ITT: Instant Torque Transfer. That is the best way to explain how riding Lightweight Standard wheels feel. I have around 4000 miles on a set that I took to France last summer to ride in the Alps. I first noticed the ITT, a.k.a. acceleration, on climbs when I got out of the saddle. Then I noticed that when riding with the same group that I normally ride with, other riders were shifting to an easier gear at the base of a climb sooner than I was with the Lightweights. Once I got to know the wheels better, I realized how easy it was to change speed on a climb without changing gears. Speed adjustments were simple and easy by just pushing a little harder on the pedals. I know that sounds simplistic, but it typically takes a lot of effort, mental and physical, to accelerate a wheel when you are setting pace on a climb at your anaerobic threshold. Not so with the Lightweights.
The kicker for me was when I had taken the wheels off of my bike for two weeks and replaced them with my other pair of aero wheels, which will go nameless here. I immediately felt the difference. It felt like the tires were under-inflated, like I was riding in mud, or maybe my brakes were rubbing. In the group hierarchy, I went from setting pace at the front of the group on climbs with the Lightweights to pack-fill with my other wheels, instantaneously. I couldn’t believe how much the bike’s acceleration properties changed by exchanging wheels.
So what’s a guy to do? I took back my Lightweights and rode them last weekend on the club rides. I left the other pack-fill scrubbing over sucking the right wheel and rolled away from the group. If you want to change the ride quality of your bike and go from a good climber to a great climber, I highly recommend trying out the Lightweights. We are a Demo Center for these wheels and would be happy to reserve you a set. One of the Demo sets always seems to be out on loan – you can find those wheels planted underneath me.
An additional great feature of the Lightweights is that they are bomb-proof. I have ridden over railroad tracks, through pot holes and over manhole covers with mine. They are running true as new and the braking surface is perfect. In Lightweight’s fourteen years of building carbon wheels, that have had zero, let me repeat that; zero spokes broken. Not one. If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is.
Yes, they are expensive. If your goal is ultimate performance, especially when climbing, you will be at a disadvantage if anyone else in your group is riding these. Just ask the Orange County Bicycle Club and Rockstar Team. They think that I’ve been training. No, I just found a better mouse trap. ITT…make the investment, you will not regret it.
– Paul Levine
