This is very true as a principle, but if John is already using Compass tires, even the standard model -- I take it that from his "beefy" qualification, it' not the extralight -- then gains from switching are probably going to be far less than switching from, say, one of the heavier Marathons.
What do others find from switching from Compass's standard to extralight casings, with the same model of tire? I take it that we can leave suppleness out of the question here, assuming that the SP standard's casing isn't all that less supple than any of the EL casings? The Snoqualmie EL weighs 50 gr less than the S; even the Bon Jon EL is only 76 grams lighter. If you switched to the Stampede EL, you'd save about 120 grams per wheel, but I don't know if that is enough to make the bike feel noticeably friskier. Perhaps rims + tires will make a noticeable difference. What rims are you using? I'm not all that familiar with 700 c road rims, but for example, if you are using Rhyno Lights, say, at ~700 grams/wheel, and switched to, say, a Mavic M40 at 200 grams lighter, and switched from the SP standards to the Stampede EL -- theoretical 320-350 grams per wheel saving -- you'd feel a noticeable difference. But! I've found that there are all sorts of other things that make a bike feel "lively", and, again IME, it's not limited to frame tubing and wheel weight. I've found more than once that bikes with heavier tubing and mediocre tires somehow feel faster* than others with lighter tubing or better tires** and have attributed this to geometry and body position. * My former Herse had been passed on by 2 other experienced riders because its tubing was too heavy. I had it shod with Paselas (non-TG) or perhaps IRC Tandems (~29 mm) -- certainly nothing fancy. The bike was certainly heavier than that '73 Motobecane. But it felt faster. Ditto for my very early Schwinn Tempo: tank, cheap tires. I'm not denying at all that tires are not the principal improvement after fit and wind resistance, but other factors may well be in play her, given the conditions of the question as discussed above. FWIW, although saving 2 lb per wheel by switching from 800 gram rims and 800 gram tires + 200 gram tubes to road-bike-weight rims and 360 gram tires on the Fargo certainly made a difference, it didn't make as much difference as that between say the Herse and the Motobecane. (Not that the Motobecane was sluggish; it just didn't encourage me to gear up the way the Herse did. Aside: I sold the Herse because it's load carrying and handling qualities were not what I wanted. The ride and fit and feel was were wonderful.) ** I judge this by repeatedly finding that certain bikes are easier to pedal in given gears in given conditions. So: what? I dunno! I'll be interested to hear what you do. On Mon, Jun 12, 2017 at 1:49 AM, panog <panogiannio...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > In my opinion, if "lively'" is what you seek, I would look first at tires > and tubes, then rims. These are the primary contributors. Hubs would be the > very, very distant fourth. > > Hope it helps > > Pano > > -- > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
