Mountain Bike Wheels Carbon Vs Aluminum
Lighter rims require less energy to get moving spinning up faster.
Mountain bike wheels carbon vs aluminum. Ride quality is more noticeable on road frames than mountain frames with vibrations being damped by carbon more so than. Matt wragg details his experiments with carbon and aluminum wheels to determine if more comfort leads to more. Global cycling network 1 201 681 views. Carbon mountain bike rims are roughly 20 30 percent lighter than an alloy rim of the same dimensions with greater rigidity and impact resistance.
Well in order to compare what difference carbon made to wheels we got ahold of two sets of noxon wheel sets. Mountain bike action is a monthly magazine devoted to all things mountain biking yes that s 12 times a year because we never take a month off of mountain biking. One set in aluminum the other in carbon. There are two main frame materials you will encounter when deciding to buy a mountain bike carbon and aluminium.
Mountain bikers don t need aerodynamics. We then set to work riding them discovering the differences between the two materials on the same bike on the same trail back to back. Bars cranks brake levers brake pads wheels and even stem caps. Most of the bikes ridden at world cup enduro world series level will be carbon although it isn t ubiquitous but it would be simplistic and maybe even wrong to say that carbon is objectively better.
There s no shortage of them and the price difference here will also depend on the bike part. Bike riders often wonder what the difference is between carbon and aluminum bike wheels so in this video we ll tell you everything you need to know. Mountain bike frames made of carbon are certainly more expensive than aluminium ones but for example carbon wheels can be almost 7 times more expensive than their alloy equivalents. The primary difference between carbon and aluminum comes down to weight and ride quality.
Bike parts are lighter and offer better performance than ever. On a carbon bike the catastrophic failure point is much higher than an aluminum bike due to the flex qualities of the carbon material. What this meant is that for much of mountain bike history stiffer meant better. Carbon frames are usually a bit lighter than aluminum up to a pound for mountain frames and up to a half pound on road frames.