New wheels-worthwhile?

Mickyg88

I've just took the plunge and bought new wheels today, American Classic Victory, fitted on the bike now but haven't been further than down the street so not really aware of any improvement over the old wheels.

Before fitting I weighed the old wheels with tyres and rear cassette, and then the new. The overall weight saving with the new wheels is nine and a quarter ounces, also upgraded the tyres to conti 4000s at the same time.

Is the weight saving overall and the tyres considered to be a worthwhile upgrade, what benefit should i get from them?original wheels were alex28 rims/ scott own make hubs.

One last question, on my short ride up the street the gears were 'clunking' as I changed gear up or down, do they need indexing or something now I've changed the wheels, they didn't make that noise previously.

Jon_1976

I swapped wheels on my old (first) bike and it worked 400g lighter. This didn't sound a lot to me, but my brother in law explained that it actually works out more due to rotational weight (opposed to the static weight). I don't know anything about that tbh :oops: but I can imagine its mainly felt during acceleration.

As for gears, it sounds very much like that the indexing needs tweaking a tad.

Skeletor_LDN

You'll certainly need to re-index the gears with new wheels, it only takes a fractional shift in alignment to start playing up.

As for the wheels themselves and the weight/performance this will only truly be noticeable when you start putting the power down or climbing up gradients. Flat mini sprints down the road won't be too telling for as most of the challenge is inertia of you, the bike and the wheels.

Out of interest, what was the weight difference for the various combinations, wheels/tyres?

It's also worth noting that whilst your new wheels may be lighter, the weight distribution may be different, i.e. lighter hubs and spokes but heavier rims will give the impression of a less reactive set of wheels but will show benefits in aerodynamic when up to speed. Conversely, Heavier hubs but lighter rims will spin up quickly and climb more efficiently as the rotational weight is closer to center.

Mickyg88

Not sure about weight difference with different combinations, I only weighed the old and then the new, as I say with tyres/ tubes/ cassette fitted to both old and new, old tyres still on old wheels.

cheaterkiller

Mickyg88 wrote:

I've just took the plunge and bought new wheels today, American Classic Victory, fitted on the bike now but haven't been further than down the street so not really aware of any improvement over the old wheels.

Before fitting I weighed the old wheels with tyres and rear cassette, and then the new. The overall weight saving with the new wheels is nine and a quarter ounces, also upgraded the tyres to conti 4000s at the same time.

Is the weight saving overall and the tyres considered to be a worthwhile upgrade, what benefit should i get from them?original wheels were alex28 rims/ scott own make hubs.

One last question, on my short ride up the street the gears were 'clunking' as I changed gear up or down, do they need indexing or something now I've changed the wheels, they didn't make that noise previously.

I upgraded from alex wheels to american classic victory 30s. But the bike would still have been an improvement even if I didnt bother installing wheels at all. They were fu**ing CRAP!

As for the new wheels, I find wheels are wheels. Unless they are alex ones in which case I could find better quality stuff resurrected from Titanic.

Mickyg88

Which were CRAP, the Alex or the American classics?

cheaterkiller

The alex ones. After about 1000 miles the spokes just wouldnt stay tight. No way was I gonna ride around on a bike with dodgy wheels.

Mickyg88

So are the American classics holding up ok and giving you a better ride?

duckson

I went from stock Ritchey rims with Schwalbe Lugano on my Boardman Team Carbon to the American Classic Victory 30 with GP4000S and they were noticeably much quicker as they were quite alot lighter (saved 550g / 1.2lb on the wheel/tyre swap, weighed both).

You should notice the difference for sure!

And just changed to DuraAce 9000 C24 which are a step up again! Victory 30's will be for sale this weekend probably.

cheaterkiller

Mickyg88 wrote:

So are the American classics holding up ok and giving you a better ride?

Definitely happy with them so far. Only done another 1000 or so miles and I do like riding hard but they are still true. I like the way they look too. Mine came with red GP 4000 tyres but their quality doesnt seem too good, loads of cracking although I havent had a single puncture yet.