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Thinking about my track bike. It has Mavic Open Pros on it currently, which are not at all aero. I'm looking at random rims on eBay, and there are some 38mm deep ones for not much money. Question is, is 38mm worth bothering with? Is it considered usefully aero or just cosmetic?
For track (assuming indoor) I'd be going as deep as possible (fnar fnar) so 38mm wouldnt be on my radar, as I run 50mm on the road
Borderline for big aero gains at 38mm. They'll be better than the mavics but as its track you dont have to worry about sidewinds so bigger would be better. Was looking at wheels for a track bike and was looking at the lightbycyle u shaped 88's but they are 200 dollars each so not that cheap.
There are also 86mm ones, actually. Looking at ICAN rims on eBay. Will I die, I wonder? £130 for a 86mm carbon rim is cheap when whole wheels from the usual manufacturers are like £1,000.
The downside is that the 86mm at 620g are much heavier than the 38mms at 360g. So for a quick sprint they might be a bit of a handicap.
Not sure if its the same at Newport but at Manchester you're not allowed to use tubs attached with tape, they have to be attached using rim cement and that means you cant use deep section carbon rims as that is not recommended for carbon. Was going to get clinchers but cant see those ican ones with a clincher rim only option.
There is a clincher listed..?
EDIT no, the wheelsets come clincher but not the rims. Hm.
Not that i can see. Also how many holes for the hubs. Track hubs are generally 32 or 36 and those ican ones are 20 or 24
This is what I was looking at.
https://www.lightbicycle.com/wider-carbon-rims-clincher-for-700C-bike-88mm-bike.html
They do a u shaped one thats not listed but is available. (product number is in the comments.) That way i can get an 88mm rim with 32 holes and no decals or braking track if i get the disc version
Nice. Pricey on the face of it but vastly cheaper than buying ready made deep wheels.
Yep that’s what I was thinking. All the ready made ones are either cheap and not that deep or £2000 for tri spoke and dish wheels, nothing in between.
you're not allowed to use tubs attached with tape, they have to be attached using rim cement and that means you cant use deep section carbon rims as that is not recommended for carbon
Hmm, think you've been misinformed - Vittoria amongst others have a tub cement designed for carbon rims of all flavours. As anyone who races CX with tubs knows from experience, you don't want to use tape either. I have carbon CX wheels with glued-on tubs for 10+ years.
On the subject of Chinese carbon rims - plenty of reputable sellers like Ican. Some of the big brands will go on about high temperature resins, but no problem with a track bike. I have 2 pairs of wheels built with Chinese carbon rims.
There seem to be complaints about ICAN complete wheelsets regarding spoke tension and braking surfaces - neither of which are an issue for me. TBH I'd have even more confidence with a tubular wheel set as there wouldn't be 140psi trying to spread the top of the rim apart. As long as it holds my weight it's hard to see the problem.
Except the drilling of course.
It shouldn't be difficult to do the maths to see how much time the £100s will save off your times.
Yea, but that would imply that
a) there is an acceptable cutoff for aero spending
b) you know exactly by how much you'll beat your opponent by (or how many seconds you need to make up)
c) it's a rational decision, it's a shiny bike for pedaling round in ovals indoors, it's not a rational decision.
If you're going to do it properly shouldn't you get a disc for the rear rather than a deep section
It shouldn't be difficult to do the maths to see how much time the £100s will save off your times.
It's quite a bit.
The thing is my bike is going to be the slowest out there. Ok so my aero tuck isn't bad, but it'd be nice not to be at too much of a disadvantage in terms of kit.
"Quite a bit"...what does that mean?
Would love to see the calculations.
In real terms I doubt it.... probably more about having the "right" kit/something to consume.
Don't need to calculate, it's been measured. Lots of times. [url= http://www.cyclingweekly.com/videos/cycling-tech/how-much-faster-aero-wheels-video ]Here's a bike mag article.[/url]
They rode for 10 mins at 300W and the 50mm aero rims were 2.2kph faster, covering an extra 400m over roughly 6km. That's massive. And if one is track racing and going even quicker, and a race can be won by inches, I'd say it's pretty significant.