Wheels & tyres

nbuuifx

I've just been changing tyres/tubes etc and thought I'd weigh my wheels to see what starting point I'm at.

My bike is a standard Large Trek 1000SL total weight of the bike is just under 10kg, and I was aware that the wheelset must make up a good portion of that weight as they feel quite hefty!

So I got weighing:

Rear:

412g tube and tyre together
380g cassette
62g Skewer
1036g wheel

Front:

412g tube and tyre
58g Skewer
920g Wheel


Total weight for wheels,tyres, cassette, skewers etc = 2.868kg.
Total Bare Wheel weight for comparison = 1.956kg

I'm not actually looking at buying right this minute but I had a quick look at the fulcrum range which are:

fulcrum racing 7 = 1849g
fulcrum racing 5 = 1760g
fulcrum racing 3 = 1555g
fulcrum racing 1 = 1485g

So any of those would be an 'upgrade' but how much difference would the 471g saving to switch to the fulcrum 1's make? It's only just over 200g per wheel. To buy new these would be about £600 - I'm struggling to imagine it being worthwhile!

What this little experiment has shown me is that mine are that dissimilar to the racing 7's so they'd be a waste of money, and the 5's would hardly be worth it.

I could get Planet X AL30 C Wheels for £130 which come in at 1743g for the pair
or Maxic Aksium for £140 which come in at 1795g for the pair

But even with these more budget wheels would 200g make much of a difference, would you notice 100g on one wheel?

As I say not looking to buy right now, just interested to see what peoples thoughts are on when the upgrade becomes worthwhile.

charlie_potatoes

Could you not also save a bit on tyre weight?

I just bought Conti gp4000s which are 210gms.
£55 for the pair
Not sure how much my inner tubes weigh though.

sungod

my light tub wheelset is about 800g lighter than my clincher set (including tyres and tyres/tubes), aside from maybe climbing a smidge faster, the main difference is when accelerating

tbh as the bike is pretty heavy anyway, it'd more cost effective to sell it and get something less chunky

but the cheapest place to lose weight is usually the rider!

nbuuifx

Charlie Potatoes wrote:

Could you not also save a bit on tyre weight?

I just bought Conti gp4000s which are 210gms.
£55 for the pair
Not sure how much my inner tubes weigh though.

I could but I value the better protection against punctures.

For now the bike is perfect for my needs and I'm not at the limits of the bike yet, my work will be on the slab of meat sitting on top of the bike for now. The 10kg for the bike is fairly insignificant with the 85kg of rider sat on top!

Crimmey

I think you won't notice any difference with the expensive stuff. I've tried and tested loads of gear. Currently on Plant x al 30's with Schwalbe Lugano's on front and Blizzard on back, dare I say it on this forum, with A steel bead! Oh my god they must be rubbish. (highly underrated, as are most cheapo tyres but there is some rubbish out there).
If you really want to spend the money on the 'better' wheels there's nothing stopping you. If you want value for money there's some excellent gear out there but generally there's very little in it. As someone mentioned lose weight and get fitter. You want free speed? get more aero.

unixnerd

I went from 1900g to 1500g wheels and the bike accelerated and climbed much better, it was like a different machine.