Baldor

After pulling these wheels out of the box I couldn't resist throwing them on the scale. Sadly they came in at 940g for the rear and 710g front, both without skewers. That is much more in line with what the system 30x are supposed to weigh, and yes I counted spokes to make sure that they sent me the right set. I know that obsessing over 1520g (the listed weight) and 1650 is excessive, but isn't that what BF is for? Does anyone have a set of these they have weighed on an accurate scale? Should I just accept this variance, for all I know if I asked for another set they would come in the same. Is this discrepancy just the way the industry works with insane weight weenies looking for the lower published weights? I really want to like the wheels, just holding and spinning they are so smooth, but I must admit the extra mass bothers me.

yogi13

I got a pair of 30x in a couple of weeks ago. They also seem to be seriously over the advertised weight, though I was trying to weigh them on a flat scale, which means that there is quite a bit of error just from trying to balance them on the scale. The lowest figure I could come up with on that scale was 1720 (760 front, 960 rear) without skewers, but with rim tape, which is 125 g over advertised spec. The high figure was about 100 g more than that.

toothless

My 30x's were over 1800g. They do roll nice though.

huytheskigod

Similar experience with my System 30. I chalk it up to rim tape, difficulty/inaccuracy of flat scale, and low claimed weight. I still really like them but they're MUCH noisier than my Ritchey WCS Protocols.

rruff

WTF?! The absolute extreme limit of lying about wheelset weight is 100g. Send them back. You can get much better custom built wheels with White Industries hubs and CX-Ray spokes... and the same rims, for a little over $600. 1475g... no BS... no lying.

Strong Bad

Note to self:
Never even consider buying Williams wheels.

patentcad

That sucks pretty hard. Zipps are very close to their claimed weight, actually slightly lighter according to Weight Weenies. By the way, WW doesn't appear to be very current on their weight listings. Nothing for Williams wheels at all.

Baldor

I didn't start this post intending to bash Williams. First, while my scale is accurate, one that I use for baking, I would not count it as a certified measurement on an instrument that had been calibrated beforehand. However I am confident it is in the right ballpark, and I wanted to find out if my wheelset was an anomaly. I suspect a lot of wheels have optimistic printed weights, as can be seen on WW. They are still reasonably light, low count bladed spokes, and there is a part of me that thinks, ooh ceramic bearings. There is also another part that says, WTF, be reasonably honest, or quit using the lead rim tape, and if Zipps weren't 4X as much I'd have dimpled rims spinning up right now.

prendrefeu

BikeSoul wheels, on the other hand tend to be near spot-on with their weight claims. I'm just bringing this up because I've been comparison shopping between Williams and BikeSoul a bit, and they seem to be coming out 'even' on paper... But with these reports of mis-quoted weights, I'm leaning towards BikeSoul wheels instead (which have been well reviewed if you can get over the ship/wait time)

mihlbach

+1 (speaking from experience)

Mitro

Okay, so I pulled everything off and tossed them on the scale:

1610 for the pair of system 30s (690 front, 920 rear).

giantdefy

I know this is an old thread, but I was seriously looking at buying a set of Williams System 30s. I guess most manufacturers weights are off by a 100 grams. I weighed my Neuvation cycling wheelset, they were actually spot on. The brand new Mavic Aksium Race wheelset I have were off by +150 Grams. The Kysrium SL at my LBS were off by +100 grams. These manufacturers must assume that most folks wont throw their wheels on scale and think they have a lighter set.

patentcad

How is this different than the claimed weight vs. actual weight of most cyclists?

tubescreamerx

lame

my 2008 Bontrager Race X Lite have a claimed weight of 1535g

today I weighed the wheelset with Velox cloth rim tape on my Feedback digital scale.... 1520g (+/- 10g still puts them under spec)

also arguably just as durable, if not more, as the 30x. granted, they are much more expensive retail.

urbanknight

Unlike the wheels, I lose the extra 100g during my morning constitutional.

intence

I think it is important. I throw stuff on the kitchen scale for fun sometimes. Some manufacturers are always spot on (or even less than claimed) while others are more.

I know there's a lot of hype in the industry to get weight down, but it's hard to compare accurately if one manufacturer is using a realistic weight while the other is not.

Mitro

I imagine that most of these weights come from samples that the manufacturer sends, which I'm sure is almost always the lightest ones that come off the line.

Smallguy

more than likely correct but if your really concerned about being accurate you'd weight several wheels.. randomly selected and use the mean weight as your advertised

Psimet2001 

Wheels are an assembly of many components. Each of those components has tolerances. Stack them all and you end up with an assembly that can vary greatly in weight.

Personally I list weights in quotes as "in the neighborhood of" mainly because I do custom builds and I do not compensate the spoke weight with it's estimated length due to lacing and rim dimensions.

I have collected enough data though to really start giving customers more of a good idea of where those estimated weights stand.

Personally I also weight every wheel and include a weight/spec sheet.

I truly can't comment on other's practices, but I would like to think that they are providing the weight they believe is the best estimate of what they can produce.

Zen Cyclery

They are flat out lying. When I quote weights I give a tolerance of +- 10 grams. Spokes will always weigh the same assuming length is constant, nips never change, and I have never had a set of hubs be more than 2-3 grams apart. So if you have the hoops in front of you then you should be able to nail it down. Williams is lying just like Fulcrum does.

patentcad

Yes he does.

Nicest wheelset I've ever owned.

It's Psimet.com® for all your Bike Schwag needs.

Pcad Approved™

urbanknight

When I estimate weights, I compensate for spoke length and round each set of components UP to the nearest 5g. Example, the combined weight of one wheel's spokes calculated at 231.449 would count as 235. I count the weight of the nipples, which many people forget about in custom builds. So far, all of my estimates have been over by 5-20g, which is good because I'd rather tell someone their build came in under my projected weight than over.

Jynx

Agreed. My custom wheels came within 20 grams of just using this calculator. The only real variance is with the rims. Spokes, nipples and hubs are usually very consistant.

https://www.wheelbuilder.com/store/wh...alculator.html

bdcheung

Keith frequents these forums so it'll be interesting to hear his side of things.

Patriot

My next wheels will probably be a set of Soul 2.0's. As much as I love my Rolf Elans, they are a pricey venture. Soul 2.0's are pretty darn close in weight/performance for half the price.