Are my wheels made of lead?

Kiblams

I have been turning my attantion to my front wheel after adding 1.5lbs to the front of my bike going from rigid to a Tora 318, and discovered last night that my front wheel (including tyre, skewer, rotor and inner) weighs 2.4kg :shock:

Is this a tad on the heavy side?

It is a generic unbranded wheel with a 2.4 MK tyre(wire bead)

Thanks guys.

spongtastic

yes it's a bit heavy, but what/where are you riding?

The tyre and tube alone probably weigh over 1kg.

njee20

They're all pretty heavy parts, the tyre weighs 750g, nothing ridiculous though, your rear wheel will weigh a fair bit more!

Kiblams

njee20 wrote:

They're all pretty heavy parts, the tyre weighs 750g, nothing ridiculous though, your rear wheel will weigh a fair bit more!

Rear wheel only weighs 200g more with the cassette and all on it :?

I ride trail centre reds mainly(Cannock, 7 stanes and north wales), the 2.4 MK is on there as the bike has only recently had a rigid fork removed and it was a fantastic light high volume tyre for comfort.

So if the tyre is 750, the rotor is 150 and the innertube is say another 150, then the wheel (with skewer) weighs 1350g :shock:

spongtastic

Conti say the tyre is 750g, but their weights are generally a big fib. Your tube probably weighs nearer 250g, so your wheels about 1.1kg. Not that bad for a standard set.

cooldad

Where you standing on the scale when you weighed it?

nickfrog

To give you an idea, my mid-range front wheel:

Shimano MT65 817g
Conti Speed King 2.1 535g
Bontrage light tube 130g
Rotor (160mm) 150g
Skewer (Ti hex) 25g
TOTAL 1657g

Kiblams

cooldad wrote:

Where you standing on the scale when you weighed it?

Not sure the kitchen scales would support my weight

So the only real option is to shave a meer 200g off the tyre? I really want to get rid of 600g to make the bike feel like it did before the Tora (yes it needs to be cheap, the whole bike only cost £500 to build)

spongtastic

kenda nevegal from On one 550g, £14.99.
conti/bonti/etc light tube 100-140g £10 max.
Carbon/Ti skewers £14.99 60g. On one again. Use offer code WHITEROSE

njee20

Of course you can save more, buy a new front wheel!

Hope Hoop on 355s are about £100 and will drop a massive chunk. Buy a Racing Ralph and convert to tubeless and you'll drop a load more.

nickfrog

I got the Bonti tubes at £6 each from STIF who now do free post BTW.

nickfrog

njee20 wrote:

Of course you can save more, buy a new front wheel!

Hope Hoop on 355s are about £100 and will drop a massive chunk. Buy a Racing Ralph and convert to tubeless and you'll drop a load more.

I normally find tubeless to be heavier than tubed configurations.

blister pus

easiest and cheapest route is a set of Xero Session Freeride wheels and 500g - 600g folding tyres. that should get you well below where you want to be. and stand your weight

http://www.xerowheel.com/prod_detail.as ... =24&pid=30

^ the weight's good and if you can find them can be had for £90 a pair but i'll be buggered if i can find any retail outlet for them any more (i wanted spare wheelset). but there is a UK distributor listed above (top) so give them a shot, let me know if you get any joy they really are a stonking buy for the money.

Kiblams

Cheers guys, I will see what I can do.

I can probably stretch to new tyres and inners, and bring the wheel down to maybe 2.15kg. heres hoping the fact that it is rotational weight willl make up for only half the added weight being reduced

Thanks again for the suggestions

njee20

I normally find tubeless to be heavier than tubed configurations.

Not this discussion again!

If you use a conventional Ralph on a 355 with yellow tape/valve you save the weight of a tube and add the weight of a valve and a bit of sealant, 50g saving over the lightest tube and 100g over a conventional tube.

If you use UST tyres then yes there is less/no weight saved when compared to lightweight tubed set ups.

cat_with_no_tail

Just for comparison, my very top end (DT Swiss EX1750) Front wheel, with Maxle, Conti XC tube, Schwalbe Fat Albert 2.3 folding tyre, and 185mm Avid Rotor comes in at 2.04kg (just weighed it).

Of course, that's an Enduro wheel, and it's about as strong as they come (strong enough for WC DH racers to use), which is kind of the point. If your wheels are built to be very strong, they'll generally not be very light.

Stick a light folding tyre on there and you're away

njee20

Conversely a generous quick tot up of my front wheel all in comes at around 1300g (Roval Controle SL, Rocket Ron with Stan's, Hope pro floating rotor, Tune skewer) I may go and stick it on the scales later to check!

That's not as tough as CWNT's.

Torres

And finally from a budget perspective:
Mavic XM117
Nameless hub
Nobby Nic Evo
Unbranded Tube
QR

1.83 kg

No rotor, but considering the set up didn't cost the earth its not a bad weight.

Kiblams

I decided to weigh everything in/on the front wheel, so here are the factoidial numbers

wheel 1150g
rotor 150g
inner 200g
Skewer 45g
Tyre 755g

The bike with just the wheel (including skewer and rotor) actually feels a little lighter than it used to with the rigid forks, so I am hopeful that the lighter tyre and tube will feel right.

After all, I'm not out to shave every gram I can off the bike, i just want the balance back to how it was.

Zaskar96

If you knock 200g of tyres and tube thats rotational mass you're saving so it will feel more noticeable than say saving 200g off bars & stem for example.
I run a 2.25 Rocket Ron Performance tyre weighing 524g with a Continental Light tube 125g. If you were to run the same combination on yours you'll save over 300g rotating mass, do the same on the back - over 600g saved.
I run a 2.1 Rocket Ron Performance on the rear which saves another 60g over the 2.25 on the front.

njee20

Rons are good tyres too, not realised the Performance ones were still reasonably light, I'd go for that.

As an aside... I've just weighed my front wheel and it's 1258g all in.

butcher of bakersfield

The question really, is what does it ride like? My Fury always felt like it had glue tyres...which is great when you're bombing down the trail. Not so when you're going back up. Swapped the rear tyre and it's now much better.

If there's anything you dislike when you're out riding. Change it. If you're happy with it. Who cares?