What makes a balance bike a good balance bike - apart from good looks? It should be light. Because of the mountains, and because everyone has a set of scales at home. A sub-chapter of weight is the inertia of the wheels: it determines how easily they can be accelerated, which has to do not only with the weight but also with the distribution of the mass - and as little of this as possible should be on the outer edge of the wheel. However, fast does not only mean light and agile, but above all aerodynamic. Because the most powerful opponent of the road cyclist is the airstream, which is invisibly caught in the spokes and thus slows down the ride. The wheel should also be stiff so that the power can be transferred to the road without any problems, which usually also benefits the durability of the system. And as part of the braking system, the rims should decelerate as smoothly as possible. To summarise, the criteria are: light, aerodynamic, stiff, durable and good braking performance. We tested how well the wheels fulfil these sometimes contradictory requirements in the wind tunnel at the Technical University of Lyon, on the road and in the TOUR laboratory.
A broad test field
The 16 test wheelsets are all-rounders with different centres of gravity and cover a weight range between 1,341 and 1,935 grams, the average being 1,635 grams. The rims are between 20.8 and 41.6 millimetres high and have between 16 and 28 spokes. They are between 1.2 and 4 millimetres thick, partly round and partly aerodynamically shaped. All wheels are suitable for clincher tyres, Shimano's "Ultegra" wheels and the "RR1450 Tricon" from DT Swiss also seal tubeless tyres.
SHORT & SHORT
With aluminium as a basis, reasonably light, stiff and aerodynamic wheels can be produced that are suitable for both training and competition. The ingredients are medium-high profiles with a teardrop-shaped cross-section for the rims and few spokes. This makes the wheels quite aerodynamic and yet passably light. Three wheels are tied in the overall ranking: Campagnolo's "Zonda", the SRAM "S27 AL Comp" and the SRAM "S30 AL Race". Higher aluminium profiles only provide a very small additional aero advantage in this test. Mavic's "RSys SL" marks the pinnacle of lightweight aluminium construction.
The test results of these wheels can be found below as a PDF download:
A Class alx 680
Campagnolo Zonda
DT Swiss RR-1450 Tricon
Easton EA90 TT
Mavic Aksium
Mavic Ksyrium Elite
Mavic R-Sys SL
Reynolds Solitude
Ritchey WCS Zeta
Shimano Ultegra WH-6700
SRAM S27 AL Comp
SRAM S30 AL Race
Tune Edelweisz
Veltec Typhoid
Vision Trimax Pro
Xtreme Aero Wheels II
Downloads:
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