Originally Posted by
dleccord
As soon as I get a hold of a set of aluminum clinchers, this will be my first big climb.
Do you recommend lower psi initially since the descend will surely heat the tires up quite a bit? I normally run 100 psi on the flats.
Honestly I do not think you need any kind of special wheels for Diablo (what you do need as big as you can get cassette
)- I see ppl riding all kind of CF wheels all the time.
My average speed descending is barely above 22mph (bottom 50% of strava's leaderboard for that descent).
There's few places where you can go 30mph+ easily (that is without any pedaling) but even that is not really fast.
Just take it easy and pay attention to turns and signs - those warning 15 mph yellow sings will help you to start braking early.
You probably don't want to ride Diablo on a very windy day with 60mm+ deep wheels - wind is very strong up there, especially on a last third of the climb.
I rode couple times with my recently purchased 50mm wheels in ~20mph wind and it was far from pleasant experience but I expected that
I always pump up to recommended tire pressure - 100psi or so.
Right now I have Vittoria Open Corsa SC and ride them at recommended 115/120psi (did a least dozen climbs in that configuration within 3 months).
If I climb on a cooler day - let's say anything below 85F or early morning I put lightweight cycling windbreaker jacket (like t his
Amazon.com : Pearl Izumi Men's Elite Barrier Jacket : Cycling Jackets : Sports & Outdoors ) in my jersey back pocket.
Usually there's about 10F difference and while 85F feels perfect for cycling once you made it all the way up 75F in a moderately windy day will be not so comfortable and even less so when you will be gunning down at ~20mph with no pedaling
.
I've noticed that many people are wearing scullcaps on a cool days as well.
There's several members on this board who ride Diablo and blog about it -
Diablo Scott's Bike Blog , you may find it useful.
There's also several regular group rides - google for details, they usually start at around 8AM on weekends from Peet's (Danville/Walnut Creek) but I never tried it so do not know details.
Hope it helps