grahamkissack,

Did you weigh the wheels without the skewers and without the cassette? That's how they arrive at the factory weights. Also no rim tape. In other words, no nothing, just the wheels.

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Ben Cline


Better to aspire to Greatness and fail, than to not challenge one's self at all, and succeed.

Well, what Ben said is correct.

To that I will also add the fact that there are sometimes minor to major differences in product weight from what is quoted- in both directions.

Especially with some production techniques there is not an enormous or precise degree of control over how much material is included in a given product. Some production techniques are highly precise. From our experience, if you weigh 6 sets of Speedplay Zero pedals they are all identical in weight to the gram and exactly what Speedplay says they are.

But with hand laminated products sometimes there is the opportunity to add a few grams here, loose a few grams there. That means weights turn out different from product to product within exactly the same thing. Now, realistically, it shouldn't be a huge difference that I am aware of.

I can recall that Greg LeMond, who was a rampant weight freak, used to weigh five cranks and get five different weights, then he would take the lightest one.

This goes back to the issue of published weights. People frequently ask us, "How much does this bike weigh?" which seems like a reasonable question. I can almost never give them a specific answer since a 52cm Megabike SuperKonaDeluxe may weigh 15.7 pounds for one example, but the exact same SuperKonaDeluxe in 52cm suddently weighs 15.9 pounds or 15.6 pounds for some reason.

So, weight is obviously important, but it is not a reliable way to compare products when you get down to very small differences.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Thanks for the input. Yes the wheels were weighed without skewers or cassette. I was just suprised by the variation. I had my friend bring his over (identical Hed disc) and it weighed 1402 grams. I just figured they would have less variability.

I assume the extra 150 grams amounts to only seconds over an IM distance as per Analyticcycling's website and lessons learned?

Any thoughts on the tire's?

Thanks, Graham

We've seen Vittoria really take the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) market by storm over the last two seasons with their excellent Rubino tire models (of which there are a number of versions) and the Zaffiro tires also.

These are the best OEM tires I have ever seen in the bike industry. Nice ride, great durabiltiy, nice graphics too. We don't have to make excuses for OEM tire spec with these anymore. Cervelo uses a lot of them as do many other fine bike companies.

One spin off of this has been slightly heavier, more robust tires intended for training primarily and subordinating light weight for durability.

That said, Vittoria has also recently introduced some very light race-specific time trail tires at the other end of the spectrum, so their product mix is expansive and ecclectic. There is something for everyone.

I also like Continental a lot, and Vittoria and Continental are, somewhat oddly, represented by the same wholesale distribution company in the US, Bikemine, an excellent distributor that US bike dealers also buy Fizik saddles and a number of other fine products from.

I think the weights on Vittoria have just "crept up" on some models as they have added features and benefits to the tires. This isn't too big of a problem on training tires and since Vittoria also has awesome, lightweight, go fast tires too for those like, ahhh, "racing" clinchers.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Although it is not going to make much real world difference, almost 150 grams over spec implies either poor quality control or significant gram deflation/exaggeration on Hed's part, especially since some other manufacturers products hew much more closely to spec than this (I'm thinking Zipp & Renn).

I think you'll generally find that while some products do in fact come in under spec, if they do it is by small amounts (10-30 grams) and if they are over spec it is often by larger amounts (30-150 grams). Gee, I wonder why?

I use Vittoria corsa CX for both training and racing, they're pricey but for me training is almost as important as racing (perhaps I should say racing is not much more important than training) so I like to use a nice tire for both, and subjectively they seem to roll a bit nicer than other tires I've ridden and I've had very good luck with puncture resistance. I'm not a big fan of ultralight clinchers, I think the 230 grams of the Vittoria is a sensible weight for a clincher tire.

Actually, Vittoria rates the Open Corsa CX 700x23 at 230 grams, so they came in right at advertised spec. You'll find great ride quality with the Corsa as well as traction and low rolling resistance from the 290TPI casing. That may come at the price of slightly less cut resistance though. I'd still say they are a top choice for race clinchers though. I use the Vittoria Diamante Pro for training tires. They're actually lighter at 210 grams and are more durable, as well as being less expensive. If you are really concerned about weight for an uphill event, Vittoria now has a 175 gram Diamante Pro Light clincher. They seem like a safer choice than the Conti Supersonics, but are still on the light side.

Heres some weights I got a few years ago on tubular wheels:

zipp 404 front-625

zipp 404 rear-746

hed deep rear-1075

hed trispoke front-876