How Much Do Road Bike Wheels Weigh? Data from More than 400 Wheelsets

I have collected data on more than 400 road bike wheelsets from leading and less known manufacturers to find the answer to the following question:

How much do road bike wheels weigh?

Road bike wheels weigh anywhere between 1000 and 2000g (with a few exceptions). Their weight depends on the rim material, brake type, hubs, spokes, etc. Good carbon wheels (rim depth of around 45mm) should weigh between 1300 and 1699g. About 75% of the wheelsets from my dataset fell into this weight range.

Continue reading to see visualized data of the weights of road bike wheels depending on their depth, material, type, weight distributions, the lightest road bike wheels, and more.

Are you ready to get started?

Let’s dive in!

IMPORTANT NOTES

• This research includes wheelsets from the following brands: Black Inc, Bontrager, Cadex, Campagnolo, Corima, DT Swiss, ENVE, Easton, FFWD, FLO, Fulcrum, Giant, HUNT, Hayes, ICAN, Lightweight, Mavic, Mercury Wheels, Roval, Trifox, Vision, Winspace (Lún), YOELEO, and ZIPP.
• Weights and other technical details were taken from each product’s official website.
• Components like hubs and spokes also influence the overall weight, but to keep things simple, I didn’t take multiple variants into account.
• Data were collected in November 2021.

Wheelsets Data Info

Below, you learn more info about the road bike wheelsets I summarized.

Types of Wheelsets

The following chart shows their percentage representation in my datasheet.

Tubeless wheelsets dominate the market. Almost 70% of road bike wheelsets are tubeless-ready. Only 17% are ‘just’ clincher (not tubeless-ready) and 15% are tubular.

Rim Material

This chart details the material of the rims. Most are made from carbon (83%), and the rest are from aluminum (17%).

You learn more about how the material affects the weight later in this article.

Brake Type

The type of brakes wheels are designed for may also influence their weight. The following chart shows the percentage of wheelsets for rim and disc brakes.

In my road bikes statistics I proved, that rim brake road bikes are in the minority. Therefore is no surprise that the offer of the rim brake wheelsets is also smaller (42.5%) than the offer of disc brake wheelsets (57.5%).

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TIP: Browse the best road bike wheels from low-end to high-end.

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Weight of Road Bike Wheels

The following chart shows the average weight of the wheelsets depending on the rim depth.

This categorization also allowed me to estimate how the weight of the wheelsets changes depending on the rim depth. Every 10mm of rim depth adds roughly 30 to 160g.

Please, keep in mind that I included only carbon road bike wheelsets and excluded wheelsets with two different rim depths (e.g., 65mm front and 75mm rear).

(Carbon) Road Bike Wheels Weight Distribution

The result reminds me of the Gaussian distribution. The majority (about 75%) of carbon wheels weigh between 1300 and 1699g.

Weight Depending on Wheel Type

As you probably guess, tubular wheelsets are the lightest. This is because of the savings on the material (tubular wheels have no sidewalls).

Tubular wheels are about 15% lighter on average than clincher and tubless-ready wheels. Tubeless and clincher wheels weigh more or less the same on average.

Weight Depending on Rim Material

Although aluminum road bike wheels are mostly shallow (they have rim depth below 35mm), their average weight is higher than the average weight of carbon wheels (their rim depth varies between 20 to 88mm).

See the following chart.

What is a good weight for road bike wheels?

Based on the data above, a ‘good weight’ for road bike wheels is below the average of 1650g or less for aluminum road bike wheels, and below the average of 1510g for carbon road bike wheels.

However, if we define ‘good weight’ depending on your riding style and the terrain you ride in the most, these numbers will vary (learn more).

Weight Depending on Brake Type

The brake type also influences the weight of the wheelset. For example, disc brake wheelsets are heavier by about 3% than rim brake wheels. This is a difference of about 40g.

The following chart combines the brake type with rim depth. The empty space in the 70-79mm interval is caused by no samples of rim brake wheelsets in this interval.

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You might also be interested in these budget road bike wheels.

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Summary

I hope you enjoyed reading these stats as I did when making them.

The key takeaway of my research is that about 75% of road bike wheels from my data set of more than 400 wheels weigh between 1300 and 1699g.

Their weight is mainly influenced by the material, rim depth, spokes, and hubs.

Please, share these road bike wheels weight statists stats or comment below.

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Road Bike Wheels Weight FAQ

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Sources