2025/10/09
I have a fat bike that I turned into a gravel bike. I started out with the Canyon Dude cf.8 in the green color, and the first thing I did was to upgrade my bike to a custom carbon wheelset from Light Bicycle... I planned on installing some slick 29 plus sized tires, so I got the 29er wheels with an internal width of 45mm and depth of 22mm. The entire wheelset came in at a little above 1.5 kgs, which saved me roughly 2kg from the stock wheels. That's a lot. I have a friend near me who tuned his all carbon fat gravel bike down to 8.5 kg. My setup will probably come in at a little under 10kgs without the aerobar setup. So it's possible for me to keep up with some of the really light road bikes out there, without too much trouble. The large frame and the big wheels allow me to cruise at high speeds with much more stability and control than regular road bikes, which I esteem to be too flimsy for me to ride, especially at high speeds. The rolling resistance of the tires is actually about the same, because my weight gets spread out over the entire width of the tires, and the sum of the rolling resistance over the larger contact area then just becomes about the same. The largest obstacle to high speed riding actually is wind resistance. So if I can get my body down to a real nice aero position, then I can start rolling at really high speeds. The larger mass of the bike and tires mean that acceleration is a bit slower for me on the fat gravel bike, compared to a really light road bike, but I'm not trying to set any records here, and I can keep up just fine with the other members of my riding club, because my leg muscle power more than makes up for the heavier inertia I have to deal with. Once I get up to speed, when I am merely trying to maintain my speed, then I am actually the one with the advantage over the other riders, because as Sir Newton says, if it is harder to get moving, then it is also harder to get it to stop moving. The principle of the conservation of momentum works in my favor.
I'm having a lot of fun riding around in my fat gravel bike, and the people that see me out on the road think that it really looks cool and are amazed that I can go so fast in it. Well, these wheels from LB make it possible for me to do that, so I have a lot to thank for the people at LB. They are super nice people, and are very talented at making some real nice carbon wheelsets. Before I made the purchase, I made some comparisons with the other manufacturers out there, of course, and LB was offering the best set of wheels in term of price, weight, and performance, so it really was a no brainer for me to make the purchase with LB. I love these wheels, and I love riding around in them. These wheels could not be better for me.
The people at LB were very friendly, helpful, and supportive throughout the entire purchasing process, and I can't be happier about having made this purchase. LB leaves no regrets behind...
