Lightest 16" wheel setup?
 

I don't have a folding bike but I am making something with 16" wheels which I want the lightest possible everything on. I have some 16" tubeless-compatible carbon wheels weighing 300g and I want to get the lightest tire setup possible. I was thinking of trying the Schwalbe One tires at 173g but I am concerned they won't work well in ghetto tubeless mode. I have heard that the Marathons will work ghetto tubeless so I was also thinking of those, or the Continental Urbans ghetto tubeless.

Or maybe a lightweight tube is a better idea .. 83g looks to be a standard 16" tube weight. Maybe try the Turbolito latex tubes at 34g?? The tubeless sealant would weigh about that.

Some people managed to mount the Continental Contact Urban Tubeless 32x406. They had to put more sealant than in a TL tire.

It should also work with the same tire in 35x349.

The Tubolito are made of TPU. In case of puncture they are impossible to repair: first, its often very difficult to locate the place of leakage because they cannot be inflated at pressure above 1 bar without tire, second the special patches do not last very long.

If you want a really fast tire, you should choose the Greenspeed Scorcher 120 40x349.

Good to hear on the Continental, I might give them a try at some point.

Right, TPU.. I got that mixed up with latex. I have heard that the Schwalbe One tires are themselves prone to flats since they are thin so that plus the impossible tube could be a major disaster. I guess I could just view the tubes as disposables, but that is an expensive waste.

I looked up the Greenspeed Scorcher, the lightest version is 320g which is more than all the other tires I mentioned by 50g or more.

I might just try the Schwalbe Ones tubeless as Plan A, one thing I found from past experience is many tires will work tubeless if you are patient about putting a ton of sealant in and letting them seal up over a period of weeks. Those tires with a regular tube will still be lighter than the Contis or the Marathons which are around 285g, so a regular tube in the Schwalbe Ones could be plan B.

Primo Comet is 206g.

when you're finished please post pictures of the bike, very interested in seeing it, thanks

Its not a bike, its a "quike" (four wheels). Actually it is something called a Nordic cross-skate, it is like roller skis but with larger wheels. You attach one to each foot. The commercial ones come with up to 8" wheels but I still get stuck in ruts on those which lead to wipe-outs so I want larger wheels. I had another question about the frame design here: https://www.bikeforums.net/framebuil...scooter-2.html if you want to see some pictures of the commercial ones.

I have made a couple designs and here is my current one, it has 16" wheels in the front and 12" wheels in the back. I am using the Schwalbe Ones with tubes in front now, these 16" carbon wheels with tires and tubes weigh about 500g which is still 100g lighter than the commercial 8" wheels so I am pretty happy with the weight. I am still fine-tuning this, it didn't have enough frame support so I had to make the forks bigger and thicker. I also hope to eventually get tubeless going, but the Schwalbe Ones are far too loose on the rims so I will need many rounds of rim tape.


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...dda778b61.jpeg

Interesting setup !

May I ask you why you don't use inline skate boots on those (there were some Roces off road inline skates made like that)

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...543b5365c3.jpg

No big reason really. Both ways can work well. I think my design is lighter since I can wear lightweight shoes, the boots are quite heavy. The biggest NCS brands don't use boots: Ski-ke and SRB. Powerslide is a brand using boots but not sure they are still in business.

Powerslide is a brand making inline skates, they are still in business for inline skates.

If you use a carbon boot (from Seba or FR skates for instance), its lightweight on gives efficient control.

I did look into some boots, those Seba boots for example are 773 grams plus you need a binding to attach which I found was around 250g. That is 1000g whereas my setup is 160g shoes plus 280g binding = 440g .. less than half the weight. Control might be better with the boot but I am pretty happy with my binding so far.. it has four straps whereas the commercial models have only three so it holds the foot a bit better.