Nate998

I am a bit weirded out by the numerous articles on the topic of lightweight wheels/ wheelsets. I am currently planning on building a rear wheel for my road bike but no matter what I do, I cannot seem to find products that would render a sub-1 kg wheel. So from what point is a wheel heavy?
My build is going to be made out of a Prime RO30 rear wheel (339 gr. without QR), DT Swiss RR 511 rim (530 gr.) and Sapim Leader spokes, double butted (approx. 150 gr.) and this would get me a wheel that is a bit over 1000 gr. heavy. Other rims I've found from DT Swiss or Mavic do not go under 450 gr. so I wouldn't save a bunch of weight by getting those.

Any opinions and/ or advice?

Thanks in advance.

datlas 

Can you tell us your weight and riding style? You can certainly find and/or build rear wheels in the 700g range but you will pay more for them. Unless you are racing or a weight weenie I suspect the wheel you describe will be fine.

Nate998

I'm a 50 kg roadie. I could find lightweight ones but indeed, at a different price point. I am not racing, although I tend to be an aggressive rider from time to time.

datlas 

You could get a Kinlin XR200 rim for $40 and 383g if you want lighter weight on a budget. But your choice is fine IMO.

Kimmo 

If you can find a secondhand RS-80 or RS-81 or Dura-Ace C24, those are nice and light. You can probably find a rear for $150 or less, if you're lucky.

I haven't seen a figure for the rear rim, but the (16h) front is 385g, which is pretty damn light for a clincher. The rear will probably be a tad heavier, being off-centre and having 20 holes (it's a very light ally extrusion with laminated carbon reinforcement, so the bulges at the spoke holes would weigh more than the holes).

The straight-pull Shimano hub isn't super light, but these hubs are second to none for durability, weight isn't as important at the hub, and the Dura-Ace one has a titanium cassette body. C24 f-600g, r-820g.

trekmogul 

The German Manufacture Lightweight Meilenstein has several types and style of wheel sets under 1000 grams for the set. There OBERMAYER SCHWARZ Wheel set is 975 grams for the pair..

redfooj

800+650 to make 1450g set is kinda like a baseline for an aftermarket upgrade
1000g+800g making 1800g set is a factory equipment and roughly same weight as entry-level aftermarket replacement.

so yes, i would consider 1000g on the rear 'heavy'. just comparatively speaking.

in real life and whether it makes a difference? probably not.

keep in mind 450g is a good weight for a RIM. the bulk of the weight shaving comes from spoke and spoke COUNT. even upgrading skewer can shave you some grams

bluehills3149

I think if you are going to the trouble of building wheels, they should get a bit lighter than 1000g (for the rear) but in reality it's not going to make much of a difference to the ride. Mavic Open Pro UST rims (these are the new design UST rims - not the old Open pros) are just $48 for Euro buyers (at sigmasports.com - half the price paid here in USA) and are very strong rims and just 430g each (I run these rims with DT swiss hubs). I think if you're only 50 kg you don't need stronger rims like the 511. Although at your weight you could probably shed some spokes (28 fr, 24 rr for example) 32 is always more secure and if you break a spoke while riding you can un-do your quick-release and keep going. I'd recommend brass nipples for security rather than aluminum as they can corrode and become impossible to undo.
You may try looking at Taiwanese hubs (eg Novatech) which are pretty reliable and can be quite light for the $ or screw the weight and look for a set of Shimano 105 or Ultegra hubs on sale and look back in 30 years time when you are still riding them.

Elvo

1400g wheelset:
XR22T Wheelset Kit (SL79/SL210 Hubs + CXRay Spokes) - $324.95

rosefarts

The Stan's alpha 340 is pretty light too. Just under 400g if memory serves. Its about $100 if you shop around.

I was going to build a wheelset from these and bikehubstore hubs, with the spokes, I'd calculated they would weigh about 1275g for the set (sans skewers). Just before I ordered I checked eBay and saw a pair of Stan's 3.30ti wheels. Same rims, bladed spokes, probably a little better hubs, and 1330g (skewers included). I offered $225 and won.

So the point of my rambling. 1000g for a single wheel is too much. It's not terribly expensive to go lighter, especially so if you check eBay at the right time.

maartendc

530g for a rim is quite heavy.

yes 1000g for a rear wheel is considered quite heavy. No problem, so long as you are not trying to build and ultralight wheelset.

For comparison, a Dura Ace C24 wheelset which is 1420g for the pair (a very decent light weight, if not ultralight), has a rear wheel that is around 800g.

I would try to stay around 900g or below for the rear wheel. My wheelset with DT Swiss rims (RR440 rims i think, 450g each), Sapim Double butted spokes and White Industries H3 hubs is about 1650g total, 925g for the rear wheel. That is about as heavy as I would go when building a wheel.

Lazyass

A 530g rim is heavy. A 1000g wheel with a heavy hub and a light rim would feel lighter than vice versa.

Kimmo 

Whoops, the C24 rim used on RS80/81 and Dura-Ace is 365g for the front.

They are seriously impressive. These 16/20h wheelsets hold up well under riders weighing 85kg or more, and it seems a lot of people are unaware of this, but Shimano's hubs wipe the floor with virtually everything else for a number of reasons - adjustable cup & cone bearings are superior to almost all cartridge systems, their freehub design is the best due to the cassette body being a stressed member and placing the DS axle bearing at the dropout, and Shimano cassette splines aren't sized for aluminium, which makes most of the 'high end' alternatives look stupid, with their ally splines destined to be chewed up by the cogs.

There are a lot of shortcuts taken with supposed high quality hubs, and Shimano don't take any. Also, these rims I'm pimping represent the pinnacle of non-aero rims including a braking surface. (I think they're doing them wider now. Not sure if they're tubeless compatible though.)

ColonelSanders

Considering you are 50kgs, then you should be able to get away with riding an incredibly light wheel.


As for how it is done, it is by making every component light and not compromising and saying you will stick with a 530gram rim because you can't be bothered to save 50grams on the rim.


You want to save weight on the rim, the hub, the spokes(and number of spokes).


I'm pretty sure that DT Swiss has some 380gram to 420 gram rims that you could get, and you should have no more than 28 spokes and go for spokes that are heavily butted, perhaps something like a 1.8mm/1.5mm/1.8mm.


Not sure how heavy your hub is, but again if one wants to pay the price premium, you can easily save 50 to 100grams here too.

cpach

That rim has a deeper section than most alloy road rims, so the aerodynamics may make it a bit faster, but it's significantly heavier than a standard rim (~440g) and heavier than an ultralight alloy rim (~370-400g). Your hub costs twenty five freakin' bucks and has a steel freehub body. Of COURSE it is significantly heavier than a higher end, relatively nonexotic hub like a DT 350 (240 grams or so).

So common parts are an easy 200g lighter. Does this matter a ton? Not particularly.

As an exercise in sillyness, I built myself a wheelset that's somewhere around 1350g using American Classic hubs, rims, and sane (24/28) spoke counts and alloy nipples. I weigh about 200lbs and ride crap roads and they've been fine, but I wouldn't say this was a particularly wise choice, and probably wouldn't build these for a customer similar to me.

bikebreak

I read the title and thought you wanted 1000g for both wheels. Which is quite possible with tubular carbon rims
At 50kg you can get away with some very light rims

kbarch

If you look at the full range of likely weights of road bike wheels, no, 1000g is not so much on the heavy side, but it is still quite a ways from the lightest end.
It might help to know where you're starting from - what are you used to, that you (presumably) want something lighter than. But when it comes to that, you should be able to do the math.

tFUnK

Not worth the trouble of building custom 1kg rear wheel when lighter wheels are readily available.

vtje

What are the criteria for your component choice? Weight? Bling? Width?
I just built a wheelset for a friend, Kinlin XR31T rims, Bitex UL hubs, Sapim Laser spokes - 1420gm for a pair, just around $300, wide, aero and tubeless, all available from BikeHubStore (great store and customer support BTW).

Kimmo 

Wow, nice! What do those rims weigh? How deep?

ThermionicScott 

If you want to avoid building a porky set of wheels, you have to look at everything. It's about making a lot of little but smart choices that add up.

Sapim Leaders are straight-gauge spokes. If you've been looking at weights for them, you'll be pleasantly surprised if you look up the weight savings for Races or D-Lights. Dan's Comp has Sapim Races for 40 cents each.

The DT Swiss 511 is probably light for what it is, but you'll have to decide whether the 32mm depth is worth the weight penalty. I'm eyeing the Pacenti Forza (480g) for my next 700C rear wheel build -- 50 grams lighter.

339g is exactly what one of my old Shimano Tricolor rear hubs weighs without skewer. Not enough to bother me, but that's with a steel freehub body and everything. You should be able to do much better.

And I've read that aluminum nipples have improved a lot recently. Haven't bothered with them yet, but they're an option for shaving grams. Perhaps you could trying using them just on the left side, where the tensions won't be as high anyway.


P.S. Back to your main question, no, I don't think a ~1000g rear wheel is unreasonably heavy, but it's not hard to get a wheel build to come in under that.

vtje

You can find specs here:
Kinlin XR31T Tubeless Ready Rim - $74.95
31mm deep, 24mm wide, 485gm. These are very stiff rims, so you can build with a lower spoke count unless it is for a rider over 200lbs.
The build is 16 radial front/24 2x rear, Bitex UL hubs, Sapim Laser spokes (basically the same weight/benefits as CX-Ray for a fraction of price).
I personally think that CX-Ray spokes are a pure marketing unless you are into 25+ mph average and every fraction of a watt counts. From what I read, aero benefits of bladed spokes are marginal.

Nate998

If there would be a kinlin seller here in Europe that'd be great. Maybe I'll go for some lighter DT Swiss rims. I saw a few models that weight about 450gr. I also want a 24H rim, that's my choice.
I also think novatec hubs would suffice, Novatec superlight being only a few grams over 220.

How about spokes though?-

ThermionicScott 

A couple of us have suggested spokes already. If you want to lose yourself in lightweight wheelbuilding discussion, check out this thread: https://weightweenies.starbike.com/f...?f=113&t=74564

Nate998

I want to thank you all guys! Your info really helped and I've decided to up my game a bit. I've found out that I can find some pretty stuff by adding a few bucks into equation. As far spokes go, I see that I can have some light spokes for just a few more bucks. Maybe I'll go try the Stan's Notubes.
As far as Kinlin goes.. I'd love to have those but I won't risk ordering stuff from USA since I live in Romania and parcels from any other place than the EU ( especially North America) will get heavily taxed.