Hmmm

I'm ready for a second wheelset. One for road, one for gravel/cross. Currently I have the stock Giant PX2 boat anchor wheels. I don't mind their weight when I have road tires on. Relative to having chunky tires on, they feel light and fast with road tires, so the PX2's will pull road duty. This new set will go on as a gravel and 'cross wheelset so I will like some durability in them.

I don't want to spend too much money, I'm looking for wheelsets in the same arena as the Mavic Crossmax, DT Swiss R23, or Hunt 4 Season. Any of these will be a weight savings over the PX2's. I also am very clueless to the wheelset offerings out there. So any suggestions are welcome.

I'm also concerned about alignment. Those of you with two wheelsets, are you needing to realign disc brakes and rear derailleurs every time you switch wheels?

Thanks in advance for the help!

tdilf

Adjusting derailleurs is probably not needed but disk re-alignment is likely something you will need to do each time.

jimincalif

I bought November Bicycles RCG36 wheels (carbon) as my second set for my gravel bike. I use the OEM Stan’s wheels for off road and the RCGs on road, but I could go the other way if I chose.

Both wheelsets have CL disks. November ships them with a package of 1/4mm disc shims. Once I had the new wheels set up and aligned the calipers, the Stan’s rotors where dragging slightly on the inside pad. I took off the rotors added one shim each front and back, and that did it. The rotors align perfectly now so wheel swap is quick and easy. FYI the hubs on the two sets are Stan’s NEO and DT Swiss 350s. The cassette lines up perfectly, no need to adjust the derailleur.

I think the RCGs are more than you’re looking to spend, but I’m sure you can get some shims somewhere.

wsteve464

Check ebay the DT R23 is $4-500. I have a couple of sets of DT Swiss wheels never had a problem with them sealing or the rotor needing adjustment when swapping wheels.

chas58

Good question on disks. I don't have a problem swapping but maybe that is because hydraulics are self adjusting?

Your derailer should be fine. They do sometimes have shims for the hub, but that is more for adapting between 8-11 speed spacing.

Caliper

I'm going to disagree with several above and say that you may need to readjust the derailleur. I have two wheelsets on my road bike - one Reynolds and another Mavic. I do need to adjust the limit screws and move the adjuster when I swap between them. The only way to know for sure is to put your new wheelset on and check.

dgodave

I have 1 brand new DT wheelset and a 2nd DT wheelset thats maybe 4 or 5 years old. Thru axles. Dont need to adjust anything. Using mech disc brakes.

Chi_Z

did you check the spacer behind the cassette? they comes in different sizes from 1.7mm to 2mm

Elvo

I have a pair of 650B and 700C wheels that I swap from time to time. No adjustment needed. Front/rear TA with TRP cable brakes

Metieval

https://www.merlincycles.com/dt-swis...0c-112361.html

not the best but just under 1800 gram, and for that price.. its a deal

chas58

"you shouldn't" need to is different than you don't. I don't think you should - there are spacers to align them to a common spot. Then again Mavic is French, and sometimes they just kind of go off and do their own thing...

RockiesDad

Might need slight adjustments on the RD or you can use a thin spacer when mounting a cassettes to match each other.

There are thin shims you can use to match rotor locations. I used two shims on my 6 bolt disk hubs on one of my wheel set to match the other. Not sure what they use for center lock disks though. Might ask around.

jfranci3

Merlin and Bike Discount usually have cheap DT swiss wheels for $300. I'd steer you toward getting a set of ER1600 32 wheels and put road tires one them. Use the stock wheels for your slow tires.

Otherwise, It's not the weight of the wheels making your feel slow,it's the tires rolling resistance. 2-300g of rim weight only makes a 1-2% difference in energy needed to spin up the wheel, which doesn't take that much energy in the scheme of things.

Hmmm

Thank you everyone for your advice. I will be purchasing through a shop, rather than building on my own, and it will be my priority to insure the two wheelsets do not need readjusting. I'd rather just swap tires than realign breaks and my RD every time.

On to the difference in wheel weight. So you're saying there is barely any difference in feel with a lighter set of wheels? I don't dabble in the details of watts or percentages, but what I would like in a second wheelset is something to help make the bike a little snappier and quicker to accelerate. Will a lighter wheelset not help me achieve this feeling?

As a second thought I was wondering if putting on the SRAM Force XG-1175 cassette on the newer wheelset would help at all. The cassettes are not the same, and I don't know if the 200 +/- grams of savings would be worth the cost. Any ideas on this?

jfranci3

Yes, within the realistic margins we're talking here assuming all the weight loss is in the rim, a stop watch won't notice the difference. Feel <> Performance though, a lighter wheelset will definitely feel difference as it has less material and doesn't generate as much of that gyro effect.


I have 2 bikes and 3 sets of wheels/tires. 43c gravel tires (GK SK), 30c road tires with some tread (g-one speed), and 25/28c road (GP5K). There's a big difference between the non-road tire and the road tires. The larger tires only take about 40psi,which is bouncy, and they don't roll or corner anywhere near as well as the road tires. Between the road tires, there's not that much difference. I've got a larger cassette on the gravel wheelset, but can flip the between a 36t cassette and 28t, no prob. Get a 2nd wheelset and put the road tires the new, nicer one. That DT Swiss ER 32 1600 wheelset is nice for gravel and road use, will be more durable, will be quieter, will be faster aero wise, and look nice.

Now before I was talking rotating weight, static weight is still a concern, particularly if you're putting it in the rear hub. The bigger cassettes are a full 1lb heavier than the road or mid-sizers. It can make bike handling awkward. I had a Alfine 11 rear hub at one point and hated all the weight being in the rear. https://road.cc/content/review/27971...ub-and-shifter

chas58

Yes, but its the package. And it depends on what you define as heavy. If you have some 2kg+ boat anchors, yes you should feel it.

My bike came with DTSWISS ER 1600 SPLINE® 23 Aluminum wheels that weigh 1638. I'm not gonna lose a lot off of that. My carbon rims (same sizing) are a bit over 1400. That is probably twice the price for 200 grams. a wheelset.

On the other hand, my 40mm tires weigh 375g each. Its easy go to over 500gm in gravel tires (GK-SK+ at 540g). That is a quick way to save 300 grams if you don't need the extra protection.

500g savings (that is more than 1 lb.) in rotational weight is something you should feel when acceleration. It all adds up - and depends on what your priorities are and where you want to spend your money.

For gravel - something around 1600-1700gm is probably a good reasonably priced target.

santacruzbob

I'm going to second this. I've got three wheelsets and I don't have to make any adjustments when swapping.
DT350-based xr331
mavic ksyrium allroad pro
reynolds attack

gravelslider

If you have this problem (especially with limit screw adjustment needed) you may have an incorrect spacer behind one of the cassettes. We see this in our shop occasionally. If the spacer is right and the wheels are decent quality normally there is no problem with derailleur compatibility.

jfranci3

The 11sp Shimano 11-34 in particular is troublesome. It is a 10sp fit, so 11sp needs the spacer.

Rides4Beer

I had a second wheelset for my Revolt (they now live on the new disc road bike until I get a set of carbon wheels for it), and the only issue I noticed when swapping back and forth was that the stock rotors were not as thick as the Shimano rotors I put on the second wheelset, so there was always some rub when switching to the set with the thicker rotors, until the caliper self-adjusted. Fixed that by putting the same rotors on the stock wheels, then had zero issues swapping back and forth.

Hmmm

Awesome everyone! I appreciate all the advice!!

gus6464

Usually the fiddling has more to do with rotors than the cassette and everything else. If you stick to the same rotors on the two wheels you shouldn't have a problem. Also just get cassette spacers that will align both on the freewheel exactly or very close to it. Most manufacturers settled on a 2mm spacer when using a wide 11sp or 10sp cassette on 11sp freehub but Mavic like be stupid and use something like a 1.7mm just like everything else they make.

chas58

Pardon their french...

Metieval

but a mavic 1.7 spacer comes with your Mavic wheelset. Unless you bought a used wheelset from a stupid previous owner that didn't keep the spacer.

I'll confess, I don't know where my Mavic spacer is. I'll assume that it is on the wheelset , on the bike that I sold.

I'll also argue that, Needing a cassette spacer is a damn good excuse to go to a bicycle shop.

KeatonR

Your best bet, for seamless swapping and compatibility, is to get two of the same wheel sets. Obviously that’s more expensive and there can be some compromises on the road riding side (weight and smallest width tire you can run), but the Hunts you mention are a pretty good deal and they were on my short list. They’re pretty light too. And if the narrowest tire you can run is 30 or 32, no great loss. I have 32 slicks on my road wheels now and will never go back to 23, 25 or even 28.