What is better. Carbon bicycle wheels or alloy bicycle wheels?

Answer 1

An alloy wheel starts life as a huge chunk of metal, which is then machined until you have a hub area, a rim area and then a thin section tying them all together.

A spoked wheel starts out with a hub, a rim, a pile of spokes and a handful of nipples. The rim is then connected to the hub by attaching one end of each spoke to the hub and the other to the rim. When they're all tightened up and adjusted properly you get a round and true whee.

Answer 2

It depends on your application.

Alloys are generally better on most vehicles. They are light, but not as light as comparable spoked wheels. However, they're much stronger so they are more resistant to breaking on bumps or potholes (when used in cars). Because they're stronger, they're also more rigid which helps handling on tarmac by improving response and feel.

On certain light weight motorcycles though, spoked wheels are significantly lighter. Many Motocross styled bikes used spoked wheels instead of alloy wheels. For motocross/dirtbike wheels, a lighter wheel is preferred because a lighter wheel can respond to bumps in the dirt much faster than heavier alloy wheels. In addition, spoked wheels flex slightly, and for dirtbikers, this is an advantage as it gives the bike a smoother shock when landing back on the ground or hitting a large divet or bump. A smooth shock allows the primary suspension components to operate consistently.

Generally, choosing spoked vs alloy vs steel depends on the ratio between the vehicle's weight versus the weight of the wheels. For instance, a semi truck had a high vehicle weight versus the weight of the wheels, thus semis use steel rims. Passenger cars are in the middle of the spectrum, so you'll see many higher end cars use aluminum alloy wheels. For motorcycles, the weight of the bike itself is much closer to the weight of the wheels, so further reduction in weight is required via spoked wheels on some motorcycles.

Answer 3

Carbon are lighter and can be more aerodynamic too. Downsides are that they are more expensive and more fragile than alloy rims.