I switch between small, very light and lightly shod wheels and quite heavy (both tires and wheels) 700c wheels and such a difference as described ought to be very apparent given the difference in these wheelsets. But I don't find the smaller wheels slower at all; in fact, on level ground (where overall bike weight ought to have little effect) I routinely maintain higher speeds on the small wheel bikes than on the big wheel bikes. I can indeed notice a different feel, but in practical terms the small and light wheels don't slow me down.
Also, Jan's idea that smaller wheels ought to have fatter tires for the best handling compared to larger wheels has not been true in my experience. Again, I can tell that 22 mm, 190 gram Turbos make a 26" wheel bike quicker to respond on the front end than, say, 32 mm Paselas ar 35 mm Tioga City Slickers, but the handling of my two later Rivs, designed with slacker heads and very long stays, has always been impeccable compared to whatever else I've ridden -- and I've ridden some nice bikes beside the Rivs, too. The first 26" wheel custom did feel better with 32 mm tires than with 22 mm tires, but that also was not as well designed as #s 2 and 3 and had a steeper head and a more forward weight bias thanks to the short 42.5 cm stays (the others have stays 2 cm longer). Overall, do small wheels make a huge difference to bigger wheels? After all is said and done, no. I can certainly feel the difference but a nice, light 700c wheelset shod with light, supple and fast tires would in terms of the clock be just as fast overall, even if the small wheels might have a small, perhaps even merely theoretical, advantage on climbs. (Note: the original 8-sp era Ultegra/SunM14A/32 g Revolution wheelset I had first built for #2 weighed 1550 grams complete -- 675 front, 875 rear -- with Velox, sans tires, tube, skewers and cassette. The Turbos weigh 190 grams new.) On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 1:42 PM, cyclotour...@gmail.com <cyclotour...@gmail.com> wrote: > Would it be good to have approximately the same wheel mass as your > 700C friends. If you go lighter you would have less inertia and have > to spin more to keep up. Heavier and acceleration would be slower. > Long way of saying maybe you could have too light a wheelset??? > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
