wheel weight

Secla

i have a gt avalanche 2.0 and it is a reasonbly heavy bike for a hardtail
had a puncture on my rear wheel today so had the wheel off to repair. while it was off i thought i may aswell try it on the scales, i was a bit shocked that it came out as 1.8kg without the innertube and tyre but with the brake disc and cassette.
im thinking this seems alot of weight how much weight could i look to save on a wheelset without spending stupid amounts of money ? im looking at around 3.5kg at the moment with tyres etc. thats alot of rolling weight

Anonymous

first place to save weight is the tyre and tube.

what do you have fitted at the moment?

truely lightweight wheels are a very expensive thing.

geordiefreerider

Put some 2.3 timberwolfs on with some continental tubes you will find your wheels spin like dead ducks in water !! Hope this helps lol !!

Secla

there what came on it. kenda nevingals i think. and i believe the tube is made by kenda aswell

couldashouldawoulda

Ive got a GT 1 and had the same idea about upgrading. If the wheelset's the same/similar this might point you in the direction of saving a pound or so (pound weight that is). Here's what mine weighed originally in grammes:

Jalco F 930
Jalco R 1150
Rim tape x 2 40
Skewers 162
Shim Rotor + Bolts x 2 320
Cassette SRAM 365
Kenda Nevegal x2 1402
Kenda Tube x2 340.

Total: 4709 (10.3 lbs)

As for upgrading the obvious place to start is the tyres. Possibly consider going tubeless.

If you want lighter wheels that are still strong I'd say they start around the £200 mark. Higher weights tend to mean stronger wheels so consider what kind of riding you're doing.

As an idea of the savings and expense of upgrading - I got some Easton XC Ones for £250 from CRC. Here's the current spec:
Easton XC One F 757
Easton XC One R 916
Easton Skewers 123
Rim tape Incl on rim.
Ashima Air Rotors & bolts x2 196
Cassette XT 271
Tubeless rim strip x 2 200
Continental Speed King Supersonic 2.3 x 2 974
Total 3237 (7.0 lbs).

Cost to save the 3lbs: £370. But the tyres needed replacing anyway and the original Shimano hubs were shot. The new setup feels way faster but I've got nothing scientific to prove that they actually are!

elPedro666

Picked up an old XTR/217 rear off ebay for £27 posted(!) and a barely used XTR ti cassette for about £50. I also bought some scales (saddo, I know...) but I'd be guessing 1100ish grams off the top of my head. Moral being keep your eyes peeled if you're on a budget (ie skint like me! ).

I'm really looking forward to getting those scales; man that's tragic :oops:

Secla

thanks couldashouldawoulda, put a new innertube on today and the wheels are indeed jalco so im assuming all the rest of the stuff is the same as yours also

handy to have all the weights as last thing i want to do is buy something thinking its lighter and it ends up weighing more

jazid

I have to admit I'm getting in to this weight weenie thing.

I've brought my personal weight down to about 77.5kgs (from way over 80kgs) and also splashed out on some Easton XC 1 wheels from CRC (for £265! - how did u get them for £250?) I shall be running some new 1.8 fire Pro XCs when they arrive. The current Sram pg970 cassette is pretty light for what it is, so no need to change that.

Ive done a rough weight comparison and the XC1's are 200grams lighter than my existing Botty Race Disc wheels. Need to stop here, or my Trek Fuel Ex 8 will end up costing as much as my upgrades!

Anyone know if running supersonic 26x 1.9-2.1 in a 1.8 Conti Fire XC Pro would present any problems if I ride them at 45psi?

How are you finding the Easton XC1s? Sleepless here I come.

dot1

depending on what kind of riding you do, i got a set of mavic xc717 on deore hubs (all non-disc) for my road mtb for just over 100 on merlin. upgrading to disc compatible stuff shouldnt weigh much more. cant remember the weights of them, but i know they are pretty darn light for the price! if you want me to weigh them i will do tonight.

toasty

1.8kg for the wheel, is that with the rear quick release on? I'd guess you've got:

1200g - wheel
100g - QR skewer
120g - rotor
380g - cassette

It's not too silly heavy to be honest. Did your bike come with wire bead tyres? I'd give them a weigh you want about 600-700g for the tyre, 150-200g for the tube ideally. My old Avalanche 1 came with crazy wire bead Nevegals that were nearer 1kg, the Stick-E compound made it even worse.

I bought a custom wheel from Merlin last week actually, LX splined hub, DT Comp spokes on cheap Mavic 317 rims, it came in a few grams over 1kg and only set me back £60. £40 for an XT or SLX cassette is money well spent when you wear that one down too, easy 100g saved, bare in mind it'll probably require a new chain too though.

The current Sram pg970 cassette is pretty light for what it is, so no need to change that.

I did find that bizarre. You'd spend £265 to save 200g, but not another £40-50 to save 100g? The supersonic tubes will be fine too, be very careful around the valve area though, make sure it's aligned properly, especially at low pressures, they're not the strongest tubes around

I've had an anti-weight weenie patch recently, my old 24 spoke wheels were too flexy and tubeless ready tyres squirm about a bit. You can definitely go too far with it. I've saved 200g on my brakes and put it back on the wheels! Hope Hoops on Stan's 355s with good meaty cheap Kenda innertubes! Sub 24lbs and flexy didn't feel nice, it's like riding around on a tennis racket with wheels.

Anonymous

cn you really noice your wheels flexing? i just had a bit of good riding on my traversees and didnt feel a single bit of movement,

were these your xt wheels?

toasty

Yeah, I've never really had it before with wheels. My Crossrides were fine with the bladed spokes, I'd never had the slightest issue. I hated the feeling of the XT 24 spoke wheelset though, very indirect and squirmy, even just riding along on tarmac. Off camber sections were even more noticable. The spokes were all well tensioned, hub bearings tight, it felt like that from brand new.

A lot of the 24 standard spoke wheels have weight limit. For example the Hope XC3, which have very similar 24 double butted spokes, have an 85kg weight limit.

I had those XT wheels for just over a year, whichever bike they were on I'd dislike. As I say, even just a 20 second ride around in a cirlce I could feel them moving underneath me. I'm sure this doesn't apply to all 24 spoke wheels, certainly not the Traversees, It did put me off getting a set of Roval Controles though.

Maybe it was a combination of the light rims with 24 light spokes and alloy nipples. The XTs were an odd one, 1650g proper UST wheelset, heavy hubs, light spokes with light UST rims.