I agree with your analysis -- a lighter bike can be built with a rim brake bike with less effort and less botique parts than a disk brake bike, especially the recent ones where they have AXS gruppo on it.
All I am saying is that while the overall bike weight has become heavier (AXS, integrated front end etc.), it is common to see wheelsets weights for disc in the 1200 g-ish range. This used to be the vaunted rim brake tubular wheelset weight realm from the yester years.
In this respect, 1600 g is h.e.a.v.y. if you want disc brake wheels.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark McM
Well, it's a bit of an apples/oranges comparison, to compare recent all carbon disc brake wheels to a carbon/aluminum rim brake wheels from a few years ago. Particularly since the wheels don't move on their own, they have to be part of a complete bike.
The primary reason for the aluminum brake tracks on the HED wheels is braking performance. As has been noted, the recent move to disc brakes has been largely fueled by the issues with braking on all carbon rims. Since carbon disc brake wheels need, well, disc brakes, you have to also consider the extra 600 grams or so of weight added to the bike due to disc brakes, and not just the 360 gram reduction from the wheels alone. Which means that when you look at the big picture, those 1240 gram carbon disc wheels may result in a heavier bike, by total weight.
Just for yuks, I weighed a couple of my bikes for comparison. I have a Specialized Aethos (disc brake) with Roval Alpinist CLX wheels. The wheels have 33mm deep carbon rims, and weigh 1260 grams. Total bike weight, 14 lb. I also have a set of HED Jet 4 wheels (aluminum/carbon rim brake) which weigh 1600 grams, which I installed on a Trek Emonda (rim brake). This bike with the HED wheels had a total weight of 13 3/4 lb. So the bike with HED Jet aluminum carbon wheels was lighter than the bike with the 1260 gram all carbon wheels, while still maintaining the good braking performance of aluminum brake tracks.
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