Disc brake road bike is a popular trend in the road bicycle market, because of better braking performance, higher frame rigidity and excellent aerodynamic performance etc. Besides, an important reason/advantage is come from the disc brake road wheelset.

Why is the disc brake road wheelset better to ride？

In fact, not all disc brake road wheels are better than the same type of rim brake wheelset. Only an optimized disc brake wheelset is better.

The secret of the disc brake wheel is better in riding: the rim weight ratio.

The bicycle wheel set is roughly composed of three main parts: rims, spokes and hubs. The weight ratio of the rim and the hub will greatly affect the ride experience and the corresponding wheel set performance. This is also one of the most important reasons for the difference in riding feel between the rim brake clincher wheel set and tubular wheel set. The tubular wheelset has a lighter weight than the clincher wheelset. In the same way, since the disc brake rim has no brake track, the rim is lighter, which will greatly change the experience of riding.

Why the lighter wheel set is better to ride?

1. The principle of moment of inertia.

The principle of action of the moment of inertia is that the mass away from the center of rotation is more difficult to rotate than the mass near the center of rotation. When applied to a bicycle wheelset, most of the pedaling force is used to drive the rim, and driving the hub only consumes a small amount of force.

2. Newton's second law.

The content of Newton's second law is that the magnitude of the object's acceleration is proportional to the force the object is subjected to, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object. The direction of the acceleration is the same as the direction of the external force. When studying the motion acceleration of an object, we can use the α = t/i formula to explain the problem, where α is the rotational acceleration, t is the torsion, and i is the instantaneous inertia. In other words, when the torque is the same, the inertia of the object is smaller (the lighter the rim), and the acceleration is about fast.

3. Sum up in simple and easy to understand vernacular.

The lighter the weight of the rim, the faster the acceleration and the less energy required to drive.

Let us look at the rotational mass inertia effect (abbreviated as flywheel effect).

Some friends have to ask questions, then if the rim is heavier, the inertia is not even bigger, is the cruise better?

In some cases, a heavier rim will make your riding performance better, such as a flat road race or an indoor venue race. However, when riding on most roads, the extra rim weight will only burden your ride. Heavier rims require the Cavaliers to have more force to create the flywheel effect, but in reality this does more harm than good, both in a single acceleration or in actual rides (intermittent rides).

The riding experience of the disc brake road is far more than the braking performance and the rigidity improvement that the body can't feel. It is also the improvement of the riding experience brought by the more optimized circle-to-weight ratio of the disc brake wheel set.