Originally Posted by
hhnngg1
While the physics are correct, in practice, wheels that aren't deep dish aero have been shown to give less than 20sec per hour of racing by fast guys who are doing 40k in a hour (22-23mph), on a flat course. You might be getting no speed advantage at all.
Even in climbing, that pound makes a negligible difference.
The 'placebo' claims arent far fetched here - even for folks who drop $2k on Zipp 404 ,606,808s, who say 'wow what a noticeable difference in speed!' are full of it, as it's doubtful that you'd notice a 0.5mph difference at 22+mph.
Now if your old wheels had clunky hubs, they might feel smoother with new wheels, but in terms of speed, doubtful for a significant (like more than 10sec/60min racing) difference.
This is what happens what you don't look at the total picture. If you are buying stuff to make you go faster, of course it's going to be a fail. The only thing that makes you go faster on a bike is you (the motor) and gravity (downhill). However, not all upgrades are there for speed only. You are correct, the overall speed increases are NEGLIGIBLE, but the difference in energy saved over time is noticeable and very real. Once again, if these were all just placebo affects, Next years TdF winner should be rocking 32/36 spoke stock steel wheels.