Originally Posted by
base2
Ok. So what you have is not a road bike with skinny 23 tires. I mention this because how much improvement there is depends on where you are starting from.
If you were in an aero tuck pushing high teens/low 20's deep dish aero would definitely make sense. As would low spoke count and uber light weight carbon.
That is not your case. You are largely upright, on fat tires intended for rough (or "not smooth" as will likely be pointed out) terrain.
While it is true lighter wheels "feel" faster and more responsive than heavier wheels. Heavier wheels tend to act like a flywheel and after taking effort to spin up, tend to hold momentum.
Rim & tire are seperate things. A rim is expensive to change. A tire & tube actually has a larger effect because it accounts for more more mass further out on the gyroscope. Furthermore inflation pressure & sidewall stiffness/flexability effect rolling resistance. Then there is actual friction between the tread pattern (or lack thete of) and the terrain.
My thoughts are: Before going the whole hog, sit down and really think about what your requirements are. Aero? Durable? Light? Strong? Are you going to be doing high speed downhills on washboard logging roads with loaded panniers? Are you going to do do spirited club rides to the local bakery?
If it were me, before buying new wheelset, I'd get some lighter weight tires & experiment with a range of inflation pressures. If the bike is still a dog, then new wheels always come up around November-January at a discount. AND you already have decenr rubber to make good use of their potential.
Used wheels are always available at the usual want-ad messege board places.
The hardest thing to swallow though is new wheels, tires, etc...almost never live up to the performance hype unless you are going from one extreme to another or talking extremes of minutia like single digits of watts or seconds over 10's of kilometers.
That being said: New tires/wheels will almost universally make the bike more enjoyable to ride. So on that, I say go enjoy!
Thank you for this.
My main riding is either riding 2-10 miles around to stores instead of driving.
and when I ride with friends we normally ride 20-50 miles to various places including.. one of the beaches.. a pub.. etc.
The terrain is pretty flat and either paved or dirt/gravel.
My bike is set up tubeless and would like to stay with that set up.. Generally because many of the paths are paved I keep them pressured high for less rolling resistance on the paved trails I could always let some air out if I hit gravel.
My reasoning for wanting new tires is.. sometimes I feel that the bike isn't holding the momentum I think it should be.. and my brakes aren't rubbing or anything like that. I heard that Tires and wheels will help that.. Plus the 700x50C stock Giant Sycamore tires are decent and seem to be wearing well.. Sometimes I feel they are not as grippy as they could be or maybe the 700x50C tire being so thick from rim to tread may be a factor.. Which is why I was considering a slightly smaller sized tire like a 700X40C which sure may reduce my plushness a bit with absorbing bumps.. But may be a bit more compliant with what I want from a tire..
I really like what I have seen with Maxxis Rambler tires at that 700x40C size. They are Tubeless like I like and seem like a quality tire.
Thoughts?