Worth the weight?

I wrote last time about changing the project bike's wheelset, specifically swapping out the stock 2016 Giant SR-2 alloy clinchers with a pair of Mavic Aksium Elite hoops that I'd sourced secondhand.

Well, I haven't done the back wheel yet, as I'm waiting for a new lockring tool to be delivered, but the results are in for the front wheel. And they are, truth be told, a little underwhelming.

The weight of the front Aksium Elite, bare except for rim-tape and skewer, registered as 882g on the Kitchen Scales of Inaccuracy^TM. The Giant SR-2 front wheel, in the same bare state, clocked in at 910g. So a weight saving, sure ... but 28g isn't much. I must admit to feeling a little disappointed. Part of the reason for this is that Giant make it very hard to find weight information for anything they sell, whether that's a stem, a wheelset or a whole bike, to the extent that you're reliant on reviews to find any weight data. Unsurprisingly, I hadn't been able to find any reviews of a six year old wheelset, just this comment on Reddit that gave the weight of the front wheel as 930g.

Anyway, it's not all bad news. Since I had the wheel off and the scales out, I weighed both skewers separately too. The Mavic skewer showed as 60g, the Giant at 56g. So the Giant skewer went on with the Mavic wheel. Another 4g saved.

I also took the opportunity to fit a light weight inner tube whilst I was at it, specifically a Schwalbe Extra Light. My size of choice is the 18c-25c with 50mm Presta valve, so I can tell you that size weighs in at 76g. As for the Vavert that came out of the tyre, well, it's quite hard to fit a deflated, user tube on some kitchen scales ... the only reading I managed to get was 125g. I'm not convinced that's right but, if it was, I made more of a weight saving changing an inner tube than I did replacing a wheel...

Oh, and since prospective Giant owners have to rely on bloggers and reviewers for weight data, let me reiterate the following:

A 2016 Giant SR-2 front wheel, bare except from rim-tape and skewer, weighs 910g.

The skewer that comes with a 2016 Giant SR-2 front wheel weighs 56g.

It's unlikely, but I hope that helps someone.

Wheel-y exciting

So, I wrote last time that the stock Giant SR-2 wheels on the project bike are fine and run true but seem heavy - you can certainly feel them when you try to spin up to speed quickly (like cresting a hill, for example).

Decent, light, robust wheels are expensive though, and I'm trying to build something half decent on a budget. So what to do?

What to do is act fast when you see something half-decent being sold secondhand, that's what.

That said, time will tell whether I've been wise, lucky or foolish but, for now, let me just report that I saw a Mavic Aksium Elite wheelset going secondhand, lightly used and in good condition, for £100. And I jumped in.

For comparison, the SR-2 wheelset run out at 2,130g for the pair, bare apart from rim-tape. The claimed weight for the Aksium Elite is 1,735g. So not super light but, in theory, offering very nearly a 400g weight reduction that will hopefully translate to better acceleration. And who knows, I might even save a gram or two on the skewers :)

I haven't fitted them yet though, so we'll see. I'm waiting on a delivery of a new tyre for the back wheel because, as I've mentioned before, the existing tyre has been flattened, presumably by lots of turbo trainer mileage. All I can tell you for now is that they have very cool bladed spokes. Other than that, watch this space to see how the new wheels (and tyre) go, and if I can feel the weight difference afterwards.

As a footnote, I should add that Mavic don't make the Aksium Elite any more. I'm hoping the fact that it had such a short shelf-life is all to do with the trend towards wheels for disc brakes, and the fact that the clincher market could no longer support both the Aksium and Aksium Elite, and nothing to do with some design flaw or inherent crappiness. I guess we'll find out...

The Tyre Glider: is it really a game-changer?

If, like me, you watch cycling videos on YouTube, you might have seen reviews like this for the Tyre Glider, making great claims about how it is a game-changer and that you can say goodbye to tyre levers. I mean, that sounds great, doesn't it? Who wouldn't take a punt on that for a tenner?

Well, it's £13 actually, once you add the postage, but that's still a decent price if the claims are true. So, first impressions - it's an interesting looking thing, not immediately or intuitively obvious regarding how to use it for tyre off/on modes, but easy enough to understand once you watch their instructional video. And at only 23g, it's not going to weigh you down either. So, great in theory ... how about in practice?

As "luck" would have it, I've just had my first puncture of the year, so at last I had a chance to try out my new toy. For context, the punctured tyre was on a Prime Baroudeur SE wheel, shod with a 25mm Continental Gatorskin tyre. Now the Baroudeur is 26mm deep, which is not insignificant for a lightweight alloy clincher, and has a 19mm internal rim. As for the Gatorskin, well ... it's a Gatorskin. Not the most pliant or forgiving, I think it's fair to say. Basically, I was setting the Tyre Glider a fair challenge.

And it fell at the first hurdle. Whilst I could get the Glider seated under the Gatorskin, I just couldn't get it moving enough to remove the tyre. Sure, I could have applied a dab of washing-up liquid here and there, to help, but I'm not always going to be doing this in my kitchen, like today, am I? And maybe I could have pushed harder, or for longer, but I already pushed hard and long enough to make my hand sore (though this wouldn't have been a problem if I'd had cycling gloves on). Anyway, the simple fact is that I could get the Tyre Glider in place but couldn't use it to get the tyre off. Instead, I had to dig out a trusty conventional tyre lever to give me an extra point of leverage - only then could I get the Tyre Glider moving, at which point - hooray - the tyre came off nicely. But not a great start.

So, I was prepared to be underwhelmed when it came to putting the tyre back on - after all, I've always found that the harder job, especially with this wheel/tyre combo. But after getting the Tyre Glider seated on the wheel rim correctly (it took two tries, but wasn't difficult), blimey - I have never refitted a tyre so easily before. Ever. Even that last little bit, you know, the last eight inches that doesn't want to pop back on the rim: just hold the wheel between your legs, position it so that you're pushing down on the Glider (as opposed to sideways), and voilà! On it popped. And without recourse to tyre levers, sweating and swearing, or sore thumbs. Brilliant!

TLDR: a decent addition to your saddle-bag that is a game-changer when it comes to reseating your tyre, but you'd be unwise to discard your tyre levers just yet, in my view. ★★★★☆

BUY: Tyre Glider, currently £9.99 (+ £2.99 P&P) from Tyre Glider

Full disclosure: I bought this with my own money. If anyone wants to give me kit in exchange for an honest review, I'm open to that, but unless I explicitly say otherwise everything I review on here will be sourced and paid for by yours truly.

Less is more

There are whole corners of the cycling web devoted to weight reduction. Go on, Google "weight weenies", I'll wait.

Quite a rabbit hole, isn't it?

Now I'm not going to get into a bespoke set of bike-weighing scales (yes, they exist) but I have been quite inspired by the thought of upgrading my trusty old road bike, in part inspired by this excellent video. The final push has come from the recent spate of punctures though, prompting me to replace my somewhat worn tyres. So out go the brilliant (until this week) Schwalbe Durano Plus, which have put in well over 2,000 miles in the last nine months. And in come... what?

After extensive Googling, in will come Hutchinson Fusion 5 Kevlar Pro Tech. Yes, you read that right. Kevlar! Whereas the Durano Plus relied on an extra 5mm of rubber on the outer surface to provide sterling puncture protection, the Hutchinson have Kevlar. That, and the fact that they're foldable tyres, rather then the wired Schwalbe, should equate to a fair weight saving. Ditto the new Schwalbe extra light tubes I'd ordered.

That's what I thought when I went to bed last night. This morning, I got the scales out, to see whether this was rational in the cold light of day or whether I was falling down the weight-weenie rabbit hole. The results are in:

Part-worn Schwalbe Durano Plus 700x25c wired	494g	(Unscientifically weighed with, er, kitchen scales)
Hutchinson Fusion 5 Kevlar Pro Tech 700x25c folding	215g	(Claimed)
Potential weight saving of (494g-215g) x 2 tyres =	558g
Schwalbe 700c 18-28c 60mm Presta tube	113g	(Kitchen scales)
Schwalbe Extra Light 700c 18-25c 60mm Presta tube	80g	(Claimed)
Potential weight saving of (113g-80g) x 2 tubes =	66g
Potential total weight saving =	624g

Now part of me thinks brilliant, that's a great saving! And part of me looks at my old-man's paunch and thinks that there are much bigger weight savings to be made, if I could only stay off the flapjacks and Minstrels. But the point is, I may save nearly two thirds of a kilogram just by judiciously replacing things I needed to replace anyway, and without breaking the bank. That's a win, surely?

Next consideration - the wheelset. I weighed the Giant IOU333 front wheel that came with the bike, twelve long years ago, and it clocked 865g with the quick-release spindle in. That's not bad, actually. But I've been looking at the Prime Baroudeur SE Road wheelset from Wiggle (Prime being one of their in-house brands), where the front wheel weighs in at 661g. Assuming a pro-rated saving on the heavier rear too and I could be looking at another 465g of weight saving, just by upgrading my wheels. Except, brilliant value though the Prime wheelset is in the Wiggle sale, it's £175 that I don't actually need to spend...