Help!- overweight wheels where do I save the weight?

@damo2576:
just installed some hope factory wheels: flows on pro 2’s, 20mm front, 12×135 rear. Front 864g with hope rimstrip, rear 977 no rimstrip.

Cheers, I have some pro2’s on 819s and I think they were 1900g. So perhaps 200g in it.

Chances are the OP’s ‘fast as he likes’ isn’t fast enough to require heavy duty rims, at least according to his description.

I’m 90kg and I ride very light rims quite fast down hills, and I have never broken or bent a rim on a trail in 20 years. But then I’m not attacking the likes of Ft Bill balls-out.

I’d agree with this, I’m about the same wieght as the OP, clumsy as hell and I ride on DT240 hubs, DT4.1 rims with DT Aero spokes week in week out and I’ve broken 1 spoke in 5 years. I don’t think tacoing a wheen would make me up the weight /strength either to be honest, sometimes it just happens.

I think most people are nowhere near as hardcore as they might think, and a well built wheel is pretty damn strong regardless of components.

Damo, Hope quote 1886gms, so pretty much what paulp quotes, so by my maths maybe 20-50gms in it. that’s assuming the same axle standards of your frame/forks.

Mavic’s weights are often “optimistic” so take that with a pinch of salt, I’d take GW’s word over them on this tbh.

Oh, I don’t know, they seem pretty close to me. Just literally received a ProII rear hub with 321 rim and DT spokes from the Classifieds (Thanks Rob) and I was quite pleased to see it came in at 1090g (QR) compared to my old ProII/Flow/DT wheel at 997g (Both weighed on the same digital scales)…the Flow rim is supposed to be 470g, the 321 570g so 93g difference is fairly spot on.

Personally I’d be looking at tyres way before considering new wheels.

Mmm, I dunno about that, most people would say they like to hit the downhills as fast as they can, doesn’t mean we’re all downhill racers

missing the point as usual 🙄 (no doubt it’ll be my poor comunication skills again? 😉 )
Have you ever been to a DH race? there are some pretty slow, not particularly great riders that race but I’ll bet they’re trying to go as fast as they can too.
DH racing is just 300 people getting topgether to try and “hit the downhill as fast as they can” but done as safely as possible with timed results to show for it.

American Classic hubs weigh 130gms and 225 gms

That front one would be a QR though, not 20mm.

That front one would be a QR though, not 20mm.

yeah, that’s why I quoted “all QR, 6 bolt disc” at the end, besides the OP says his wheel hubs are currently Hope XC, so it’s fair to assume he wants QR. The AC 20mm front is 216gms, for the record.

DH racing is just 300 people getting topgether to try and “hit the downhill as fast as they can” but done as safely as possible with timed results to show for it

Thanks for that explanation, I did wonder how it worked 🙂

DH racing often seems to include more severe terrain hit harder and faster than XC riding though, that’s fair to say isn’t it?

I’ve been thinking that my Saint hubbed rear 321 wheel has been overill for my needs recently and it’s bloody heavy.

Then I put on my alex whatever they are rims on my Wanga for pottering about on and found out how out of true they are and that was before I got the confidence up to do smallish jumps and bounce down hill faster than before.

Saint hubs and 321’s are still true.

Quirrel – most of a wheel’s strength is in the building. Badly build wheels will buckle however good of a rider you are.

Fact remains – you can be quick and heavy and not break wheels.

Quirrel – most of a wheel’s strength is in the building. Badly build wheels will buckle however good of a rider you are.

Which makes sense that the saint 321 is made better than my dp21’s off somebody elses bike.

Plus spokes get loose over time too, esp if it’s poorly built but still even if it’s well built.

molgrips – Member

DH racing often seems to include more severe terrain hit harder and faster than XC riding though, that’s fair to say isn’t it? Depends where and what you ride on your XC rides ;).. and Most UK DH race tracks can easily be incorporated into a decent XC loop. DH races also have many more safety measures than you’d find riding XC outwith a race such as course padding, crash netting, signs and tapes to mark the course, marshalls to control safety and first aid on call for when it goes wrong. There are only a couple of DH tracks I can think of in the UK that I don’t think I’d enjoy too much on an XC bike but even those tracks have nutters racing hardtails down them at DH events.

but even those tracks have nutters racing hardtails down them at DH events

Usually quicker 🙂

Uh? 😕

I have a Mavic D521 rim which is 585g.

With a Deore M525 hub and plain spokes it weighs a meaty 1,340 grams.

Compare/contrast with WTB LaserLite hub, DB spokes and X317D at 863g.

PaulD.

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GW – Member

“missing the point as usual (no doubt it’ll be my poor comunication skills again? )Have you ever been to a DH race? there are some pretty slow, not particularly great riders that race but I’ll bet they’re trying to go as fast as they can too.”

I’ve raced, spectated and marshalled, yup, and when I race I’m both slow and trying to go as fast as I can. (I come down the hill faster while gathering up course tape than I do on the bike 😉 )

But I think it’s pretty obvious that when Molgrips talked about “mega dh racing” it’s not folks like me he’s talking about, it’s the competitive racers at full pace. What I do has as much in common with the top 20 as a sunday spin with the kids has in common with XC racing.

From earlier in the thread about sabrina riding on stans flows, I was just looking through the sept 2010 dirt mag and it’s got sabrina’s bike with parts list and mini interview.
Sure enough flow’s are on the list and in the pic, although the question gets asked “What parts do you break the most?” “I don’t really break stuff, I do smash wheels sometimes but not that often”
They’re still on my shopping list though.

women don’t really count

I’m pretty sure she would thoroughly kick your ass down a hill.

however good of a rider you are

gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! What’s with the ‘of’ in this sentence? What’s wrong with ‘however good a rider you are’? It’s English, after all!!

er…. carry on. 😳

(Shakespearian prose for nicko74), Thou dost hath some XC717′ on Pro2’s here, currently in yonder storage. 10mm bolt-up rear including bolts = 1010g. Front 20mm without maxle = 827g. Thine musteth be 90% helium because despite thou best (worst?) efforts these hath remained trueth & roundeth for thine last 3 years. I’m no downhill racer but I was 16st+ for most of that time, & they’ve had some right beastings.
Your best bet is to sell them on & pick up some s/h Pro2’s on lighter rims. As regards tyres, I was running 2.35 Kendas till last summer, swapping to 2.1 SmallBlock8’s saved a pound in weight & made the ride a lot lightereth.
No good in Winter though. 😀

😀