lightest wheels you've run?

[Brent Eastman]

I'm curious about putting lighter wheels on my Roadini. Anyone running really light weight wheels? Carbon? Noticeable changes in speed/comfort/stats? I wanna try em, but I don't want to drop $1000+ to find out it's not worth it.

[Nick Payne]

On Monday, 2 June 2025 at 1:09:22 pm UTC+10 brenton...@gmail.com wrote:

I'm curious about putting lighter wheels on my Roadini. Anyone running really light weight wheels? Carbon? Noticeable changes in speed/comfort/stats? I wanna try em, but I don't want to drop $1000+ to find out it's not worth it.

You don't say what rims your present wheels are built with, or what tyres you're running, but I doubt that you'll notice much if any difference from changing the wheels. Tyres, that's a different matter. If you're dissatisfied with what you're riding at the moment, look at getting lighter tyres and fit lighter tubes inside them.

I've built several pairs of wheels using CF rims, but they were all for disc brake bikes. I wouldn't use CF rims with rim brakes - braking performance, particularly in the wet, and even with the proper CF brake pads, is worse than with Al rims, and the brake track being a wear item, CF is going to wear faster than Al. I have a fairly lightweight set of wheels with Al rims on my Riv custom - DT Swiss RR411 rims laced to White Industries MI5 hubs. I can't say, though, that I really noticed a difference from the previous wheels I was using, which were Mavic MA2 rims laced to Campagnolo hubs. The only reason I swapped the wheels was because I like building wheels and I already had the parts.

Nick Payne

[ascpgh]

Besides sharing the wheel specs (rim, hubs, spokes, nipples) and tires you now use, tell us what you want to improve.

Deep section, "aero" rims may be more rigid and ride harder despite cutting seconds off some of your stats. That can reduce ride comfort and in my use that cuts into the range of rides. I try to avoid becoming miserable or riding after becoming such. I do this for the fun and the restorative mental aspects riding provides, not competing or comparing with others. The physical health benefits are icing on the cupcake.

Pursuit of lightness may bring you to parts that have a shorter service life or add unforeseen problems to cope with (aluminum spoke nipples anyone?). Too few or too slight of spokes don't reduce enough rotating mass if they don't meet the need of your weight and other load requirements of your bike.

Quality tires really can be transformative. When I switched to RH Stampede Pass EL tires on my Rambouillet the change was so significant I stopped looking for a replacement bike that would fit bigger tires thinking that all of my problems had to do with tire volume. 

I always look at my wheels as sharing the dynamic feel of the entire bike as it responds to my  physical input while carrying my weight (and load as applicable). I envision all of the parts that I contact as the initial link of a chain of energy transmission to and through the whole bike to the ground, converted either into propulsion or steering forces. If I make one link in that chain more rigid, others will have to make up the difference in absorbing energy that is momentarily greater than the machine is able to convert to forward motion.

A set of deep section aero rimmed 18 spoke wheels may lighten your bike, drop your best segment times but if they are not able to be dynamic in use they will require some other parts in the chain of energy transfer to do that instead of sharing. You may feel like those wheels make your frame or handlebars flex more than you previously thought and in time your back tire might wear faster than previous tires. Their service life might also be disappointing in the long run. 

I think a chat with a seasoned wheel builder is a good thing. A sense of "responsible adult" input from that person who has seen and built many variations and been responsible for what was built can be refreshing. Peter White always has a very valuable wheel building perspective that I've valued over the years. I built my own in the past but have so many other things to do in my life, including riding, that I had a reality check and decided to cede that process and decisions to those who do it daily. 

Andy Cheatham

Pittsburgh

[Will Boericke]

I like DT swiss hubs to a decently wide aluminum rim with 28ish spokes.  That setup can get you in the 1400 - 1500g territory.  Carbon rim can drop maybe 100g / rim; in my book that's not worth the braking worry, but might be interesting.  I do like carbon for disc wheels.

Will

[Brenton Eastman]

I have 32h velocity dyad rims, SP dynamo front, shimano deore rear hub, butted spokes. Currently running Ultradynamico 42 tires in the mid-weight “just for fun” casing. 

The Roadini is super comfy which I enjoy, but I was thinking of experimenting with making it lighter (and faster) than current, to further differentiate it from my Hillborne. 

On Jun 2, 2025, at 6:12 AM, ascpgh <asc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Besides sharing the wheel specs (rim, hubs, spokes, nipples) and tires you now use, tell us what you want to improve.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/rbw-owners-bunch/OlpKtksHHvo/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/d9e92571-5b79-4619-952f-95283a64e6d4n%40googlegroups.com.

[Piaw Na]

You can't buy them anymore, but Jon Neugen'ts ultralight alloy wheels were wonderful. The first time I bunny hopped on them it felt like I went a couple inches higher than usual. I abuse them: https://blog.piaw.net/2023/03/review-neugent-cycling-a422towox-wheels.html

Recently someone sold me a pair of Ritchey Classic wheels. They're really light too. They run $700 new but on sale you can usually find them around $400.

The most important thing about weight is that the lighter you are, the more weight matters. My son is less than 90 pounds and my wife is less than 120. Shaving a pound or two (or in the case of the upgrade from the Cheviot to the Ritchey Logic frame, 10 pounds!) off their bikes really makes a difference as they can really feel it and the weight savings is a larger percentage of the total system weight. If you weigh 200 pounds that pound or ten matters less. 

[Brewster Fong]

Yes. Carbon wheels are amazing these days!  I'm a heavyweight guy and have nothing but good luck with a set of 45mm deep carbon wheels with bi-tex hubs and pillar db spokes from BTLOS. I even got the extralight rims and aluminum nipples!  I have two sets of these wheels one for my carbon Trek and the other for my Della Santa and they weigh 1305g and 1304g for the pair.  The lightness is immediately noticeable on both bikes. In contrast, I have a set of wheels on my Ellis which are HED rims (Ardennes +) and although they supposedly light for aluminum rims (I think the wheelset is like 1600g?) they feel like a boat anchor compared to the carbon wheels.

Note, a week ago, I broke a spoke on a climb. I wasn't pushing too hard and then I heard a pop. What was weird is it was the left/nondrive side spoke. I brought it into a local shop and he said the nondrive side spokes were straightpull and didn't have a lot of tension. So after replacing the spokes with one that came with the wheelset, he re-trued and re-tensioned the entire wheel. Took it out yesterday and it rode fine.

Of course, YMMV!

Good Luck!

PS - a wheelset with extralight rims/pillar spokes/bi-tex hubs/shimano freehub is like $700 or so shipped. Well, that's before all this tariff nonsense...not that much more than a good lightweight aluminum rim wheelset.

[maxcr]

I was happy when I swapped my 36h Atlas wheels for 32h Quills with tubeless RH tires on my (now gone) Charlie Gallop. The bike certainly felt lighter and easier to pedal from a stand still.

Check out the Crust rims which are advertised as lightweight, although I doubt you'll gain much from the 32h dyads you have.

Max

[Mackenzy Albright]

I ran a tubeless set of 650 Velocity blunt SL laced to hope hubs. With Switchback hills they were very light. They definitely felt great - though I am not much for performance so don't know if they "wound up faster" or I rode faster at all.. Eventually I swapped out for Mavic 717 laced to XTRs and racing ralphs. I liked the 26" handling better vs the lighter wheel setup. 

Eventually the Blunt SL's eyelets cracked around the entire back wheel and sporadically around the front. 

I am happy with middle weight wheels with a good set of tires these days. 

[Benz Ouyang, Sunnyvale, CA]

On Monday, June 2, 2025 at 4:46:06 AM UTC-7 Nick Payne wrote:

You don't say what rims your present wheels are built with, or what tyres you're running, but I doubt that you'll notice much if any difference from changing the wheels. Tyres, that's a different matter. If you're dissatisfied with what you're riding at the moment, look at getting lighter tyres and fit lighter tubes inside them.

I beg to differ. I am lucky enough to own and/or have ridden quite a wide range of wheels, often with the same tires and bikes. I can absolutely tell the difference between wheels that differ by less than a pound. I'm comparing high-end wheels and not el cheapo against high-end.

Case study: Campagnolo Hyperon Ultra (just over 1200g) vs. Campagnolo 10-speed era silver hubs laced to Ambrosio Excellence rims with 32 DT Revolution spokes front and back (probably around 1,500g). The conventional wheels are not slouch, but the Hyperons just get up and go. I've also extensively ridden my friend's uber high-end Lightweight tubular wheels with carbon everything, and those are even more impressively responsive.

Now I'm not claiming these wheels can defy physics; I do understand saving a few hundred grams in weight, rotating or not, won't help you get up hills appreciably faster. Nevertheless, they do feel noticeably different; whether placebo or real, they are helpful when trying to bridge gaps or respond to sudden accelerations. I do realize this is RBW Owners Bunch, and given Rivendell is about the Unracer, none of these perceived advantages may apply. But I reiterate that they feel markedly different and perhaps feeling alone can contribute to the joy of cycling, whatever the speed.

I do agree that tires (and equally important, proper tire pressure) are more bang-for-buck than wheels (because we're talking about hundreds vs. thousands). However, tires are consumables, and once you get hooked on good tires, it's hard to go back to "commuters" so you'll have an expensive ongoing expense. I offer this tongue-in-cheek warning, as someone who only rides Rene Herse or even more supple tires nowadays. 😉

[Steve]

I've been an advocate for - and spent a few bucks over the  years - on light wheel sets.  Lately I've moved toward a bit of a contrarian view based on the notion that wheels and tires with a bit more heft, once you've spun them up to cruising speed, store more rotational kinetic energy in compared to lighter ones.  Granted, that's not really a benefit when it comes to long climbs at slower speeds, nor if you're looking for quick acceleration, but when it comes to cruising along at a fairly steady output staying on top of a comfortable gear at a comfortable cadence, like Surly sez "fatties are fine".  

All this is undoubtably a reflection of how I approach cycling at this point in my riding career, but I thought I'd throw it into the conversation.

Steve in AVL

[Ted Durant]

On Sunday, June 1, 2025 at 10:09:22 PM UTC-5 brenton...@gmail.com wrote:

I'm curious about putting lighter wheels on my Roadini. Anyone running really light weight wheels? Carbon? Noticeable changes in speed/comfort/stats?

The lightest wheels I ever put on my Rivendell Road were SunTour Superbe Pro hubs, Araya titanium tubular rims, 28 spokes (straight pull on the front) and sorta light tubular tires. Eventually the ferrules started pulling through the rims on the front wheel and I had to retire them.

The wheels on that bike now are Campy Daytona hubs, pretty light FIR rims, 32 spokes, with 32mm Rene Herse extra light tires and latex tubes. Joe Young built the wheels long ago and I've never had to touch them. 

My experience was that the loss of weight was noticeable on hard accelerations, somewhat noticeable in low-speed handling, and invisible everywhere else. Comfort-wise, 32mm extra light clinchers with latex tubes vs not-especially-well-glued-on-tubulars is like comparing my Porsche Cayenne (with air springs and adaptive shock absorbers) to my Honda S2000. 

I'm curious what carbon rims you would look at that you think would save much weight. Most carbon rims are pretty deep section, for aerodynamic benefits, and are pretty heavy as a result. Astral Veil 3 are "only" 32mm deep and weigh 410g. Velocity A23 are 450g.

Ted Durant

Milwaukee, WI USA 

[Toshi Takeuchi]

I support the comments here, which suggest trying to use a supple, lightweight tire--it will make a big difference if you are not using one now. I'm happy with my Velocity A23/quill rims.

Best of luck,

Toshi in Oakland

[Jay]

I have two wheel sets for my Roadini, H Plus Son with 43mm GKSS for mixed surface, and Dura-Ace C24 with 30mm Vittoria tires that are usually $160/tire (I got a great deal), they are amazing but likely fragile.  The bike feels 2-3 pounds lighter when I carry it up from my basement; the front wheel alone is so light it's almost silly.  I have this wheel set for road riding with my friend, who's faster than me.  I like that the C24 has an aluminum braking surface so I can run two wheel sets (I just adjust the Tektro brakes with each swap, only takes a few minutes to dial them in.  I already had these wheels from previous road bike (now retired to the indoor trainer which I ride as infrequently as possible).  They feel faster to me, but I like having both for choice of riding conditions and purpose (e.g., meandering with the GKSS).

[wpm...@gmail.com]

@ Brenton:  Maybe not as light as you are hoping to go, but I recently asked Rich Lesnick at RBW to build up the lightest alloy 650b wheel he'd be comfortable me using for local races: I love how agnostic he is about parts selection and we settled on Velocity A23 rims + White Industries T11 hubs (spokes = 28 front + 32 rear).  It shaved 400+ grams (nearly a full pound) from the "allroad" wheelset I had been using.  (In 2008, Rich built Mavic Open Pro wheels on Ultegra hubs for my Rambouillet, and those transformed the Ram from "blah" to "wow.")  But maybe there is wisdom in crowds?  Of the 1500 Gran Fondo NY riders, I was one of only a handful I spotted on alloy wheels (or rim brakes for that matter).

Will M

NYC

[Patrick Moore]

The 26”/559 bead seat diameter wheels I used on the erstwhile 2003 Curt Goodrich 1X10 custom weighed under 1550 grams the pair with Revolution spokes and alloy nipples: Sun M14A rims at ~370 grams, 8-speed Ultegra hubs, Velox rim tape, no skewers and, of course, no tires or tubes or cassette. I had no problems with the nipples even when commuting over rough pavement until I tried carrying ~40 lb rear loads; switched to brass)

Shod with top quality supple =/< 200 gram 26 X1 tires they were very light but I expect that the “feeling” of more spritely acceleration and the consistent experience of "easier to stay on a gear" and “easier to climb” was in great part due as much to the lower moment of inertia from 2 1/2" shorter wheels.

One other delightful difference is the noticeably more nimble handling with the light wheels and very light tires. The 2020 Matthews IGH road bike, a geometric clone of the 1999 gofast, felt as fast as the 1999 when shod with wonderful 28 mm 175 gram RH Elk Passes; when I installed 300 gram extra light RH Naches Passes, the bike felt noticeably more “planted,” less easy to “intuitively” change direction, and harder to get up to speed.Still very pleasant to ride, and an improvement over the 2003 Riv, but less “light” and “nimble." Imagination? Perhaps. But it’s consistent over the years and miles.

I’ve not weighed the Sun M14A + Phil fixed/fixed + Revolution/alloy nipple wheels on the 1999 but I expect that any difference is due to the Phil hubs, no lightweights.

Patrick Moore

[David Hays]

My ProWheel Builder Pacenti Bitex Wheelset weighed 1428.87g.

I have a couple sets and have had no problems.

David Hays

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgs9%2BRnHUDTS8YTsuYFXQJ2Rwc8UOMu4xubjYLN%3DAa_EKg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Patrick Moore]

I’m curious: Are the weights mentioned in this thread advertised weights or weights weighed on a scale? The 1~540 grams for my wheelset was weighed on a scale.

[Bruce Herbitter]

I ride a set of Velocity Pro Race 571 (these work both in my 26" and 650c bikes) wheels on one of my bikes.  They are aluminum but as light  (or lighter) as many carbon sets out there. Based on the A23 rim which is pretty strong. They roll more easily than the stock wheels. Comfort is really a function of the tires so they are no more or less comfortable than other wheels on the same tires. YMMV