So my club mate and I managed a 1,2 in the road bike category of the local TT yesterday. He beat me by 18 seconds over 51 minutes and I was a minute ahead of 3rd. He has acquired some zipp 404s and despite what he says about a winter of focussed training* I attributed his win to his wheels so it made me interested in fancy ones again.

I’d be after clinchers. I’m still a bit nervous about the braking and longevity,durability in bad conditions of carbon wheels. Every race up here is like a spring classic except the road surfaces aren’t as good as the pave.

I here good things about farsport, I see that wiggle now produce some reasonably priced carbon wheels. But I am more concerned about braking, cost and durability.

Other than weight/aesthetics is there a massive disadvantage to the carbon aluminium hybrid wheels that the likes of planet x, shimano, farsport, mavic produce? They can be found cheaply by comparison to full carbon and I wouldn’t have to faff with pad changes and be scared of riding them in wet races.

Then there are even cheaper options the the likes of pro-lite do that are full aluminium. Again, not as pimp but not massively heavier than the hybrid ones but would they be as effective?

Anybody got experience or sage words of wisdom?

*He also has more talent 🙁

Get a stealth motor purely to annoy your mate for a year as he won’t be able to figure out why you are beating him.

Just because they are deep section doesn’t mean they are fast. If you want fast wheels make sure there’s data to back that up.

Personally I wouldn’t spend my money on Chinese crap that hasn’t actually been tested aerodynamically.

At a cheaper price point the best option to go for is Swiss Side Hadrons with an aluminium brake track.

Low end carbon then something like Reynolds Strike SLG are excellent.

But for the price of either of the above you can just pick up some Zipps second hand. Or Reynolds Aeros, Bontrager Aeolus blah blah blah. All excellent wheels and they do make a massive difference in a TT.

Make sure you buy a wheel that is at least 55mm deep, ideally more, because that is where you start to see real aerodynamic advantage, especially at lower speeds.

I’d 2nd what cloud nine recommends, although I would never condone this in completion I was out yesterday with a mate who zipped off like a gazelle and left me for dead, he went and the gap opened up quickly and remained.

He waited in the next village and said “Have you seen all the stuff on the internet about motors in bikes? I’ve got one in this” It wasn’t his his bike it was a loaner, him and his brother are buying one for their Father, so I had a go, interestingly I couldn’t beat my PR up a long steady gradual climb that I’d set in a gale with the wind behind me,

This one wasn’t that stealth as you could hear it but apart from that it was no different, it will annoy your mate though

£560 for the pair

similar money for the pair from Giant

So long as they’re 60mm at least rims and weight no more than 1500g’s then you’ll notice a bit of difference.

404’s are very nice, but you can get something much cheaper that’ll do the job just as well.. Like those Giants ^^

Given I’ll be using them in races and it is fair hilly around here I think 50mm is my maximum. I’ve heard that picking the right design will mean that a 38mm can be better than a 50 as it more complex than depth (so say the people selling the expensive 38mm wheels).

I accept that the weight is going to be a penalty on ones with aluminium braking but still think for general racing near I’d be more confident and therefore faster…

“Proper” brands like zipp are out of the question due to prices, not sure I want second hand ones as you don’t know what they’ve done.

increase your FTP and focus training no cost best bang for buck.

I attributed his win to his wheels so it made me interested in fancy ones again.

nah very unlikely

I’d agree with the other guy, focused training over winter. Id guess your bikes etc are very similar and 18 secs is quite a bit to attribute to wheels.