Are wheel bolts lighter the better?

[Yolanda Rays]

Looking into getting wheels and also change a set of lock wheel bolts, like red shell or something, 40mm or 45mm (need to measure up still) but I've read a few posts on here about damage caused by them.

Anyone had any experience with wheel bolts? Any downsides to them?

I've done a bit of reading and this article said that light wheel bolts are better than ordinary wheel bolts, not very sure but I think it's real.
https://www.bonoss.com/lighter-is-better-bonoss-fo...

[ANOpax]

Lighter wheels bolts, wheels and tyres are all better. It’s about reducing what’s called unsprung mass. However, lightweight bolts cost an arm and a leg as they’re usually made of titanium and their benefit is marginal as the weight loss is at the centre of rotation and you don’t save a vast amount of weight anyway.

You’re better off using regular bolts and spending the money on lighter wheels as most of the mass saving with the wheel is around the circumference of the wheel, particularly with forged rims.

If you want a proper upgrade, don’t mess around with wheel bolts if you haven’t upgraded the wheels themselves. Get forged rims which are generally stronger and/or lighter than their cast counterparts. Forged rims also have the advantage that their failure modes are less catastrophic (they bend rather than shattering). And don’t fall for marketing tricks like ‘flow-forged’ wheels. Make sure you buy fully forged wheels.

[spikeyhead]

The further from the centre, the more important it is to add lightness.

A set of standard wheelnuts would weigh about 0.25kg.

A big tyre would weigh about 20kg. It's also much further away from the centre of rotation.

[tonycordon]

As far as i'm aware, unsprung weight (or mass if you prefer) is simply the weight of everything 'below' the spring, i.e. wheels, tyres, wheel nuts/bolts, brakes, suspension arms, uprights etc. in other words everything that goes up/down when the wheels respond to bumps etc. A low unsprung weight allows the tyres to maintain better contact with the road because the lower inertia allows the suspension to react more rapidly to road conditions, with obvious benefits to roadholding. The issue of weight being near to or away from the wheel centre is to do with rotational inertia, which influences how quickly (or not) the wheel's speed of rotation can increase/decrease which can benefit acceleration/braking. Though I doubt that the weight of wheels, tyres and nuts (within reason) would have much, if an, measurable effect on acceleration or deceleration.