Originally Posted by
chaadster
Are you saying there's a moment where a shallow section rim is more aero than a deep section rim? Aside from stationary, I don't think so, and even if I'm wrong about that theoretically, I'd bet that in practice that moment doesn't exist out on the road; I've never seen anyone quantify aero-disadvantages, anyway. Lots of tests quantify aero advantages, though, so I don't know what you're talking about there.
As for casual riders, it's actually the slower riders who have the most to gain from aero wheels because they see higher yaw angles, and some wheels, like the Zipp 808s actually produce propulsion (negative drag) at wider yaw angles. Tour Mag's own tunnel data corroborated this, and Flo demonstrate this with their data as well. So again, I don't know what the basis for your claim here, is either.
Can you sketch out a scenario where a rider would be penalized (i.e. go slower and/or expend more energy) for using more aero wheels?
I think that you just don't thing the advantages are worth the cost to you, and that may be true, but it is not a legitimate basis from which to contend that aero benefits don't exist.
A shallow rim isn't ever more aero than a deep section rim, I never mentioned anything about that.
I also never contended aero benefits don't exist - in my very first post on this I wrote about the the advantages of aero wheels.
All things being equal, a rider with deeper section wheels would be penalized more in a straight 90 degree crosswind. Tests quantify only the advantages because they're trying to sell you something.
The advantages are worth the cost depending on (1) the size of your budget, and (2) what you're hoping to achieve with the purchase.
If you have an unlimited budget, more power to you. If you believe it's worth it to be marginally quicker on your non competitive rides by using aero wheels when there are probably still many other areas of your cycling that can be improved (through training for example) for significantly better performance then more power (meter) to you.
Let's not forget the entire point of this whole thread, and that's OP.
First, OP to me seems to fall into the category of someone who is looking for an upgrade but not on an unlimited budget.
Second, OP doesn't also seem like the purpose of this upgrade is to win races or take advantage of "
that hard 5 minute effort that gapped you off the front and made you the first person into the regroup area, or that intense 45sec effort that let you nose across the finish first simply because you had that bit more energy and that bit less drag when you went digginng." ... to quote you in post
#62 .
Hence the entire purpose of me posting was to encourage OP to consider a wider range of wheel options besides aero wheels.... which is why, in my very first post, I heavily suggested OP rent an broad range of wheels.