Extra Mass on Bike Wheels Is Worse than on Frames
Ex-Continental Tour Rider [1] &amp; Computer Engineering Science PhD-student talking here.<p>---<p>TL;DR
Considering reasonable wheels: Wheel stiffness is more important than weight. A too light wheel, is not stable.<p>---<p>Wired&#x27;s physics are correct. However, neglect mechanical dynamics &amp; handling.<p>Probably the biggest downside of light (&amp; aero even more) wheels is: When your wheels are very light, they are prone to cross winds and &quot;jump around&quot; a lot due to their low inertia. And, well, you always have cross winds and bumpy roads, because only very few of us are track riders.<p>Considering the acceleration, you lose a lot of energy by &quot;twisting&quot; the wheel. That is: the hub starts to turn because the chain you pull with the crank arm in front is forcing it to do so. Then, all this tension is transferred to the spokes, rim and finally the tire. In that process most wheels lose a significant amount of energy by simply storing it via elastic torsion and releasing the energy without contributing to movement at all. As already said in another comment, we &quot;pulse&quot; the energy to the back wheel, as the maximum pulse comes due to our own biomechanics. And we have two pulses per revolution with a zero at almost vertical crank arm alignment!<p>Therefore you want to have stiff wheels! Which stands in stark contrast to light wheels.<p>The company Lightweight basically made its money by creating aerodynamic and very very stiff wheels for the weight they had. These wheels, however, are not maintainable any more &amp; very expensive [2].<p>---<p>[1]: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.uci.ch&#x2F;road&#x2F;ucievents&#x2F;continentalcircuits&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.uci.ch&#x2F;road&#x2F;ucievents&#x2F;continentalcircuits&#x2F;</a><p>[2]: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lightweight.info&#x2F;us&#x2F;en" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lightweight.info&#x2F;us&#x2F;en</a>