cyclezen

One can never be too rich nor have too many wheelsets...
Ok, so the first one is not gonna happen.. LOL!
second one, I've been a constant advocate of...

finally after a month of screwin around and considerin what might be good 'incremental gain', I decided a few weeks back to get a new upgrade wheelset for my Poseidon X.
Settled on the FSA non-series convertible wheels in 700c - which I finally got my hands on a week ago. Then also needed centerlock rotors and another cassette.
Today, finally put some time into getting it all put together and onto the bike.

FSA non-series Convertible Wheelset, 700c, with supplied adapters for QR9
Put on the same rubber as what I've been using on the stock wheels, but keeping the stock wheels also shod, so they can be switched back on at any time.
Conti Speed Ride 42mm on front, and the Kenda Small Block 35mm on the rear. I did do something unusual by making the Front 'Tubeless" and the Rear with a Schwalbe TPU Aerothan tube. Thinking I might be able to discern a difference, either in performance/ride/feel or durability, puncture resistance. No, its not gonna be conclusive or possibly even discernable, but the idea seemed fun.

Poseidon X with FSA Convertible wheels, Redhsift Shockstop stem, ZIPP Bars and Rockshox seatpost

Anyway, these new wheels are now in the cleanest state they'll ever be; so a pic seemed like a good idea. LOL!
Primary objective was to get the overall weight down from the 26.8 lbs of the bike in stock form. Figured the wheels would be the largest/easiest to put a dent in the weight. Noting also that the Redshift stem does double the weight of a normal alloy stem...
SO overall bike weight as shown, and with stock wheels - 26.8 lbs
Current Bike weight, with new FSA wheelset, set up as noted above - 24.7 lbs.
So the swap from 'stock' wheels to the FSA, brought the overall weight down just a hair over 2 lbs. - Nice!
Rode it out in my local greenspace this evening, to get a feel. Bike is just a bit livelier, new wheels ride nicely - but so did the stock wheels. Not much, if any, perceived difference between TubeLess and TPU inner tube.
I still find the stock wheels to be a good value, as are the new FSA Convertible wheels.
One thing I do like much better with the Stock wheels - they are almost noiseless when coasting. The FSA wheels have a more audible/loud freehub ratcheting - not quite as emphasized as a Chris King hub, maybe a little closer to the noise level of Mavic Hubs... The stock wheels are virtually silent - I like that a lot... Oh well, can;t have everything.
Overall, I like the 'upgrades' I've done; BUT, the Poseidon X in stock form is a very nice bike, and would easily be a bike I could have fun on without worrying about 'upgrades'.
Ride On
Yuri

chaadster

Whoa! You dropped +2lbs just on wheels?! I’m not familiar with these FSA non-series Convertible wheels; what’s the convertible thing and how much do they weigh? They’re CF? I tried hitting the FSA website, but it doesn’t seem to work well on my phone…that, or I just didn’t do a good job searching, because I didn’t see the “convertible” term anywhere.

cyclezen

The FSA Convertible wheels are alloy, come with 'adapters' which allow use in either 135mm QR or 140 12mm or 15mm TA forks and dropouts. I think 'published' weight of wheelset is somewhere around 1750g - 3.85 lbs... as with frames, not sure about those numbers.
so, usually wheels do constitute the largest mass contributor to bicycle weight (in the non-electric 'performance bike category).
and on bikes which already have the wheels which might be considered mid to 'light' in weight, upgrade might not prove much difference.
But, given the pricing of the Poseidon X, and the components you do get, the wheels are a place where 'costing' can be reduced, and still provide longterm acceptable use and durability - meaning heavy, solid wheels with heavy, durable, old school hubs.
I was a bit hurried yesterday to getting the wheels put together, without screwing up in a rush... so I didn;t weight everything along the way, just the 'before' and 'after' weight of the complete bike - that being the objective difference - interesting number... Hence 26.8 down to 24.7...
Now the completed wheels are directly comparable - they have all the same components - same microshift cassette, same tires - BUT stock have Butyl tubes, rotors. The FSA set has SRAM rotors and either tubeless 3 oz orange or schwalbe TPU tube, same microshift cassette... all QR levers as supplied...
But I do still have the stock wheelset not yet put into 'storage' - here are those numbers... assembled with tires, 'tubes', rotors, QR
Stock wheelset : front: 4.4 lbs rear: 6.6 lbs
FSA wheelset: front: 3.4 lbs rear: 5.4 lbs
done with a luggage scale - which I'll give 1 oz variability in 'use'
the 'liveliness' feeling is quite discernable...
BUT, again, the stock wheels can take quite a beating and do ride nicely in use. The places I ride, I would class as light to medium duty 'Mountain bike' terrain, no real 'roads'...
How well the FSA wheels deal with this is yet to be determined...
In all... I'm blown away by the bike, and what I got for $750, in this current bike design and pricing climate. Being a gear junkie, I don;t think I have anything else I could do now, to spend more money... I'm done, no more fiddlin... LOL!
Ride on
Yuri

EDIT: Ok, there is ONE more place I could screw with - cranks. Stock cranks are quite nice in use, 1x, but with SQ BB... so an equivalent good mid quality ext. bearing BB124 Crank set would prolly drop close to another 1/2 lb... a consideration, when I get the itch... LOL!
EDIT2: Yeah the FSA website is a disaster ... problematic in every way... needs a real web designer/coder to fix... FSA is in Taiwan, and one of those borderline 'branded' companies - but generally good, serviceable stuff, with good appearance and pricing... their documentation is 'adequate', but lacking in real clarity and 'confidence'... If anyone buys these wheels, they're good, but also require proper 'handling' in assembly. Took more than the time expected, because I didn;t want to screw up a new wheelset - I can give my observations and recs for anyone who does buy them... But when put together and ridden, in first use they seem solid and a good quality wheelset.

mstateglfr 

So the stock wheelset weighs 2700g?!?! Do they literally line the rims with lead tape? How does a wheelset in 2022 weigh that? Well smart move buying new wheels. Seriously, they would need to intentionally design a wheel to be that heavy. That is crazy.

cyclezen

you're missing a few things..
stock wheels have butyl tubes 2x weight of approx 380g/13.4 oz vs tpu tube/tubeless goo at 130g/4.5 oz ish ttl - so there's 8.9oz diff. - a bit over 1/2 lb.
also, most wheel weights are quoted without skewers... ? so doing a direct comparo to the FSR wheels, at 1750, to the stock wheels means doing a direct comparo.
2 lbs = 907g then reduce the overall weights by the inequivalency/diff between Butyl and the TPU/Goo combo (250g/8.9 oz), so 907g - 250g = 657g/23 oz
so wheelset weight of stock = 1750g + 657g = 2407g
... and I don;t think wheel weights are quoted with rimstrip weights... I don;t know what the stock rim strip is, but whatever it is, the difference would be substantial because the tubeless tape supplied with FSA wheels is FEATHERweight light; just some very thin film with some light adhesive and FSA instructs to make 2 full wraps of the tape/film on the wheel - but still super,super light. I'd be surprised if the FSA tape weighs 10 g...
2400g for a 700c wheelset which can handle tires up to maybe 38mm, and is bulletproof, at the price point of the bike - pretty good value, I think...
most of the wheels on road bikes up to $2K, handling tires 23 to 28mm, are in the 2.1 to 2.2 kg range, or more... Poseidon X is $750 ! Whoever spec'd this bike able to be sold at $750 deserves a huge raise, they know what's important for good performance, durability and modern specs and how to put together a great bike, for cheap. This is no cheepie put together with leftover BigBox road bike parts.
Ride On
Yuri
EDIT: Also, in the back of mind, there was one other 'variable' which added into total wheel weight, but not into wheel only weight - rotors. But just from observation, the stock rotor doesn't have an apparent 'brand'. I put mid level SRAM rotors on the FSA wheels - both are 160, and visually I would guess they're within a few grams of each other... But not sure and not gonna pull them off to check...

Monkey Face

Hello again.

I've been away from cycling for a couple of years - my last post was in 'Show us your Vintage Cannondale'. Up until now I've had road bikes of various vintage, but I just bought my first gravel bike - a Giant Revolt 2. I normally get suckered into buying top of the range everything, but this is bottom of the range and I must say I'm perfectly happy with it. At just under 200lbs, I didn't see the point in buying carbon - it's me that needs to lose weight... I don't care what the bike weighs.

I like tinkering with my bikes, but the only thing I've changed so far is the 100mm stem for a 90mm zero degree Easton. I considered switching to a 'better' groupset, but Sora is crisp and precise - way better than I imagined, and the FSA chainset does the job. I'll leave everything as it is until at least next winter, or if I don't get on with the stock saddle I'll swap that.

Any suggestions for a saddle welcome... I have my eye on a few - looking at those in the region of 155mm wide - and when they come up on eBay at the right price I'll bite, just to experiment. On my road bikes I had Brooks Swifts or B17s, but I don't want a Brooks on this bike.

Happy cycling everyone.

PS. Almost forgot. I also have a Velo Orange Pass Hunter, that I built and donated to my wife. With 37c nobbly tyres, I guess that's a gravel bike too.
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ColonelSanders

I'm quite intrigued by the Pass Hunter, how would you describe its riding characteristics?

Monkey Face

Gosh, that's difficult. I'd say smooth, predictable, well-mannered... I'm struggling. I initially built it for myself, with drop bars, Campagnolo Veloce groupset and 28c slicks. Then switched to flat bars for my wife, with 105 groupset and 9-speed thumb shifters, but keeping the Veloce chainset. To be honest, if I could have afforded another frame (they've doubled in price to around £900 here in the UK) I might have built one for me, again. Here's a picture I just did:
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Velo Orange Pass Hunter

ColonelSanders

Jeebus that is a nice colour.

But they have changed the fork and seat stay arrangement on the new Pass Hunters, where they have a single tube that runs for maybe 10cm, before normal seat stays take over.

What difference to the ride this makes, I don't know, it may ride quite differently to your model.

Monkey Face

They've set it out for flat-mount disc brakes too. I guess that's the way everything is going. Those forks look stiffer, I'd guess. They say the rear end is springier and lighter - I can believe the former, but the latter is probably a stretch... probably saves a few ounces.

Noonievut

Brooks Cambium C15. One ride, during which I stopped several times to make obvious adjustments. Now it’s time for some longer rides to see how I like it. So far so good though

Fletch1969

Always messing with new tires, looking to replace some Big Apples currently. But I do like the look of the Thudbuster ST Seat post. Anyone tried one?

cyclezen

down the road, you'll have to let us know if the clutchless RD works as well as the GRX.
I really do like the clutch, especially for the frequent lumpy sections I get to ride... LOL! Thinkin about putting the clutch RD on the mtbs...
RIde On
Yuri

jonathanf2

So far no issues. There's very minimal chain slap and it's nice not having to fudge with the clutch. I prefer knowing my indexing is spot on as-is. Most my riding is either climbing or descending the local LA fire roads/single track and I'm usually in the small chainring for that. I still have the climbing gears of GRX, but leaning slightly more towards road with the 105 rd.

cyclezen

Actually the idea behind 'clutch' would be a real boon for performance road cycling. In following Pro Road cycling, it seems the 3 most common problems which seem to hit riders 1. flats (wondering why tubeless hasn't been developed further, enough to make it the ridiculously best way to deal with the 'flat' problem) 2. mis-shifting and misbehaving shifters (which I put down to electronic shifting (I think there's a significant segment of pro riders very unhappy with e-shifting) 3. drop/jammed chains - as strong part of reducing this COULD be the clutch RD, developed further specifically for road use. In fact there's no reason why 'clutch' can't be an electronically adjusted mechanism, based on chain state and position in the gear range. If they're gonna 'push' e-shifting, let's have be be more than just an 'electric knife'...
Ride On
Yuri

Shawn1970

Absolute black oval chainrings in 50/34 flavour, really noticeably smoother in action especially on ascents.

Rolla

Deleted

Noonievut

Photos!?

Western Flyer 

Just mounted Pirelli Cinturato M 45mm tires w/ tubes on 23mm rims. My God they're big! They caliper out at

Look like there set for the Himalayan ridge trail.
ndale Topstone can handle. Haven't run them through any challenging terrain yet but on roads, hard pack and a little bit of shallow mud they rolled better than I expected.

rivers

I've just ordered an 11-42 cassette, deore 5120 rear mech, and a jtek shiftmate. A 2x mullet drivetrain should serve me well for my next trip.

feejer

I just finished pulling the Microshift brifters on my trail bike and replaced them with Claris. I was never happy with the braking power of the TRP Spyre mech brakes with the Microshift levers, and the Shimano's do seem give it proper stopping power finally. Plus they are much quieter when shifting, no loud clicks. Test ride up later today.

Germany_chris

rivers

I've just picked up an 11 speed deore rear derailleur, a jtek shiftmate, and an 11 speed 11-42 cassette. Time for the mullet drivetrain build....

grcolts

I just purchased for my Jamis Renegade a bike rack for behind the seat.

jonathanf2

I'm currently messing with a cheap OSPWs on my gravel bike with a 13/17t configuration. So far I seem to like it. I feel less tension on both the low and high gears. A good test was keeping pace with my gravel bike on a fast group ride.