I was wondering what the difference between alloy, forged, and cast wheels are?

I know that some wheels are forged, such as the Volk CE28, and it's super light.

I was also wondering what type of wheel the G-Games 77s (Sidewinder) was (alloy, forged, or cast)?

Thanks in advance

 

I'm a little fuzzy on the actual forging and casting processes, but what I understand is that cast wheels are literally placed into a mold and cast into the shape. This reduces the strength of the metal and requires additional material to bring the wheel up to strength.

The forged wheels are stronger because the forging process allows for less material to be used to achieve the same level of strength, thus making them both light and strong.

 

Alloy simply refers to a mixture of metals.

Forging and casting are methods of processing such alloys.

As CG mentioned above, casting invovles pouring a melted alloy into a pre-shaped shell. Thus, the density of the alloy material is rather uniform throughout the wheel. For a given volume this would yield a lighter [but weaker] wheel.

The forging process, on the other hand, uses pressure to shape a blob of metal alloy into a particular shape. A good example is the making of horse shoes, where the blacksmith pounds away with his hammer/anvil. Anyway, for a given volume, this process would yield a heavier but much stronger wheel. Another advantage would be that the density near the center of the wheel could be increased, thereby minimizing the linear momentum required to cause the wheel to spin/roll. In other words, better acceleration.

The main disadvantage, of course, is that the forging process is much more complex and so such wheels are that much more expensive.

Hope this helps.

TW

 

Great post!

To add one more thing, there are different types of cast wheels: there are gravity and low pressure. Also available is Rim Rolling(sometimes reffered to as Spun-rim), it involves a low pressure cast, and is then put into a machine that will spin, heat and compress the metal- which makes for a lighter/stronger wheel(then any other cast method) for a sane price. Gravity cast wheels are horrible, they are cheap, typically have poor finishes and weigh a lot more then they should- they are desireable when style is more important then performance. Low pressure cast wheels offer a great value, they are not the lightest or strongest, but they are a nice compromise at a real world price.

 

Does anyone know what kind of construction the G-Games Sidewinder 2-piece is?

 

I've only sold a few sets of those(so I could be mistaken), but I believe they are low pressure cast.

 

all g-games brand are cast, but are still pretty light for being cast