Good weight for wheels?

[devonbiker]

Hi,

Just curious, is 985g a good weight for a front wheel (with tubeless tyre + sealant) on a mid range carbon road bike? Would upgrading to 40mm aero wheels, assuming they are heavier, be better or worse for climbing? Around where I live there are some pretty steep climbs, like 20% gradients.

This wheelset came with my bike:

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/gb/slr-1 ... heelsystem

[nickf]

Sub 1400g for a clincher wheel is solid. Those wheels are solid performers. Lighter the better when it comes to climbing. Most clincher wheelset 40+mm will be pushing 1500g+.

[devonbiker]

Sub 1400g for a clincher wheel is solid. Those wheels are solid performers. Lighter the better when it comes to climbing. Most clincher wheelset 40+mm will be pushing 1500g+.

Sub 1400g for a clincher wheel is solid. Those wheels are solid performers. Lighter the better when it comes to climbing. Most clincher wheelset 40+mm will be pushing 1500g+.

They are tubeless rims (I put Conti GP 5000’s on them). I agree they seem decent considering they came with the bike. Just not that deep for outright speed in a straight line but you can’t have everything. But the tyres roll well.

[Kazyole]

Yeah, those are solid. I would consider anything in the 1400g range to be a good climbing wheelset.

Whether they're better or not vs a deeper section is going to depend on the average grades of the climbs you're talking about, and your goals in riding. On most all rides a deeper wheelset is going to be faster over the course of the entire ride. But if you only care about the 20% sections, weight is going to be the biggest factor at those times. And if I'm remembering correctly I think the tipping point for most riders on a climb where you'd want the lightest wheelset possible is somewhere in the 6-7% range. But of course that's going to be somewhat individual depending on your power output. On the same climb at 5-6% a weaker rider is going to be faster with lightweight wheels, whereas a powerful rider will benefit more from being more aero.

[DVR]

Sub 1400g for a clincher wheel is solid. Those wheels are solid performers. Lighter the better when it comes to climbing. Most clincher wheelset 40+mm will be pushing 1500g+.

My new climbing wheels are 47 mm, up until now I rode Dura-ace C24 as climbing wheels.
The total weight penalty moving to the 47 mm is exactly 40 gram. Negligible but huge improvement in aero performance.
I suspect to be faster everywhere, even on the steepest of climbs.

[Lewn777]

These days you can get great 1400g alloy climbing wheelsets, that give you confidence of the descents, even though I don't really have issues with carbon.

[froze]

for climbing you want lighter wheels, but for descending you want aero wheels, your situation you're going to have to compromise on both ends; you can't get both light weight and deep aero unless you spend a small fortune on the wheels. Check out these wheels: http://2013.bikesoul.com/s4/

Now having said that you have a medium price range bike, well obviously you don't want wheels that cost as much as the bike, and you need wheels to hold up to rough city streets and county roads, so going with the lightest is not always the best idea, and you didn't say if you wanted AL or CF wheels, if you're doing a lot of fast descending and you don't have disk brakes, which you also didn't mention if you had those, then stay away from CF wheels.

[talltales]

Hi,

Just curious, is 985g a good weight for a front wheel (with tubeless tyre + sealant) on a mid range carbon road bike? Would upgrading to 40mm aero wheels, assuming they are heavier, be better or worse for climbing? Around where I live there are some pretty steep climbs, like 20% gradients.

IMG_9407.JPEG

This wheelset came with my bike:

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/gb/slr-1 ... heelsystem

Are you sure this is correct? A 25mm 5000 tl is close to 300g and a bit of sealant, say 25g, and you are left with 660g for the wheel. Unusually light for at stock wheel, Id say?

[dim]

My alloy Hed Belgium Plus rims (20/24) with Chris King R45 hubs (ceramic bearing upgrade), plus Sapim CX Ray spokes weighs 1642 grams (heavyish but the hubs are heavy)

before having these built, I researched older lightweight alloy wheels and American Classic Road Tubeless were on my wish list ... tubeless or clincher compatable and weigh 1290 grams

[bm0p700f]

Lighter is not always better for climbing. It is possible to build a light wheelset that feels rubbish when putting power down. The wheels have to be able to have minimal flex when loads are placed on it (flex is not just lateral but also torsonal and twisting flex in the rim the latter I think is key to how a wheel feels). The heavier the rider and the more power they put out those loads go up. setting target weights are therefore not very illuminating.

985g for a front wheel complet with tyre e.t.c is not bad. Even a 600g front wheel with a tyre on it will be 900g complete if not a bit more. The deeper the rims the heavier the wheel.

then again sub 1300g 45mm deep tubeless ready wheels are doable and ride well. Is it worth the spend though?

[devonbiker]

Hi,

Just curious, is 985g a good weight for a front wheel (with tubeless tyre + sealant) on a mid range carbon road bike? Would upgrading to 40mm aero wheels, assuming they are heavier, be better or worse for climbing? Around where I live there are some pretty steep climbs, like 20% gradients.

IMG_9407.JPEG

This wheelset came with my bike:

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/gb/slr-1 ... heelsystem

Are you sure this is correct? A 25mm 5000 tl is close to 300g and a bit of sealant, say 25g, and you are left with 660g for the wheel. Unusually light for at stock wheel, Id say?

985g is correct. The tyre is 290g I think. It's the rim brake model of TCR so the front wheel weighs next to nothing. Buy Giant and you don't need to upgrade your wheels in a hurry - if you buy their "Advanced Pro" series with own brand carbon wheelsets. They are only 30mm deep though so are climbing wheels.

[flying]

660g for the wheel. Unusually light for at stock wheel, Id say?

Campy Zonda C17 is 690 & a strong non-flexy wheel

[froze]

Campy Zonda's do flex, read this review: https://www.cyclingweekly.com/reviews/w ... nda-wheels

I don't think there is a bicycle wheel made that has zero flex, nor do I think you would want a wheel like that. For the price however Campy Zonda is a good bargain which is surprising being Campy and all; however if you read that review I gave above the column does suggest 3 other wheels that are a bit better than the Zonda's and they give you the sites where they reviewed those, I would read about those others. There is another option too made By Soul called the S3.0 and the S4.0, the S3.0 is in line with the prices of Zonda and the others mentioned, the 4.0 is about $100 higher.

Here is a purchaser of the Soul 3.0 review: https://forum.bikeradar.com/viewtopic.php?t=12923918

Here is a professional review of the 3.0: http://riders-cafe.blogspot.com/2014/05 ... elset.html

Like the forum reviewer said, finding wheels gave him a headache! So you shall be blessed with one too! LOL!!!

Here is a professional review of the 4.0: https://cyclingtips.com/2014/09/soul-s4 ... et-review/

[flying]

Campy Zonda's do flex, read this review: https://www.cyclingweekly.com/reviews/w ... nda-wheels

I will respectfully disagree with that article & its writer.

He claims
"Out on the road I did experience some wheel rub when climbing out of the saddle"

I don't know what his weight is or how flexy a frame he is riding but I usually climb long climbs that avg 8-10%.
Part of the year I travel & climb mountains with 16-22% sections for 4km at a stretch & have never once had any wheels rub
I also run my brakes very close to the rim

In 30+ years of riding I have rode so many wheels from the old Mavic Gel 280 with Campy hubs sewups or, Fiamme gold etc etc
to hand built modern Garcia built clinchers on Niobium Interloc VSR rims & DT Swiss etc Now many of those yes had some flex on hard climbs

These Campy Zonda's I have never once detected even a hint of flex
Or at least nothing I can notice....definitely no brake rubs



But again I do not know what this writer is riding nor his weight so who knows perhaps he can flex one

[bm0p700f]

Brake rub is only loosly linked to the overall lateral stiffnes of a wheel. The fact the two are often linked does mean there is a lack of understanding of why brake rub happens. I am not explaining it again. Hint its to do with the ratio lateral stiffnes of spoke + bracing angle contribution and the lateral stiffness of the rim.