ArgoMan

Hi all. Want to give me your opinion as to what you think are the best ALUMINUM road wheels for racing? Or at the least, for going fast when one is biking all by oneself? Thanks!!!

bruce19

Mavic Ksyrium Elite SS...if you can find them.They are 1300 gr and I have a set but they're staying on my Guru Photon.

shelbyfv

What bike are they going on? Rim or disc? Aero or do you have hills and want light weight?

bampilot06

HED ardennes.

datlas 

This.

Dave Mayer

Going fast by oneself and racing are two very different things. Riding fast by oneself, then aero is critical, so you'd want as deep a rim profile as one could handle in cross-winds. Deep alu rims are impractically heavy, so only carbon is used here.

Racing: I doubt any racing is done on alu rims anymore - all carbon. And it depends on what type of racing - if you are riding hilly stages, or criteriums, then rotating wheel inertia is most important. You'll be sheltered 95% of the time somewhere back in the pack, so aero is almost negated. But then there are those brief few seconds per race where you have to accelerate hard out of a corner, or close the gap up a hill, then wheel weight matters most.

If you are riding at the front all the time, or time-trialing, then aero is again #1.

asgelle

Geek Warning just had a wonderful podcast with Mark Graveline in which they discussed how incorrect myths regarding bicycle performance get propagated despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

chaadster

This used to be an easy answer (up until ‘18 or ‘19): American Classic Argent.

At 30mm deep, 19.4mm internal, sub 14k grams, and with wide flange spacing/bracing angles and wide, aero-section spokes, they were absolutely too-of-class.

I don’t know they’ve been succeeded, not by alu anyway, nor bettered by cost. The Lun Hyper R45 are worthy successors, though carbon fiber. Perhaps the Rolf Prima Elan are worth a look, or Kinlin XR200 rims laced up to a smart, quality hub; Berd fiber spokes maybe?

Jughed

I've been looking at the Roval Alpinist SLX - 1480 grams, 28mm deep, 20 mm wide ... don't know if they are the best, but those numbers seem pretty good for alloy wheels.

shelbyfv

AFAIK OP doesn't actually own a bike yet. I'd suggest starting with whatever comes on whatever bike and worrying about swapping if and when wheels are having a negative impact.

PeteHski

This statement will fail a simple fact check. Wheel weight does play a small part in overall weight when climbing, but rotating inertia is totally irrelevant. It’s barely relevant when accelerating hard out of a corner too, which is why modern pros will invariably race crits on deep section wheels.

People either understand this or they don’t.

Doomrider74

To align with your point, I watched a recent interview with the former tech director of Zipp and the salient point was that weight only becomes a factor when the gradient is 6/7%+.

asgelle

I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean. I can certainly feel the difference between a 3% gradient and level ground.

msu2001la

This is true for UCI world tour riders, but on the amateur level people race on aluminum rims all the time, across all disciplines of racing.

msu2001la

It means that on a gradient less than 6-7% you're better off riding the heavier aero wheels because whatever speed you've gained from shaving a few hundred grams is going to be so minor that you can't actually measure it.

asgelle

Be that as it may, it's far from what was written.

msu2001la

Not sure I follow you.
What was written was "weight only becomes a factor when the gradient is 6/7%+."
What that means is that at gradients less than 6/7%, weight isn't a factor.

Doomrider74

it's exactly what was written, or at least clearly inferred.

asgelle

But anyone who's ridden a 3-4% grade will tell you they can feel the difference from flat ground due to gravity, meaning weight certainly is a factor at those lower grades.

For 182 lb combined bike/rider weight at 250 W, a rider will be moving about 15 mph. Of those 250 W, about 160 W goes to overcoming gravity while only about 60 is used to overcome drag.

asgelle

You might think it was implied, but it certainly wasn't inferred by me.

msu2001la

In the context of this thread, isn't it safe to assume that the statement made was referring to minor weight differences (like the weight difference between aluminum and carbon wheels), and not being presented as an absolute statement that no amount of weight has any impact on going uphill?

Doomrider74

I should add the caveat that the speaker did say it also depends on the power of the rider: less powerful riders might feel the effects at lower gradients, whereas a world tour pro might start to feel them at steeper gradients. The 6/7% was an approximate average.

Broctoon

I'm not sure what the OP's intent is, although that doesn't make the question pointless. Maybe he/she wants to use rim brakes and just doesn't trust carbon wheels. Maybe there's a belief that the best aluminum wheels are superior to any low cost carbon ones (probably true).

I think a more meaningful discussion would center on the best value in high-performance wheels for an amateur racer or a rider trying to go fast. Maybe some carbon rims would come up, along with high end aluminum ones, as well as suggestions about what else in the complete wheel is desirable.

In any case, I agree with those who say it depends on what kind of racing you want to do, or how you're really going to use the bike.

merlinextraligh

at best implied not inferred.

the fact that your intended audience is not drawing the inference shows it wasn’t inferred.

the author implies; the audience infers [/ pendantic rant]

PeteHski

The 6-7% gradient comment is all about the break-even point between the aero advantage of deep aero wheels vs the weight advantage of lightweight shallow climbing wheels.

So on a 3% gradient you would expect to climb faster on the heavier aero wheels and on a 10% gradient you would expect to climb faster on the lightweight wheels. The exact break-even gradient increases with the rider’s W/kg output and even wind conditions (sailing effects).

This is why you now often see World Tour riders on big mountain stages with relatively deep section aero wheels. Their engineers know that wheel rotational inertia doesn’t matter and neither does weight if they can build the bike to the 6.8 kg UCI min weight anyway. So they take the aero advantage essentially for free.