Originally Posted by
milkbaby
I noticed a huge placebo effect when I replaced stock wheels with lighter and more aero wheels... Huge! ;-)
Not only was my bike lighter, but so was my wallet.
+1
We always trained on 36h wheels shod with a bit wider tires, and raced on 24h/28h or 28h/32h sets. Mentally the difference was clear and with the slight improvement in acceleration we certainly worked harder, which improved our performance. When we outfitted our TT bikes with disk wheels the same improvement in our performance were found for the same reasons. Whether the performance improvement from increased effort was more or less than the improvement in equipment was greater I cannot say, but we had a noticable improvement in performance.
That said, I would not spend $2k for a wheel set unless I was in excellent condition to start with. You
will definitely notice a difference in acceleration with a lighter set of wheels and measurable improvements in top speed with more aero wheels, but if you are not in top shape you are better advised to train harder and smarter.
BTW: Being full "kitted out" in lycra doesn't appreciably improve performance, but nearly everyone on a Saturday training ride will come looking as though they are a pro. Why do you think that is?