horatio 

Would this be noticeable when climbing? Search did not yield anything.

horatio 

Sorry for the typo. Should read "wheelset weight."

Creatre

Yes, I've been riding with a heavier wheelset this week and it's been pretty noticeable.

lwrncc

You're not doing it right, try searching this phrase in google:

site:bikeforums.net wheel weight climbing lighter

johnny99

Try climbing the same hill with and without a full water bottle. Losing a pound of your wheels will feel about the same.

WhyFi

Maybe if you lose one pound all in your hubs, but I'm thinking that rotational weight (rims, tires, tubes) is a little different.

horatio 

Yeah. Guess I was being lazy. I did turn up this after using your search parameters:

johnny99

Only a little.

rpeterson

No, it's not noticeable, except in your mind, but that's not because of physics.

urbanknight

Honestly, you probably won't. I did drop almost a full pound in wheel weight (1800g to 1375g) and often forgot I had the new wheels. 1 pound is only about 0.5% of the total weight you're moving.


That really only makes a difference when accelerating, and even then, it's tiny.

mrvile

I went from a 2400g wheelset to a 1600g wheelset and the difference is huge. Of course, my loss was almost 2 full pounds...

WhyFi

I was looking for a post, but I can't seem to find it. Someone did a climbing comparison test with a bare bike (as a base) vs full water bottles vs water weight in the tubes/tires and the difference between the weight in the tube/tires was significantly more than the weight in the bottle. No, it wasn't exactly blind testing, but it was interesting none the less.

M_FactorX19

yes you will notice a small difference but it still will not make climbing any easier nor will it make you climb dramatically faster either.

Inertianinja

When you're talking about weight, lighter weight means less gravitational force to overcome, which makes climbing easier. Ignore the people who say "travel with less water" since that's obviously idiotic.

Rotational MASS is associated with inertia. Shaving grams would make it easier to accellerate and maintain speed.

BeeSeeBee

You're probably thinking of this test: https://djconnel.blogspot.com/2010/08...f-mass-on.html

The problem with that, as mentioned by Dan, is that the sloshing about of the water in the tubes is going to create a bunch of friction and increase the rolling resistance. That being said, the difference was only 27 seconds over ~52 minutes.


Also a mathematical analysis that concludes mass = mass regardless of it's distribution. https://weightweenies.starbike.com/fo...p=60824#p60824


And here's Dan's analysis of just how utterly unimportant rotational inertia is. https://djconnel.blogspot.com/2010/07...g-formula.html

fishymamba

I don't mean to hi jack this thread but:
Are aero wheels better than light wheels? (On flat land)

If weight does not do much is it better to just get heavier aero wheels?

JTGraphics

Will you fill it maybe maybe not depends on how sensitive you are to changes.
As for me I do tend to notice slight changes, what I notice of light wheels is when climbing long hills it may be slightly faster if at all but when you get to the top your energy level isn't spent with the same effort with the heaver wheels.
Acceleration is better if the lighter wheels are stiff so that depends on the quality of the wheels, light can be good or bad.

horatio 

I can accept the placebo effect if it's cost-effective. I mean, who wouldn't benefit if there's a psychological advantage.

If the difference in energy requirements for heavier vs lighter wheels is really a fraction of a watt, then why build light wheels at all? Marketing and higher profits?

jamesdak 

I honestly don't know what to think. I am working on my climbing ability this year and have ridden a local mountain with a couple of my bikes. My lightest bike is a CF frame with a 1580 gram wheelset on them. It has a compact double and I've yet to make it more than about 2 1/2 miles up the mountain. Yet my steel frame bike which weighs around 4 lbs heavier and had a wheelset on it the other day of around 2200 grams got me all 8 miles or so up the mountain the other day. It's using a triple crank and I'm using the granny gear a lot to keep going. Then last night I put a 1800 gram wheelset on it and attacked the mountain again today. Made it the whole way but it seemed harder. I should mention that the average grade up the mountain is 8%.

The other day I made the ride up in the evening and was well-fed during the day. Today I went up around 10 am after having just 2 cups of coffee, a roll with jelly and butter and about 6 ozs of water. I'm sure that's way today's ride sucked.

So to me many factors will affect how you climb. I will state though that I can feel the weight difference in the two bikes. Mostly when I stand and pedal but also when I sit. I normally will drop two gears to stand and pedal then when I sit I run the same gear for a few stroke, shift once and pedal awhile, and then shift into the final gear and crank along. I can pedal longer on the lighter bike before needing the granny gear and dropping my heals helps me accelerate better on the steep climbs with the lighter bike.

All this said, once I get my weight under 170 I will be dropping some cash on some Soul 2.0s or equivalent for the days I have a lot of climbing to do. Less weight may not get me faster but I'm sure it helps conserve energy.

Carbon Unit

This is good to know. I am planning on upgarding my groupset this summer and have been kicking around spending more money for Record instead of Chorus. Which ever group I bought, I would put a Chorus cassette on it because ti wears out too quickly. When taking the cassette out of the equasion, there is only about 100 grams savings with Record for probably $400. I like the bling of the Record better but it it worth $400 more?

lwrncc

Interesting quote by the author of the blog posted above:

"...all that is actually "rotating" with any inertial consequence is rims, tire, tube, and rim strip, and even there, total mass is still more important (2 grams on the frame is still significantly worse than 1 gram on the rim)."

WhyFi

Interesting. I'm also curious about other characteristics beyond acceleration, too, and I wonder if anyone has any input. When I switched to a significantly lighter front wheel, I noticed a very real difference, not in "spinning up," but in handling - to some extent, bikes fight to stay upright, but it seemed less so after the swap; less sluggish, more flickable, if you will. Now, the new wheel is stiffer, lighter and it's wider (19mm vs 23mm). I don't know how much of the handling I can attribute to each of these characteristics, but it makes sense to me that less rotating mass would mean less gyroscopic fight to stay upright which could translate in to faster, easier turning transitions... anyone have some numbers to pull out of their keisters?

urbanknight

Because it sounds more impressive to say "I have a sub 3 lb wheelset" than it does to say "My aero wheels save me 3 watts when I ride above 20 mph... theoretically".

urbanknight

Aero benefits decline as you go slower, so I figure I'm so slow that weight more important

But seriously, yes, aero wheels are generally a better choice in most applications.

Inertianinja

Are you really saying that weight makes no difference?