After introducing the Ultegra C50 wheelset in the earlier post, it will now be installed onto the Giant TCR Advanced Disc 2 road bike. This bike comes stock with an aluminium wheelset, so changing it to a carbon wheelset will be a big upgrade with lots of weight savings.
Other than changing the wheelset, new tires will also be used, since it will be very messy to transfer the tubeless stock tires (already with sealant) from the Giant wheelset to the Ultegra wheelset. The top tier Continental GP5000 tires are chosen, because they are one of the best. The normal tubed version is used instead of the tubeless version, since I still think it is easier to use inner tubes for road bikes rather than mess around with sealant. For off-road, sealant and tubeless tires are great, but not necessary for road bikes in my opinion.
Ultegra C50 wheelset with brand new Continental GP5000 tires!
Other components that needed to be new are the disc brake rotors, since the Ultegra wheelset requires Centerlock rotors, but the stock Giant wheelset comes with 6 bolt rotors. Luckily I also had spare Centerlock rotors from previous projects, so it was not a problem.
As I did not want to remove the stock tires and stock rotors from the stock wheelset for the weight comparison, I decided to put on the new rotors and tires onto the new Ultegra wheelset instead. The weight comparison will be done as a sub-assembly (wheel + tire + sealant/inner tube + rotor), for a fair apple-to-apple comparison.
Starting with the front wheel, let's see how much weight was saved from this upgrade.
Ultegra front wheel + tire + inner tube + rotor weighs 1190 grams.
Stock Giant front wheel + tire + sealant + rotor weighs 1440 grams!
There is a difference of 250 grams just from the front.
Ultegra rear wheel + tire + inner tube + rotor weighs 1348 grams.
Stock Giant rear wheel + tire + sealant + rotor weighs 1636 grams.
There is a difference of 288 grams from the rear.
Together, the wheelset change saved a total of 538 grams, which is a huge amount on a road bike. This brings the total bike weight down from 8.6 kg (without pedals) to less than 8.1 kg (without pedals). Not only is there significant weight savings, the aerodynamic performance has been improved with the high profile carbon wheelset. The bike can now climb better and also cruise faster without requiring extra effort.
The dirty cassette was cleaned with the Ultrasonic cleaner before reinstalling onto the Ultegra C50 wheelset.
Looks good as new, apart from the normal wear marks on the surface of the sprockets.
New Ultegra wheelset and Deore XT MT800 160 mm rotor installed!
Rear wheel uses a Metrea RT500 140 mm rotor.
Took the chance to polish the gorgeous frameset.
I love the glitter in the paint!
The bar tape was disintegrating, so took this chance to put on a fresh set of PRO Sport Control bar tape.
Completely overhauled and upgraded, looks really fast now!
The Ultegra C50 wheelset with high profile rims completes the look of a fast aero road bike, as compared to the stock setup which had skinny rims.
I'm pleased to report that after my friend tested the bike with the new wheelset, he could feel the difference immediately! The bike is able to accelerate faster and feels much more lively, as well as giving a smoother ride. The smooth ride probably comes from the clean drivetrain, while the improved ride feel comes from the lighter wheelset with better tires.
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