wheel upgrade- my thoughts
carrock
Posts: 1,103
saw a set of 1500 gramme wheels (Roval Fusee E5) on sale at local LBS for £225 ( down from £350 )
Was dubious about any actual benefit, but they looked nice, so I bought them as an aesthetic upgrade if nothing else
Saved about 700 grammes on std mavic cxp-22 std wheels- as i weigh 16 stone, didnt think I'd notice the difference
Just been on a test ride- my wife, who is 5 stone lighter and leaves me for dead up hills, was struggling to keep up. I'm getting over a bad cold, but just seemed to float along effortlessly- felt like a strong tailwind at my back
This is NOT a placebo effect as I wasn't expecting a noticable difference.
So yes, I can only assume that with every pedal stroke we are trying to overcome inertia, and 2000 grammes of wheel and tyre is much easier to accelerate than 2700 grammes
Was dubious about any actual benefit, but they looked nice, so I bought them as an aesthetic upgrade if nothing else
Saved about 700 grammes on std mavic cxp-22 std wheels- as i weigh 16 stone, didnt think I'd notice the difference
Just been on a test ride- my wife, who is 5 stone lighter and leaves me for dead up hills, was struggling to keep up. I'm getting over a bad cold, but just seemed to float along effortlessly- felt like a strong tailwind at my back
This is NOT a placebo effect as I wasn't expecting a noticable difference.
So yes, I can only assume that with every pedal stroke we are trying to overcome inertia, and 2000 grammes of wheel and tyre is much easier to accelerate than 2700 grammes
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Comments
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Good to hear :-)
I just bought some 1500g Pro-Lite Bracciano's at Ribble for 186 (they've since reduced them to 175, grrrr). Can't wait for them to arrive and take them for a road test.http://www.strathspey.co.uk - Quality Binoculars at a Sensible Price.
Specialized Roubaix SL3 Expert 2012, Cannondale CAAD5,
Marin Mount Vision (1997), Edinburgh Country tourer, 3 cats!0 -
This is NOT a placebo effect as I wasn't expecting a noticable difference
You're kidding yourself and the physics doesn't bear you out.. You can't say it wasn't a placebo effect unless you didn't know what wheels were on the bike.
Put the bike on a stand with the old wheels and spin the front wheel up to 20mph using your fingers. Didn't take a lot of effort did it compared to accelerating you and the bike up to 20 mph. Lighter wheels make a small difference but not to the extent you describe.0