> On May 16, 2025, at 2:44 PM, Ben Miller <[email protected]> wrote: > > TLDR; although everyone talks about rotational weight of the bicycle > mattering more, in reality it does not. In particular, I think carbon rims > entirely unnecessary.
Great post, Ben! I have a less physics-oriented and more practical take on this. In a steady-state, inertia is your friend. If you are accelerating or decelerating, it’s not. So, over the course of, say, a leisurely doodle around the lakes, stopping for a picnic, never accelerating hard, tire weight probably doesn’t mean anything to you (though having to stop and repair a flat might!). Over the course of a 200km brevet, maybe on some less than perfect roads, all those little bumps add up and if the tire is absorbing those bumps with low hysteresis instead of accelerating your 95kg of mass upward, those tires will save a lot of energy, but lighter rims might make you a DNF if they fail. If you’re commuting in an urban area with lots of stops signs/lights, and you’re always trying to accelerate quickly back up to traffic flow speed, you’ll feel the extra effort of accelerating heavy wheels. If you’re trying to out-accelerate Jasper Disaster at the end of a 200km stage, you’ll definitely want those super light rims and tires. So, yeah, for me, the 540g rims on my brevet bike with 32mm supple tires have been great. Steady-state for hundreds of km at a time. Ted Durant Milwaukee, WI USA -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/FA12B1EF-B475-4579-B9C7-FE3132CE2E7C%40gmail.com.
