DaveLeeNC

In terms of personal cycling goals (and for me working and achieving these goals is kind of the payoff), I am mostly a solo kind of guy (despite the fact that I ride a conventional road bike). These could be anything from some Strava based target (I am pretty new to Strava, BTW) to maybe a Century ride or my current goal which is a 50 mile 'TT'.

Right now my 'race wheels' are conventional alloy wheels (Bontrager RXL) and I'm still experimenting with (clincher) tires (a little). I have considered more aero wheels and while the area that I ride is very much rolling terrain, there really are not any serious climbs to be had. A 50 mile ride might well have 2-2500 feet of climbing, but the whole route would inevitably live between the elevations of 250 to 700 feet. So aero probably buys me more than grams. In taking my best shot at my most likely speed profile in 'my next target ride' I see that almost half of it would be at 20mph or more and (surprising to me) around 11% at 25mph+ - further 'evidence' of a small value to me of aero vs. weight.

It further occurs to me that going aero only on the front has some real advantages.

1) Less than half the cost
2) No cassette issues or RD tweaking
3) From what I know more than half the aero advantage is from the front (with the downside of being more wind cross-sensitive than the rear)
3) Assuming you go carbon (no alloy brake track) only one set of brake pads to change

I don't see this discussed much and was curious as to how many people take this route and if I am missing any considerations here. In my case these would be pretty low mileage wheels (not ridden often) and I am NOT a Cavendish kind of guy so am pretty tolerant WRT stiffness (compared to some folks). Particularly if I go used I don't think I would have to spend a ton of money here.

Comments? Thanks.

dave

Blue Belly

If you aren't concerned with looks, running a front might work for you. The assertion that the front wheel is more important might be a little overstated, though. & don't underestimate a smooth rolling, aero friendly wheel set. & don't forget, if you have a lot of cross winds, a deep dish set of wheels can cause you some struggle. Personally, I would still keep weight in the equation. Maybe not at the top of the list but, any time you are up out of the saddle, you want that rotating weight to be as low as possible.

RChung

It doesn't get discussed much, but that's mostly what I did.

DaveLeeNC

I'm curious about your 'out of the saddle' comment. Despite how things feel, the rotational kinetic energy of the wheels vs. the linear kinetic energy of the bike/rider is in the 2% range. Not quite ignore-able, but not a big deal. What changes because you are out of the saddle?

Thanks.

dave

Bradleykd

You mentioned a TT race so I will mention a triathlon aero-nerd solution.

A lot lot of triathletes do an aero front wheel and a wheelbuilder.com disc cover on the rear. If you are running solo races, it is considered best aero/cost benefit at $100 and it is removeable so you don't look like a tri dork all the time.

DaveLeeNC

Bradley, that is very interesting - VERY interesting.

Thanks.

dave

ps. Lived in Lexington from 1971 until 1995. Big Wildcat fan but I can't say that I followed the GC Tigers.

Silvercivic27

Those disc covers don't fit a good number of frames...

Bradleykd

They don't fit a very small number of frames and the company has great support and can tell you if it will fit your bike and wheel. It is pretty rare that they don't have one to fit a setup.

Bradleykd

Lol! Nobody follows GC unless they are on the team. I'm a big cats fan too though!

Blue Belly

when out of the saddle, you are often digging for something a little extra. Maybe that's an incline. Maybe you're tiring. 2%, if that's the magic number for you, maybe gets you up to that wheel that you need to hold onto while you recoup. So, how much is the 2% with compound interest?