Soren Klingsporn and Lori Hoefer of Signature Cycles in Greenwich hosted test rides on Lightweight wheels. These Carbon wheels with ceramic bearings are of the highest quality and ridden by the top pros. Only a few pros such as Erik Zabel and Mario Cipollini have sponsorship from Lightweight, while others such as Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer had to buy these wheels themselves to race on. Why would riders like that spend money on wheels when they have free wheels from their own sponsors? Because Lightweights will make you faster in everyday conditions. FYI – David Bell, CEO of Carbon Sports North America doesn’t mind that many of the riders who race and win on his wheels do so with other stickers covering up the name Lightweight to fulfill sponsor obligations. He shares a secret that Leipheimer won his recent Olympic bronze medal on a Lightweight rear disk wheel covered in his sponsor’s decals.
The test ride: I met Soren, Lori, and David at Signature Cycles Saturday morning at 8:40 am. Since my bike is still old school with eight-gears, I pulled a dirty Duro-ace 13-26 cassette off my trusted Mavic Helium wheel to make it quick and easy for Soren to slide it on the Lightweight test wheel. Soren set me up quickly as I changed and got ready. I also had to check out their unique shop. I cannot call it a bike shop, it’s more a cycling experience. First, there’s no grease marks anywhere and the main showroom feels more like a spa than a bike shop on any Main Street in the USA. Each bike is given its own space to be viewed, not unlike sculptures on exhibit in an art gallery, and only the elite names of custom builders are on the floor, Seven, Serotta, Guru, PARLEE, and Independent Fabrications. In back is the fitting room where they will spend over two hours doing their Level One Fit, which uses the Computrainer in the Spin Scan pedal stroke analysis mode along with Dartfish Video Motion Analysis. If that’s not enough to make sure your bike is working for you and not against you; they use a digital laser foot scanning technology to analyze your peddle stroke.
Oh yea, the ride: Soren puts the standard Lightweights (16 spoke front and 20 spoke rear) on my old steel frame and comments, “You’ll feel the difference riding up the drive.” Which I did when Lori, Soren, David and I headed out of Greenwich on Lake Avenue. Since Soren is a Cat 2 racer, he and David took the front and Lori and I sat on as we road in a tight two abreast formation. I was stunned at how fantastic these wheels felt under me. They accelerate so quickly I felt like I lost 20 pounds and was back in the shape I was when I raced. Lori also commented how their quick acceleration, and being a three time New York Master’s road champion she would know. We welcomed their solid feel as we got familiar with them and did not notice any effects on the deep-dish rim from the 15mph crosswind. They eat up a rough road or bump in comfort. They do not jar the rider or cause control issues like some super stiff wheels. These wheels also prove that old adage that wheels are the most important part of a bike.
I knew the hills would come, a test ride of a super light wheelset wouldn’t be complete without climbing and fast descents to really gauge their capabilities. We climbed a favorite of many Westchester Cycling Club rides John Street, in the exclusive Northeast corner of Connecticut and found our wheels to be stiff and without brake rub when standing on the peddles to tackle the steep sections. Somehow, it was fitting that I was ridding past million dollar estates I could only dream of owning on wheels that were also well above my budget. The four sets of wheels are worth as much as an average new car. We then descended and had great confidence in the wheel at speeds over 40mph, but Lori and I both noticed some minor push of a crosswind on our front wheels. The wheel still built confidence and went where pointed and was FAST. We rolled up and down a number of other climbs back to Greenwich and pushed them a little more on each downhill. I had no trouble getting into deep leans rounding some of the tight turns on these narrow country roads. This is where the rigid aspect of this wheel comes into play, it’s stiff laterally in cornering where it’s needed but not ever harsh. The wheel is unique in its spoke design, building strength across the wheel by a single spoke running from one side of the rim to the DT Swiss Hugi 240 hubs and on to the other side of the rim. During a short regrouping David comments something to the effect of, “See how you can take an older bike and pimp it out with a great set of wheels.” Sorry, that’s not a direct quote but I was trying to catch my breath from the climb and didn’t have a note pad or pen with me.

Heading back Lake Avenue we fell into a faster paceline and let the aerodynamics come into play at speed. These wheels snap when punched to crest a roller in the big ring easily giving you another gear to keep your momentum on the move. As we waited at traffic lights back in town, David talked about Lightweight’s 13-year history, which is early in the game of carbon cycling components. An early example is Bjarne Riis use of Lightweights on the mountain stages in his now controversial 1996 Tour de France victory. Another case is how Mario Cipollini won his last World championship in 2002 on a set and then loaned them to his teammate Marco Pantani for mountain stages in the Giro – an example of what a well-rounded wheel Lightweight builds.

Our last half mile was behind a new Maserati GranTurismo, a car at the level of Lightweight wheels. My bike was like an old Camero with worn-out engine and leaking shocks. I couldn’t help but think if I was still racing, these wheels would have moved me from a top 20 placing in the Master’s Killington Stage Race to a top ten, and would have been worth their price tag of $4,600. Their name Lightweight says it all. But often in cycling lightweight can also mean flimsy, but definitely not in this case. Lightweights are the way to go if you can afford the price. Built in Germany by only three people with the skill to make them, they are of the highest quality and strong, fast, and dependable.

Thanks to Lightweight and Signature Cycles for a great ride on a fantastic set of wheels.