Switching a wheelset between two frames
 

I own a sprint disc and I’m considering purchasing a Venge Pro Race. I asked the seller if he would sell without the wheelset to help stay within budget. I’m am thinking about switching my carbon wheels between the two bikes. Are there any drawbacks or things to take into consideration other than the obvious pain of swapping the wheels every time I want to ride the other bike? Thanks in advance for advice.

If they both have the same number of speeds on the cassette and the same kind of brakes, I don’t think it’s a problem. I can switch wheelsets among 3 different bikes, but they’re all rim brake wheels. Maybe there’s an extra wrinkle with discs?

Two bikes, one wheelset?

Sure, yeah, that's a great idea.

I'd love to write more, but I've gotta go swap the engine into my other car.

You may think it's worth saving the $$$ but it's not. If you damage a wheel you can't ride either of your bikes...think about that for a minute. You can set up both bikes to work with the one wheel set so you won't ever need to adjust anything, it's not like having one bike w/ 2 sets of wheels. It's stupid easy, so that's not an issue. The only problem would be if you damaged a wheel and couldn't ride at all.

Exactly.

One bike and two wheelsets? Sure.

One wheelset and two bikes? Nope.

How you gonna park the wheel-less bike?

Sorry I failed to mention that I have a set of aluminum wheels that I can park it with.

Check tire and rim width. Most likely they are ok.

Chain & cassette tend to wear together, so they become mated over time - at least that's my experience. I would say - TRY IT OUT for awhile and see how it goes. If things don't work out, you can always get a 2nd wheelset. Small problem compared to some guys who have 9 bikes, none of which run properly ;)

Love it. Has to be the perfect post to end 2020.

John

Tire and rim width won't be a problem on 2 disc brake bikes. Read the original post again

Sure. But in my experience, even having 2 wheel sets for one bike is less of a benefit than you’d think it is. It’s not difficult to swap wheels but it’s a lot less convenient in practice than it is on paper. You have to do a lot of planning before hand and that takes a lot of the spontaneity of riding out of the equation.

I mount studs to my spare wheel set but I generally leave them on one bike during the winter so that the bike is just ready to go. I don’t do a lot of switching back and forth because it’s just a hassle.

Your idea would require removing wheels from one bike, setting the bike aside, removing the wheels from the other bike and putting them on the first bike, then putting wheels on the second bike so that it’s not just laying around without wheels. By the time you are done swapping wheels, the desire to just go for a ride has passed.

“Are there any drawbacks or things to take into consideration other than the obvious pain of swapping the wheels every time I want to ride the other bike?”

nope. It’s just a pain.

I’ve done it, but that was back when I was still figuring fit out and on a college kid budget.

unless you’re the sort who meticulously cleans their entire bike after every ride as part of the whole ride activity, buy a big bag of Uline Nitrile gloves for the swaps.

If you’ve got a second set of wheels I would just put the B wheels on the B bike and the A wheels on the A bike.

Doesn't get much easier...

https://i.imgur.com/zBfgaMJl.jpg

Won't that scratch the brifters?

(Sorry, couldn't resist!)

Arrrrggghhhhhhh...



:D

Why not just use the aluminum wheels? Is it because you will be 19 seconds slower over 40mi of riding at 22mph?

I personally would opt for an inexpensive, but decent second set of compatible (i.e. disk and cassette hub) wheels if the spare ones you have aren't. That way you have full redundancy in complete bikes ready to go and also wheels if you need it. You can certainly swap the "better" wheels to whatever bike you want to for occasions that warrant it, but you won't need to. You can grab whatever bike whenever you want. For example, maybe you prefer to ride one rather than the other if it's going to rain, and it is unexpectedly threatening - just grab it and go. if you're in a hurry, like you're late to a group ride and the bike you want to ride has a flat, just grab the other one and go or quickly put on the other wheels rather than fix the flat. Maybe you need to true an wheel but just aren't getting around to it. Etc. Even though it's not a big deal to swap wheels around every once in a while, you'll find it's more of a hassle at times than you want to put up with. For more than one reason, i's nice to have total redundancy. Plus the inexpensive but decent wheels are just fine compared to the nicer ones. JMHO, but you can find inexpensive, decent wheels easily for less than $400, probably closer to $200 used or close out.

The OP asked the following question looking for drawbacks or things to take into consideration other than the bolded text:

So far, in fine BF tradition, almost everyone has basically commented on the bolded text.

To answer the OP. If the brakes line up, the tires clear each frame set and the cassettes line up, so the shifting works, there is no problem. Wheel swaps take one or two minutes once you work out a system for supporting the bike, like a bike stand or pads. People with SS/FG flip flop wheel sets remove and reverse their rear wheels on the road as a design feature.

It's not rocket surgery.

I have multiple bikes, wheels and cassettes. I switch the wheels and cassettes around among the various bikes all the time. Only thing I do is put it on the stand and check derailleur adjustment carefully before riding and really watch chain wear. A lot of work, yes; but also lots of flexibility and variety.

The OP’s question is akin to asking Mrs Lincoln, “Aside from the gunfire, how did you like the play?’

If each bike is set up to work with that same wheel set, swaps should be very smooth.

Main drawback I see is that if you have two bikes, wouldn’t you like to have them set up for different purposes? Or at least slightly different? And if that is the case, would it also not be preferable to run different tires? And if you need to swap tires, it defeats the purpose of having being able to easy swap.

Not really. As noted, the idea of having to remove a wheelset in the era of non bolted axles isn't as onerous as some would suggest.

If you look at the two bikes he's talking about they are higher end road frames. He wants to save some bucks at the moment by using the same higher end wheel set for both.

Some suggest a cheaper set of wheels but why do that for a higher end frame? That would be a waste of money long term as the user would eventually replace them.

I think I get what hes asking. He wants to buy a second expensive frameset. In the interim, before he can afford a second expensive set of wheels for the second frame, is there a problem using the wheelset he already has. The answer is, taking brake, gear and tire size into consideration, no. Going on and on about the inconvenience, which he up front acknowledged, is redundant.

I also though having two bikes that do the same thing was odd but from my experience in the CandV subforum it seems some people do collect multiples of the same bike. I find it odd because I try to have one from each genre.