Wheels

I'm after a pair of wheels that I want to use for road racing.

They'll need to be light and fast, price isn't an issue.
All opinions are appreciated and welcome.

Thank you!

 

i use a pair of zipp wheels for racing, they feel better than anything else i've used. id recormend you try them

 

Shimano have wheels that would suite training and racing quite good, they might not be a zipp but atleast you can still use them whille riding to work, and use the same wheels when you race.

about $500au should get you a pair.

 

Don't touch them they sux. If you break a spoke while out training you will be stuck where ever u are at the time. You see the wheel will be slamming into each side of the rear tri-angle everytime it goes round!

Trust me when I say these wheels sux arse

 

You can't go wrong with Mavics. I use the now out of date Heliums. I have heard good thing about the Ksyrium, and there will be a light weight set for spring. I would stay away from from the Roff and Shimano wheel sets.

 

I heard the lighter (more expensivee) wheels are better in the bicycling australia mag because the lighter the moving parts are the better rolling. any way this is good but what inprovmets are there? iv got a average set of wheels what
would be the improvement say if i got i high end wheel set in real terms? time

say i did 40k on a ride with my standard wheels and then whith the lighter ones what would be the time/speed difference? i know this is a hard question but any idea's?

 

The general rule is that the lighter your bike, the easier it will overcome rolling resistance (we all know this). So using components that are light-weight is obviously better. The problem is that YOU still need to propel the bike. No matter how light it is, if the engine (AND THAT'S YOU) is not adequately trained and conditioned, that feather-weight bike is going no-where fast.
Nicholas, there is almost no way that you will be able to measure any gains comparing bikes that have ± 100 grams weight difference between them. You buy yourself wheels that weigh 100 grams lighter, and then throw two Energy Bars into the back of your jersey that weigh 45 grams each? Get my point? If there is a 1 or 2 kg gain, that's a different story!
Train your body to overcome the weight of your current equipment. If you are a sprinter, train with a rucksack and half a brick inside it! Your'e legs will get used to the weight. Next time you sprint for the line in a race, you will weigh half a brick less!
If you are a climber, train those hills with a whole brick extra! When you start that climb during the race, your legs will automatically be prepared for a kilogram of extra weight, thats not there!

Don't let technical issues such as lighter wheels cloud your vision. Remember what Lance Armstrong says: it's not about the bike.

 

Vo2,
You're right about all you said except that there's a huge difference between adding weight onto your bike and adding it onto your wheels. In engineering terms your revolving (or unsrung) mass has a major influence on performance. Lighter wheels accelerate faster and in general take much less effort to ride. Less or no spokes equals much better aerodynamics as each spoke adds to drag when it cuts the air.

Nicholas,
I did an experiment over a 20km flat out and back time trial route about 4 days apart in the same conditions. i.e. little or no wind. First with my racing Rolf Vector Pros and then with my heavy Campag 36 spoke training wheels. I managed just under 28 minutes the first time giving me an average speed of about 43km/h with the Rolfs. With the training wheels it was 29:30 giving an average of 40.7km/h. Not a huge difference but what was more noticeable was that I felt better and my average heart rate was about 3 beats less with the Rolfs than the Campags.

 

IMO - its not out of the question to expect a +2 or 3 kph increase in your average speed. The big pay off will come in a race thats over 3 or 4 hours long ;D

cheers!

 

Yeah

And keeping up with sudden sprints when the strong guys are trying to get rid of the stragglers in the bunch.

 

i now have aero wheels (Shimano WH7700) they are beautiful. the difference on my test(40k) was 3 minutes. and i did not try as hard or feel as tired at the end with these new wheels as i did with my old.

the block from the shop said the difference was 2 minutes advantage over 40k time trial average.

its not just the little time diff though its the responsive/nice ride they give. And they look Cool 8) 8) 8)

 

I have a Campagnolo Veloce groupset on my bike and want to get myself a set of racing wheels. I am now stuck with the dilemna of choosing between the Mavic Ksyriums or the Campag Shamals ???. I believe the Mavics may have the slight edge although a new 2002 model is being released soon. I'm also a big Campag fan and know the Shamals will work well with the groupset. Talk to me, I need advice to help me make my decision.  :-/

 

Big-Mig : I was in a cycle shop when I overheard a discussion over deep section rims. The Shamal can be classified as a deep section, and the one guy told the other how difficult it is for him to fix a puncture. The puncture itself was't the issue but to get the tyre back on the rim especially him using a kevlar tyre. It sounded that this guy was competing in our local W/Cape Super league. I also notice that his Campac rims have a lot of little chip marks. My bet is the Ksyruim's.

 

Big Mig- the rims you use will not affect compatability with your gruppo, the hub would in most cases. Personally I would use a mavic rim with a Campy hub

Ride Strong
Pat

 

I say Mavic all the way - smooth bearings, great skewer design (on the top end stuff), years of experience in designing rims/hubs, masses of choice and new ideas (helium wheelset, carbon/kevlar spokes on the Ksyriums).

I would have said Rolf Vectors Pros - until they broke....

 

What do you think about the Shimano WH-R535 wheels.