Why does this heavy wheel work for me?

plug1n

I'm a bit confused because a wheel I made recently is so good to ride.

First some background, I'm a "muscly" 53 year old of 89kg (used to be 105!) doing about 8000 miles a year, so able to haul that weight up the hills.

My current ride is old steel and I will be upgrading to carbon or titanium soon but am worried about today's low spoke counts.

Now I've made 2 rear wheels recently:

#1 on campag SR low flange 32 spoke with a 415 gm ST Swiss 1.1 (415gm) and alloy nipples

#2 on campag SR high flange 40 (!) spoke with a 500 gm old stock Nisi rim (500gm) with brass nipples

Even more, the DT Swiss has Rubino Pro fitted while the Nisi has a Bontrager Hard Case, over 100 gms heavier.

While #1 is perfectly OK, #2 is total delight, I find my self using the big chain ring at least twice as much even on a 10% climb today.

The only thing that is better on the DT S is braking which is phenomenal.

So why does #1 work so well for me, and what should I learn for a choice of contemporary wheels?

Thanks

dennisn

Plug1n wrote:

I'm a bit confused because a wheel I made recently is so good to ride.

First some background, I'm a "muscly" 53 year old of 89kg (used to be 105!) doing about 8000 miles a year, so able to haul that weight up the hills.

My current ride is old steel and I will be upgrading to carbon or titanium soon but am worried about today's low spoke counts.

Now I've made 2 rear wheels recently:

#1 on campag SR low flange 32 spoke with a 415 gm ST Swiss 1.1 (415gm) and alloy nipples

#2 on campag SR high flange 40 (!) spoke with a 500 gm old stock Nisi rim (500gm) with brass nipples

Even more, the DT Swiss has Rubino Pro fitted while the Nisi has a Bontrager Hard Case, over 100 gms heavier.

While #1 is perfectly OK, #2 is total delight, I find my self using the big chain ring at least twice as much even on a 10% climb today.

The only thing that is better on the DT S is braking which is phenomenal.

So why does #1 work so well for me, and what should I learn for a choice of contemporary wheels?

Thanks

Well, it's obvious that you haven't told your heavy wheel that it's supposed to go slower
than the lighter one. Same thing happened to me. I bought a steel frame and forgot to tell
it that it wasn't carbon fiber and it rode great.

Dennis Noward

always_tyred

The high spoke count makes the wheel stiffer. That may be the biggest factor for a "power climber".