Yesterday I finally got my black friday purchases installed on my bike and WOW what a difference it made. The wheels alone were more than a pound lighter than my stock aluminum wheels front Giant. I didn't measure the tires though. The bike immediately felt more snappy and responsive. Acceleration was much easier and when climbing it felt like I could spin up more easily than before.
I took my bike on my usual hilly loop that's about 10 miles and absolutely blew away my previous best time by several minutes. I wouldn't say I'm in the best shape right now, and that's even with my front derailure not working properly. So, I attribute at least most of the speed gains to the upgrade.
I had been hesitant to upgrade before because I'm pretty cheap, and putting carbon wheels on a $1,000 bike felt silly. I dented my aluminum wheel on a big gravel chunk so I had to get something and I'm SO glad I did. I got everything on sale for Black Friday so in total the upgrade was just under $500
Wheels: Elitewheels ENT Disco 2.0 @ 38mm depth ($327)
Tires: Tufo Gravel Thunderos @ 40c ($126)
by Hartzler44
4 Comments
I agree. I just put 50mm wheels on mine and picked up 1mph average on my normal routes.
98% placebo, but it is a worthwhile upgrade. You rode harder. If this was because of efficiency, your RE would be lower. If you had a power meter this is more obvious.
Getting into gravel cycling and even doing some races this year there is one thing I noticed. The experienced guys almost never talk about the bikes themselves, they don’t really care all that much. But wheels and especially tyres? That’s like 90% of the conversations! And after upgrading to lighter and aero wheels and some better tyres I can see why. It’s just so noticeably faster. Not only in feel but like in raw numbers. Enjoy! Personally I went from cheap stock aluminum wheels to the EliteWheels G45 gravel wheels and wow, such a difference.
> derailure