.
The few tri frames that are likely noticeably lighter, like cannondale, are not going to be as aero.

Bear in mind GCN "are around 90% nonsense. I wouldn't recommend putting too much trust in accuracy of their advice, and especially not in their "tests". Most of their tests are so poorly designed, controlled, and analysed as to be pointless....seriously. Their advice is sometimes reasonable and sometimes less so.

don't worry about weight. it doesn't matter as much as you might think. Sure GCN's tests (or other similar ones, I just watched NorCal cycling's video on this subject) should be taken with a grain of salt, but the conclusions are clear that it just doesn't make a meaningful difference unless you're on really steep, sustained climbs, and even then we're not talking huge chunks of time. some amount of seconds, usually - not minutes.

Also - those videos usually compare bikes with a large amount of weight change. NorCal's video had a 4 pound difference between the two bikes (actually, he did one rep with 3 large, full water bottles weighing 4 pounds and then a rep without those bottles, and the difference was a handful of seconds even on steep grades). If you swap some parts to save smaller amounts of weight, like only a few hundred grams here or there, the time savings will be even less.

I remember reading something from Josh Poertner where he'd modelled weight vs Aero on a few courses. Mainly for road bikes. Weight does matter if its for the end of a tour stage, so you sacrifice calories early due to aero so you can accelerate in the last 10km.

For us alone on tt bikes the time you can save on Aero outweigh savings in weight on the hills. I feel for hilly races gearing and brake performance are the more important choices. I've made the mistake of using tt gears for a mountainous race in France.