TL;DR - The extra weight of the new wheels and tires is less of an issue than I thought, and I've decided to keep them - largely because I really like both their looks and the Kenda Klever RTs I'm running on them - rather than looking for something lighter.
When I first installed the Kenda Klever RTs, I had some concerns. On the one hand, they looked great mounted to some 1st gen Sequoia 17" double 5-spoke wheels, but on the other...boy, was the combination heavy! And a big part of that weight increase came from the wheels - at 27.5 lbs. each, they were 6 lbs. heavier per wheel!
I was very worried that the weight of the wheel + tire combo would have two major drawbacks:
- That it would interact poorly with the higher 5th gear - which have lower RPMs at a given speed, so lower torque as well - that I'd recently installed.
- That they would negatively impact my fuel economy, offsetting the benefit I hoped to get from the higher 5th gear.
Now, with a couple of years' worth of experience - and data - I've changed my mind. I'm sure that my fuel economy is worse than it would be with a lighter wheel + tire combo, but I've been quite happy with the improvement I've seen in the MPG department, so I'm willing to overlook even better gains.
Plus, there aren't a ton of materially lighter wheels out there that I think look good, and that come in the sizes - reasonably narrow and tucked into the wheel well - I want to run. In fact, the only ones I've found are the Fn Konig Six Shooter. They look great and weigh only 21.8 lbs. But of course, buying a set of 5 wheels for $1,500 is a lot of money to gain what would probably result in less than 1mpg improvement on the highway.
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