All about wheels and tyres

[Arrowfoot]

As a cycling community most of us tend to focus on frames and the drivetrain components. So much so that bike brands have more or less moved to provide similar specs for the various price bands. The wheels and tyres however are pretty much stock and entry level grades except for the top range.

As a moving contraption, once you are in particular gear combination, the wheels and tyres make all the difference. Yet it is the part that most of us leave unchanged except for a discerning few.

1. Invest in a decent set of wheels. There are lot of bargains out there ranging from Fulcrum to the Mavics. Even a £204 Mavic Aksium from Merlin is a big jump from the stock wheels.
2. Consider hand-built especially if you are on the heavier side. Wheel builders specify the components and they are nearly always top range stuff. You can also specify the build components. Starts from £300
3. For tyres, look for TPI of least 150. These are light, about 225grams, have reduced rolling resistance and typically comes with puncture protection kevlar strip or similar. Vittorio Rubino Pro is a great tyre that currently is on offer at £16. Don't get stuck on tyres that sell on puncture protection alone. Its the ride and the effort to propel that is key. Unless you are into racing, 25c tyre pumped to 100psi will give you decent rides.
4. Don't flog your stock tyres and wheels yet. Keep it to compare with your new wheels and tyres as well as an emergency spare, and when the time comes to flog your bike for the next upgrade.

 

[classic33]

£45 a corner and other than heavy duty inner tubes there's nowt special. Wheel replacement would be around £70 per corner

 

[Tim Hall]

What makes Mavic Aksiums, to take an example at random, better than "stock" wheels?

 

[Shaun]

Discerning you say? I upgraded the stock wheels and tyres on my Sirrus.

 

[the snail]

Or buy a spoke key and make sure your stock wheels are correctly tensioned and true, and ride them until they break or wear out, and ride the stock tyres till they wear out or you get bored fixing punctures.

 

[outlash]

So that bike I was looking at that comes with Krysiums would be much better with a set of Askiums on?

 

[MichaelW2]

Make sure that replacement spokes are available for your wheel if you are choosing a proprietary style of straight-pull spoke design.

 

[Globalti]

So that bike I was looking at that comes with Krysiums would be much better with a set of Askiums on?

No. Ksyriums are higher up the hierarchy than Aksiums. Good quality wheels are made from stronger materials meaning less of that material can be used while cutting weight and maintaining strength and stiffness. The old adage that you can have strong, cheap and light but only two of those at any one time is truer than ever with wheels. My son and my cycling buddy bought some Superstar wheels, which were cheap and super-lightweight but in the long term they proved to be disappointingly weak. My super lightweight and stiff Mavic Ksyrium SLs came almost new from someone on here for £500, reduced from £700 new and they have given me five years of faultless service and are still as true as the day they were built.

 

[outlash]

No. Ksyriums are higher up the hierarchy than Aksiums. Good quality wheels are made from stronger materials meaning less of that material can be used while cutting weight and maintaining strength and stiffness. The old adage that you can have strong, cheap and light but only two of those at any one time is truer than ever with wheels. My son and my cycling buddy bought some Superstar wheels, which were cheap and super-lightweight but in the long term they proved to be disappointingly weak. My super lightweight and stiff Mavic Ksyrium SLs came almost new from someone on here for £500, reduced from £700 new and they have given me five years of faultless service and are still as true as the day they were built.

Someone's missed the sarcasm boat this morning....

 

[MrGrumpy]

Stock wheels normally if buying new and say below that magic C2W level of £1k are usually poor, start going above that and the wheels will be better, lighter and no doubt stronger. Thats my experience of buying bikes from new. Best upgrade you can probably make to a bike is swapping out for stronger lighter wheels, they will make a difference to how the bike handles and accelerates. Again my experience , however as mentioned above, pick two, cheap, light and strong.

 

[Globalti]

Light and strong every time but they will be expensive. Pair some good wheels with good tyres with a tpi of 240, for example Vittoria or Veloflex open Corsas. The result is super climbing and handling and a smooth ride. Okay so a lightweight tyre may not be as durable as a heavy-duty commuter but I'm prepared to suffer a couple of extra punctures in exchange for light weight, superb grip and comfort.

 

[Citius]

ok - let's take some of these in order...

As a moving contraption, once you are in particular gear combination, the wheels and tyres make all the difference.

All the difference to what? Once the 'contraption' is moving, wheels and tyres actually make the least difference to your speed, thanks to Newton's laws of motion and the conservation of momentum. Tyre choice and tyre pressure will affect ride quality though.

Even a £204 Mavic Aksium from Merlin is a big jump from the stock wheels.

What are the 'stock' wheels? Completely unfounded statement. For instance, what if the stock wheels are Mavic Aksiums already?

For tyres, look for TPI of least 150. These are light, about 225grams,

TPI does not define a tyre's weight. And to categorise 150 TPI tyres as having a universal weight of 225g is nonsense.

 

[Tim Hall]

<place holder for @Yellow Saddle >

 

[Yellow Saddle]

<place holder for @Yellow Saddle >

Hmmmm. I had a look at this and it reminded me of the infamous Everything You Need to Know about Bicycle Lubrciation (or some such) thread not so long ago. The difference is that there we had a novice and here we have a veteran who should have predicted the response. I thought this was a kinda pointless exercise and @Citius has done a sterling job.

I could add that a "Kevlar strip" is non entity because Kevlar is a fibre, not a mouldable plastic and any puncture resistance device (usually just a piece of PVC) always increases rolling resistance by a factor of much and putting puncture resistance on a 150TPI-plus tyre is like putting tread plate reinforcement on an ultra thin condom, but I won't mention it.

But thanks for thinking of me.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Stock wheels normally if buying new and say below that magic C2W level of £1k are usually poor, start going above that and the wheels will be better, lighter and no doubt stronger. Thats my experience of buying bikes from new. Best upgrade you can probably make to a bike is swapping out for stronger lighter wheels, they will make a difference to how the bike handles and accelerates. Again my experience , however as mentioned above, pick two, cheap, light and strong.

Interesting.
You say your experience is that lighter wheels in the high class catergory are stronger. How did you ascertain that?
How do these wheels make a difference in handling and accelerating? I'm particularly interested in the handling aspect? Any pointers for me?
You say this is all from experience. Could you be specific about these qualities that you experienced?