Please educate me on wheelsets. I have read that the best upgrade a person can do to a bike is to upgrade the wheelset. OK, but with what?

Does anyone have a link to an article that explains what to look for in wheels and what a customer might expect as they go up in price for wheels? And what difference they might experience with better wheels? There are a lot of advertisements but no simple chart. Does one exist? I am hoping to find something like the chart that shows the various levels of Shimano components. Also, a lot is produced about road bike wheels, but are there any singnificant differences in hybrid wheels?

Thanks for any help. Searched for previous posts on this topic. If I missed something, I apologize.

You can read about a lot of things that might be the best....

It seems the consensus here is tires first.

I only conditionally agree with the wheel upgrade advice.

For lower/mid level wheels, I would only buy to replace damaged wheels.

For upper level wheels, I would only buy if racing.

Personally, I'd do tires, bar tape, saddle, shoes and pedals, before wheels.

"Wheels are the best upgrade" probably originated as marketing nonsense from a wheel manufacturer.

What wheels do you have now?

Tires can get you a lot more speed than wheels, depending what you have now. If you don't *love* your saddle, pedals, or bar tape, change those things first.

"Upgrading wheels" usually means "buying lighter wheels". It takes less energy to spin a lighter wheel up to speed, and if you're racing, that could translate to quicker acceleration (in theory). If you're not racing, though, and if your current wheelset isn't extraordinarily heavy, upgrading your wheelset probably isn't a cost-effective upgrade.

Tires, on the other hand... Now there's somewhere you can potentially make a big upgrade without spending a fortune.

Lighter
Stronger
Cheaper


Choose two (at most).

I'll disagree. On bikes that I put a decent wheelset on where it only had wheels with cheap hubs, I was pleasantly surprised at how much better the bike rolled.

C'mon help the OP out and give some pointers to better/worse wheels.

-SP

And if it's not "buttery smooth"... The idea on lighter wheels is that spinning components on bikes, drivetrain, take less effort the lighter they are.

I don't know of any articles but when I upgraded wheels on both my road and mtb, I couldn't believe the performance difference--faster spin-up from a dead start, quicker acceleration while already moving, easier climbing and better tracking in turns. I could also feel the wheels' stiffness transfer more power into forward movement vs feeling flexy.

If you have the funds, wheels are most biggest performance upgrade--they are probably the most expensive upgrade as well. Removing weight from a bike is relative--static weight like saddles, bars, etc. only do so much to help. Rotating mass, however, has much more impact. My engineer friend told me that rotating mass is 3x more than static mass. That is, remove a 1/2 pound off a wheel's static weight (also influenced by tire weight/tread) translates to 1.5 pounds removed from rotating mass, if that makes sense. (BTW, I'm not looking to get into an argument with other engineer-types here--that's just what he told me).

You can start by finding out what your wheelset weighs and how it compares to others you want to upgrade to. Generally, YGWYPF--the higher the price, the lighter, stiffer, the wheels. You should be aware that carbon wheels are typically stiffer than alloys due to the material. Spoke patterns also influence ride quality. I hope this helps some.

I bought custom wheels for my bike after riding the stock set for some months. The new wheels saved about 1 1/2 pounds. Of course, I might saved the same amount of weight by forgoing the last two slices of pizza. High quality wheels means a high price and and lighter weight and weight will be important for racing.

All Around Wheelset Hierarchy for Road Bike This link has a list of wheel sets and will get you started in evaluating some choices. There are many other choices and some wheel builders post on bike forums. Some wheel sets cost way more than my bike did.

practical, Actually gearing is the best bang for the buck item that one can do. Look to better tires before a wheel set.

Unless there is a problem with your current wheel set, keep what you have. Competitive riders, road and mountain bike, look for acceleration a lighter wheel set affords. Tourists, tandem, and utility bike riders look primarily for strength. Recreational riders generally need wheels that stay true and don't break spokes.

Brad

I think I go the other direction from many of you. Barring some really bad/corrupted hubs and/or super cheap heavy rims/tires, I don't see that much difference between cheap-ish (but well adjusted and maintained) wheels, and expensive wheels --beyond simple weight differences. Friction losses shouldn't be that different. And if you don't race, I would consider super expensive feather weight wheels to be a big waste of money. If you are touring or doing casual riding, then durable and comfortable is way more important than super race worthy. I'd get supple casing, larger tires and then service the hub bearings and races so they are very smooth. (Again, --unless your current wheels are really terrible junk)

Thanks - just what I was looking for. Do you know of a similar hierarchy chart for tires?

Wheels are a good place to upgrade for two reasons:
1-Weight savings on the wheel will have a bigger impact on how the bike rides than similar savings on other areas of the bike, and many bikes skimp on wheels, so there's lots of room for improvement.
2-Wheels are more significant for aero drag than basically anything else on the bike other than you. As you start to get over 20mph, good aero wheels can have a noticeable effect on the amount of effort required to maintain a certain speed.

Aero wheels attempt to be aero by using a rim shape that allows airflow to smoothly come together as it leaves the back of the rim. Taking advantage of this requires matching your tire width to the rim width, so that the tire and rim together form a nice smooth streamlined shape.
(Aero is also the main reason for some wheels having very low spoke counts. People sometimes think it's a weight-saving measure, but this is sort of backwards; using fewer spokes means the rim has to be stronger and stiffer, which can actually increase the total weight of the wheel despite the smaller number of spokes.)

In terms of acceleration, mass at the rim has double the effect of static mass. Suppose you want to bring a bike from 0mph to 10mph. The frame simply needs to be brought up to 10mph. But for a rim, not only does the rim have to be brought to 10mph in the forward direction, it also has to be made to spin at 10mph around the hub.

In terms of climbing, mass is mass; gravity doesn't care whether it's spinning.

I have no idea how someone could come up with "3x."

1. Continental GP4000S
2. Everything else


....just kidding. But the GP4000S are a good mix of lightweight, smooth riding, grippy, reasonable puncture protection, and long mileage. They get a lot of recommendations on BF.

There are even lighter tires, probably optimized for racing, with super grip, but less mileage before wearing down.
And there are more puncture resistant tires, but at the cost of more rolling resistance.

Sorry, no time for a game of twenty questions just now but whether or not there even exists a wheel "upgrade" for you/your bike depends on several factors including:
your weight
your fitness
your riding style
your riding purposes
your bike
your bike's wheels
how fast you ride
how far you ride
the surfaces over which you ride
the terrain over which you ride
and some other things

HTH

Essentially impossible for us to do given the limited information. A fancy race wheelset is going to be "worse" than a nice 32x3 in pretty much any situation other than high level racing. More expensive, less durable, and built from proprietary parts that are difficult or impossible to source/fix/replace when they break (and they will break eventually.) All for marginal weight and aero gains.

If this bike is used for touring, commuting, casual riding, or anything off pavement a race wheelset is totally inappropriate.

Herein lies the problem with trying to answer the question as posed. I suspect the OP is looking for quick acceleration and sporty feel, but I have no way of knowing whether or not he's willing to accept any tradeoffs that may bring. Some of the qualities sought after in wheels are diametrically opposed. Beyond the "cheap, strong, light" compromise, there are things like stiff vs. compliant that might both be desirable qualities in the right circumstances but which don't really go together at all.

I've probably repeated the "upgrade your wheels" advice at some point, and building new wheels is often one of the first things I do for a bike I've just bought, but I don't always notice a significant difference in ride feel between my "upgraded" wheels and whatever they're replacing. Even on the occasions when it has made a big difference I haven't been entirely sure what made the difference.

It's worth noting that I don't typically spend much more than $300 for wheels. At that price point, you're probably saving 200 grams or less and if it's more than that it's often because you got an aluminum freehub or fewer spokes, both of which work against what I want from my wheels in terms of durability. For around $300 I'm fairly certain that the primary thing to be gained by upgrading the wheels is reliability.

For tires, I agree...GP4000S and everything else. In a pinch I'm also happy with the GP 4 Seasons. If I'm going to be riding in winter road mess, Schwalbe Marathon Supremes but at that point the drop off in performance is pretty noticeable.

^^^^
That.

My take is that manufactures will skimp on wheels and tires to bring a bike under a specific price point. Some do it knowing that buyers of that particular price point/model will change tires and wheels first.

Even with that you get half the people who will SWEAR BY by and the other half that SWEAR AT any particular wheel or tire.

Consensus? On BF? LOL

Any large benefit from a wheel upgrade is almost entirely psychological. Weight differences are significant mainly when accelerating and climbing, and even then many people forget to include the rider when assessing the impact of weight savings. Saving a huge 1.5 lbs on a 20 lb bike (7.5%) sound great until you add a 180 lb rider, which changes it to .75%. Even that does NOT save you .75% of your energy, as wind resistance is a much higher factor. If your riding consists of a 1/2 hour climb followed by a bus ride back down the hill, or you live in a 4 story walkup then by all means buy lighter wheels before you do any other upgrade.

When I bought my bike I put my money into tires (stock ones were heavier duty than I needed) and then stem, handlebars, and saddle (because comfort and fit have a big effect on efficiency and endurance).

As for resources to learn more, just hang out here or simply use Google. Bicycle wheel recommendation seems to bring up a mix of specific recommendations and general information, or just do bicycle wheel.

I've said many times that much of the time spent on this forum obsessing about how to make one's bike faster/better would be more profitably spent on the bike.

I'll respectfully disagree with this point, for aggressive road bike riding anyway. Changing from a 2,000g wheelset to a readily available and affordable 1,500g wheelset shaves a pound off your rotating mass and is definitely noticeable when accelerating. There can be side effects though, like ride harshness and "feel" so it's not always about less rotating mass.

To the OP, you mention hybrid wheels... as in for a hybrid bike? If you have a hybrid-ish bike for which you are pondering this upgrade, I'll side with those who are telling you to stick with the wheels you already have.

How big a difference did the lighter wheels make for you?

Tubs.

scott s.
.

To be clear, my new wheels are lighter than stock wheels, but that is not why I made that switch. I have,as many others do, a bad back and I'm always looking for ways to reduce back strain. The new wheels have a Velocity A23 wide rim. Mt thinking was a plumper tire would provide a softer ride.