Anyone Weigh Their Vintage Wheelsets?
 

I'm not trying to go weight weeny, just curious as to the weight of the wheels on this '89 Technium. They are Rigida 700c alloy 36 spoke wheels.

The skewers/QR's are relatively heavy, this is what is noticeable.

Age and wearing
 

Jan Hiene of "Off the Beaten Track" did some tests on weight of rims after use . Revolving weight , tire size and pressure are critical for us old guys Comfort rules over weight !

I'm only 54 and still riding 23's :D

the wheels on a 1985 trek 510 i had were pretty light. they were rigida and helocomatic. didn't weigh them though.

I didn't weigh them after I built them up with (not the lightest) straight 14 gauge spokes and Rally Tubulars, but the wheels on my Motobecane LeChampion are still very light, due to the Fiamme Ergal weighing only 9.9 oz's (280 grams) each. (...Thanks again to Rootboy for providing them.)

If you are serious about weenifying your bike, Wheelset-wise, It's best to try out tubular rims and tires. One thing I noticed about going weenie with clinchers, the narrower and lighter you go with the rims and tires, the more the ride quality seems to get harsh. Most basic tubular setups are as good or usually much better than the best clinchers you can get. So weight and ride quality will usually be on the plus side compared to clinchers.
For example, My ultralight 32H clincher (Can't remember the rim brand but I think it was the lightest and narrowest that Rigida made) wheelset with very light and narrow Hutchinson Atom tires feel like bone shakers compared to my 32H 330GL/Vittoria Rally tubs. they weigh close to the same, with the tubs just slightly lighter, but the tubs, even with the cheapy tires feel so much better in terms of ride quality. My other tubular wheelsets with nicer tires feel even better.

Chombi

"An ounce off the wheels is worth two off the rest of the bike."

Old Weenie maxim.

I have a set of Torelli Master Series laced with 36 spokes DT Revolution spokes on the front and 36 DT competition spokes on the rear all connected to Suntour Superbe hubs. The rims weigh a total of 1580 grams including the rear cluster which wheelsets sold are never weighed with the cluster.

Sub 1,500 grams for a wheel set should be pretty easy to do, and with tubulars even easier.
Now the weight of that freewheel.... the difference between a 14-21 and a 14-28 is significant.
In general, old wheels most often weigh less until one compares to carbon stuff.

That's pretty light.

In gearhead terms (auto) that's what we call unsprung weight. Good to keep it at a minimum when you can.

When changing out tires on both roadies this spring from Bontrager 25's to Michelin Krylion foldable 23's....wow.

Forgot to say thanx!

http://janheine.wordpress.com/author/janheine/

just happen to have some info handy

36H Mavic argent 10 rims = 325.5 g x 2 = 651g
Campy record hubs w/ skewers = 530g
DT Revolution 2.0/1.5 spokes = 390g
Marchisio alloy freewheel = 265g
WOLBER 290 tyres = 580g
total = 2416g

the campy skewers weigh A LOT- this could be changed if I want to go with modern skewers

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...s/IMG_6544.jpg

Excellent. Thank you :thumb:

Vintage wheelsets w/ 32 or 36 spokes/wheel often have a lower moment of inertia (what really counts during acceleration, and the basis for the "ounce off the rims or tires is worth two off anywhere else" axiom) than modern reduced-spoke-count wheelsets, whose sole benefit is reduced aerodynamic turbulence. Contrary to current fashion, the average bicyclist is far better off w/ more spokes per wheel, rather than fewer.

I just got a pair of chinese made 28" single speed wheels for my Raleigh Tourist.
17 pounds.

This is very true. But I think there are some modern light and aero rims on the market with higher spoke counts. Kinlin XR270 comes to mind as one really nice compromise between weight and aerodynamics, and their spoke count is as high as 32. See this build up: http://www.prowheelbuilder.com/cw/?step=review

Actually, I have read it is more like 9:1

In other words, nobody has weighed them.

^ It took 20 posts, but someone answered the question ;)

When my ex left, she took everything she could move in 12 hours and that included the bathroom scale; I'm planning on getting a good digital scale this week and will report back the all-up weight of my newly-acquired Mavic SSC tubular wheelset.

DD

I've weighed a couple. The results were disheartening, however. IIRC, my 36 hole 3-cross Nisi/Record/Sachs 7-speed 13-24 rear wheel alone was around 1500g with 22mm sewup on.

I'd be afraid to weigh mine. One of the first things I noticed when I unpacked my bike this week was how heavy the wheels felt in comparison to my more modern road bikes.

Unlike the frame and most of the rest of the bike, there is another property of wheels that matters in addition to mass, which is moment of inertia, as someone mentioned above. Because moment of inertia is partially a function of mass, that leads to the various axioms about the relative importance of wheel mass to overall mass. In fact, considering only steady speed riding, for a moment, whether on a flat, or uphill, or downhill, the mass of the wheels is no more or less important than the mass of the rest of the bike.
However, when accelerating or decelerating, the wheels' moment of inertia becomes important. Because of moment of inertia, when accelerating or decelerating, an ounce of mass in the rim or tire requires as much effort to accelerate or decelerate as 4 ounces of mass in a non-rotating component. An ounce in the spokes, on the other hand, since their mass is distributed from the hub to the rim, is equivalent to about 2 ounces in an non-rotating component, again, only when accelerating or decelerating. And the hubs, since their mass is concentrated near the centre, make a minimal contribution to the moment of inertia, and might as well be considered non-rotating, as far as their effect on acceleration and deceleration are concerned.

Why I see so many racers training on low spoke count wheels is truly amazing.
I would want 32's as they are easy to locate and just feel that much faster on my race wheels.