Light Wheels make you go Faster

By Alastair Hamilton
© copyright by bikecyclingreviews.com

Van Sharp has written in to us passing on some very important information about bike wheels. He has also sent us some photos of his new bike and wheels, he has good taste in bikes and he knows his wheels, so we have pleasure in showing you his choice of weapons

Question:
There is saying in cycling, the lighter the mass of rolling weight or the wheel set the faster a cyclist can go. Here's is my experience. I once had a flat bar (Sirrus Pro) with a set of Zipp 404's and I was able to get speeds up to 30mph in sprints. However in costing down descents I rarely got to 30mile on the wheel set. I now have a race bike, the s-works specialize tarmac SL, with the rival wheel set. I can get speeds up to 28 or so in sprints but when I coast down descents, this bike will get unbelievable speeds, well past 30.Long story short, I will put a set of Bontranger xxx superlights on this bike and I will see can I take it up to speeds of 38 to 40 miles on the flats. You can see a picture of my new bike below and my future wheel set also.

Bontrager XXX SL Wheels

Hi Van Sharp,

Nice bike and thanks for sending in the photos. You are right about the weight saving on the wheels being the most important thing you can do to improve the ride of your bike. Heavy wheels are hard to get started and to keep moving, the weight of the frame is important, but the a few grams here or there won't make as much difference as lighter wheels. We hope you all like Van's bike and wheels? And his advice.

S-Works Tarmac

Comment Script

Comments

moment of inertia

heavy wheels are marginally harder to get started, but actually easier to keep rolling you need to do some work on your facts

#1 - fact checker - 04/03/2008 - 13:14


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