Lightweight About Carbon Sports and Lightweight:
Details
We brought in a set of Lightweight Standard III clincher wheels as a first representative of the brand. We planned that, if we could get our customers out on a set of these wheels, sales would inevitably follow. The fist person we put on the wheel set was our bookkeeper, a nice 54 year old, attractive (she is my wife), lady who has been riding with us regularly for about five years. We now have first hand knowledge of what is meant by "Death Grip". We also have first hand knowledge of what it means to be smoked on serious hills. So our plan worked and our plan didn't work. The first person to try Lightweight wheels now owns a set of Lightweight wheels. That part worked. On the other hand we are a bit worried about how this "demo" thing is going to play out.
CarbonSports
The company CarbonSports as the owner of the Lightweight brand was founded in 2002 by Erhard Wissler and Stefan Behrens. Original purpose was the production and commercialization of highend carbon fiber road bike frames. In October 2003 CarbonSports bought the Lightweight brand. Heinz Obermayer, one of the original inventors of the Lightweight wheels and another partner are completing the list of shareholders. Since 2003 production, development and marketing of the Lightweight products are the main goals of CarbonSports. Lightweight wheels are being sold in more than 20 countries around the world. Today more than 40 families gain their income by working in the Lightweight facilities in Friedrichshafen and Hailfingen holding the high quality standard of “Lightweight – handgefertigt in Deutschland”.
History
The Lightweight history is strongly linked to the best and most successful road bike pros of the World. These guys were the first riders, who raced the revolutionary Lightweight wheels at World Campionships and all the big races on the planet and spread the word into the international road racing scene.
Lightweight wheels exist since1995 (and got some further developments in many details since then). 1996 the world championship was won on Lightweight wheels. A well known Danish road bike pro who was always keen to experiments decided after long time tests on a track to use the in that time exotic Lightweight wheels on the climbing stages of the Tour de France.
16 hours to get the perfect wheel
16 hours to get the perfect wheel The “birth” of every Lightweight wheel starts in one of most advanced fiber-reinforced composite facilities in Friedrichshafen near the Lake Constance. Here all the raw materials like special Carbon fiber, epoxy resins, special foam bodys, parts of the hubs and lots of other parts are delivered to build the Lightweight wheels. A complex procedure in that many work only can be done by human hand all the small parts are put together within one to two hours into a special wheel building body-form that was exclusively built for Lightweight. After that procedure the filled form moves into a special stove where a detailed and precisely defined “baking process” takes some more hours. The result is a raw wheel that comes out of the form and passes a first finishing work.
Die Aerodynamik eines rotierenden Laufrades
· warum bringt ein Aerowheel bei Rückenwind am meisten.
· warum profitiert man im Windschatten besonders von Aerowheels.
Zunächst stellen wir uns ein rotierendes Vorderrad vor.
Wir heben eine imaginäre Rennmaschine am Lenker etwas an, und versetzen das Vorderrad in eine Rotation. Durch kräftiges Anstoßen bringen wir das Vorderrad auf eine Rotationsgeschwindigkeit von 40 km/h. Wichtig ist, dass das Vorderrad etwas vom Boden abgehoben ist. Es dreht sich, während das Fahrrad als Ganzes unbewegt bleibt. Zum bewegten Fahrrad kommen wir später. Nun wollen wir dieses schnell rotierende Vorderrad etwas genauer betrachten.
Am obersten Punkt des Laufrades, also dort, wo der Fahrer auf den Reifen sieht, saust der Reifen mit einer Geschwindigkeit von 40 km/h nach vorne. Das ist die Rotationsgeschwindigkeit, die wir dem Rad mitgegeben haben. Die Nabe bewegt sich sich mit 0 km/h vorwärts, denn das Fahrrad als Ganzes befindet sich ja in Ruhe. An der Unterseite bewegt sich das Laufrad mit minus 40 km/h. Das Minus kommt dadurch zustande, dass wir alle Geschwindigkeiten in Fahrtrichtung betrachten wollen. Das Minus zeigt an, dass die Bewegung rückwärts erfolgt.
Die reale Fahrsituation bei 40 km/h
Jetzt verlassen wir diese Vorbetrachtung und kommen zur realen Fahrsituation. Es kommt also die Vorwärtsbewegung des Fahrrades als Ganzes hinzu: Das Vorderrad rotiert weiterhin mit 40 km/h, aber das bedeutet nun, dass das Fahrrad als Ganzes ebenfalls eine Geschwindigkeit von 40 km/h aufweist. Wir fahren also ganz normal mit Tempo 40 dahin. Welche Geschwindigkeiten finden wir nun an unserem imaginären Vorderrad?
Ganz einfach: Wenn wir mit 40 km/h fahren, dann hat die Nabe ebenfalls dieses Tempo. Pro Stunde bringen wir die Nabe um 40 Kilometer voran. Anders sieht es beim rotierenden Vorderrad aus. Am obersten Punkt saust es mit 80 km/h nach vorne. Denn es rotiert mit 40 km/h um die Nabe, die sich ihrerseits mit 40 km/h nach vorne bewegt.
Wir müssen also die Rotationsgeschwindigkeit des Vorderrades zur Geschwindigkeit der Nabe addieren. Das Gleiche gilt am untersten Punkt des Laufrades.
Lightweight – Carbon fiber wheels on a top level. They combine all the characteristics of a perfect wheel. Light, stiff, fast and simply good looking. But how long do Lightweights last? During the last years thousands of wheels are in use at all places on planet earth you can imagine. We are in deep contact with a whole bunch of test pilots all over the globe and listen very carefully what they tell us.
After all that extended tests and ride reports we can say the following with full conviction: Lightweight wheels are not different to any other wheel with alloy rims in fact of durability and long life. Whether it comes to braking surface, hubs or spokes – Lighweight wheels bear up against all loads that come to a wheel in extensive use by every rider and never loose even the smallest part of their performance.
