I have recently reduced my bike collection down to 1 do it all hardtail.

Dont ride anything harsh, just light xc, and dont race or intend to.

Its a nice hardtail with topish spec stuff and 2008 fox f100 rlc forks.

My wheelset though is a set of mavic crossrides, with some panaracer fire xc wirebead tyres and tubes. The tyres are not the big logo ones, they are the small logo jobs that some ebay shops were doing cheap recently.

So the question is, would i notice a difference in weight reduction going for something like crossmax sl’s and new tyres, or should i just get the new tyres?

How much do crossmax sl’s go for, about £300? anything better as good as for less?

The mavic crossrides i have now weigh 1800 g so they’d need to be lighter than that….

kevlar tyres made a huge difference to a mate’s bike, those fire XC wirebeads are horribly heavy! and being at the greatest distance from the hub this will make the most difference to the feel of the wheels.

Hope Pro 3’s or maybe the Pro II’s with DT 4.2 rims, much better than crossrides

Light tyres ususally far better than anything else for saving weight, g/£ spent, without even getting into the benefits of rotating weight etc

Whether or not you get new wheels, new tyres would probably be worth it – Panaracer Fire XC Pro with wire bead are 700g according to Panaracer website (2.1″). Depending on the tyres you could easily reduce that to as little as 520g (e.g. Kenda Small Block 8) for the same size. Thats a big weight saving and at the most important location, the rim. Also, it would cost ~£50. I reckon this is a much better £/gram saving than you can achieve with a wheel change.

FWIW, In my opinion if you don’t race then I would think it’s not essential to have super duper light wheels, just my opinion mind.

The wirebead 2.1 firexcs are only meant to be 650g ish, the kevs are 550 – while noticable I wouldnt say massive difference. Try going from 1000g DH tyres to kevlars for a big difference 🙂 I dont know the weight of the wheels but really its only the rims and nipples you need to consider TBH, hub weight is bearly noticable other than when you come to lift it over a fence. All things relative of course. http://weightweenies.starbike.com/listings.php

You can lose another 100g per tube for not much money…

Not many tyres that grip under 500g, Specialized tyres have decent volume and light weights, Adrenalines are pretty good allround tyre, but dont bother with over 2.0 as they come in huge.

Wheels are a good way to lose weight, but you have decent hoops already, its expensive to change, do it when you have worn out the wheels you have.

If you go for a wheelset, the Hope Pro3 with Stans rims would be a better, lighter & cheaper bet than the Crossmax’s

The main issue I find with lightweight tyres is sidewall roll-over, not so much grip.

Panaracer website says 700g, and two wire Fire XC Pro’s on Weight Weenies: 670g and 710g.

Kenda Website says SB8’s are 518g

Where are you getting your figures from?

i using some Maxxis Ignitor Exception 62a 480g rear front 490g very light £25 from crc iv used them all winter roll well dont hold mud good on wet rocks and routes.iv used panaracer pro there ok dont roll as good as igniters not as light.i remember gettin pro for the weight 550g it said got home put them on the scale sad i no but they came in at 600g 630g big jump from 550g..

Lighter tyres will help alot and light rims (esp stans) in equal measure. I wouldn’t bother with bling hubs personally, the weight saving there is marginal and not as effective as at the rim.

Buy some Maxxis flyweight tubes (90g each) and are as strong as anything else available.

Slap one some Schwalbe RR’s or Maxxis Crossmarks or 485’s and that should get you going.
If you want more you will need new wheels, Mavic SL’s are a nice strong wheel + they are tubeless so you have options to swap at a later date.

Personally i have Sl’s but run them with tubes as the whole tubeless thing is a load of balls…….you cant beat light tubes and good light XC tyres.

However if i were to spend that money again id have Olympic’s on American classic hubs (built to my spec).

I agree about the lighter tyres. The Fire XCs you have are, I think, a lower grade that those normally available in the shops and probably even heavier than the quoted weights. There’s a lot of good XC tyres around for 450-550g. SB8s are great for the dry. Have a look at conti mountain king supersonics. the 2.2 is about 460g and the 2.4 is 560g.

Having tried lightweight tubes, I think they’re a step too far. I used the Continental ones, the “Light”, not the “supersonics”. I just punctured all the time and gave up on them.

£250 wheels (Hope pro2s with 717s say) will probably weigh about 1600-1700g, so not a massive saving for the money. You’d have to spend quite a lot more to get below say 1400g.

cheers all!

really useful

what tyre thread coming up…