The Ultimate Guide to Bike Wheels

 The beauty of cycling is that you can enjoy a sunny day while getting enough exercise to keep you fit and healthy. The main health benefit of cycling is keeping your cardiovascular health in good shape. Cycling outdoors also helps you feel better and it can serve as an alternative to your commute.

You get to use almost every muscle in your body and you get to increase balance and burn calories at the same time. Cycling even helps increase your flexibility as well as joint mobility and coordination. There's honestly no better way to get all the health benefits of cycling than any other sporting activity in such a low-impact manner.

What Matters in a Bike Wheel

source: unsplash.com

Rim

First and foremost you should take a good look at the width of the rim. The rim of a bicycle wheel can vary quite a bit. Nowadays wider rims are more popular since they allow for a stiffer wheel and a bigger tyre volume. Because of this, wider rims make for more comfortable bike wheels and also better control over your bike with fewer chances for pinch flats. 

Axle Size

The size of the axle will also have a great impact on your new wheels for bikes. If you have a bike with rim brakes that's been made in the last two decades, you probably have a 130 mm quick-release rear axle. The 130 mm are the width of the axle which largely depends on the type of brakes your bicycle uses. Everything is interconnected here.

source: bikerumor.com 

Axle Attachment

The way the axle attaches to the frame affects the wheels too. A quick-release skewer or a thru-axle are going to be the two options. The former slides through an axle that is fitted into the dropouts. This is how the wheel stays in its place once you flip the skewer's lever over, which then clamps the wheel into place. A wheel with a thru-axle is made so that the axle slides through frame holes with one of them being threaded.

Tyre Dimensions

The pairing of numbers on tyres refers to their dimension. For example a 700 x 23 tyre is one that has an outer diameter of 700 mm and a width of 23 mm. This pairing of numbers is different on different bike tyres. The diameter of your tyres should always match the size of your wheels.

Freehubs & Drivetrain

source: road.cc

The compatibility between the drivetrain and freehub needs to be complete. Although some freehubs are backwards-compatible, nowadays you still need to pay attention to their design and if it works with the drivetrain brand of your bike. This is because the freehub holds the cassette of the drivetrain and thus allows the rear wheel to spin.

Spoke Count

The number of spokes used in the wheel determines the performance of the wheel. Today's wheelsets tend to use the lowest number of spokes required in order to make for the best performance on the road but not all bikes are made the same. Some are made for more heavy-duty riding which is why some bicycle wheel designs have a higher spoke count.

Brakes

source: colinabikes.com

There are two types of brakes bikes can use and each one determines the type of bike wheels you'll need to go for. You will either have a set of rim or disc brakes. Rim brakes are an older design that will force you to get a bicycle wheel with a flat rim so the brakes work properly. If your bike has disc brakes, then the wheels need to be disc-compatible. This means they need to have a perforated ring that encircles the hub and a rotor with either a 6-bolt mount or a centre lock mount.

Types of Bike Tyres

Clincher

The most standard type of tyre used nowadays is a clincher tyre which uses a separate inner tube to hold the air in. This design makes the tyre bead sit into a hooked rim in order to stay in place. When a bike's tyres aren't mentioned, you can expect them to be clincher tyres. 

Tubeless

source: trekbikes.com

If you have a mountain bike you probably have tubeless tyres since tubeless technology has been the standard in mountain bikes for quite some time now. But unlike clincher tyres, tubeless tyres don't make use of an inner tube. Instead, tubeless-ready rims as well as sealant are used to make for what looks like an airtight clincher tyre. The design of tubeless tyres is inspired by that of a car tyre.

Tubular

Also known as tubs, tubular tyres are the oldest bike tyres you can get your hands on. Like clincher tyres, they too have an inner tube, but this time the tube is sewn into a tyre casing that is fully enclosed. This tyre casing is either taped or glued onto the rim. There are also tubeless tubular tyres which are not that commonly used. Tubular tyres make for lighter wheels for bikes.