Originally Posted by
rbrides
Upgrading wheels is commonly suggested as one of the better investments. But lets talk cost/benefit and what is considered "lightweight" and what provides lower rolling resistance. ....
(.....)
How do you folks on Bike Forums make sense of the cost/benefit of wheel upgrades?
Originally Posted by
Steamer
Want to go fast, get your position on the bike aero, don't wear flappy clothing, use low Crr tires, and yeah, get some reasonably aero wheels. Oh, and train hard.
This is pretty much the advice I would give.
Lighter wheels are nice if you care about the weight of your bike, and it is one of the things that you can save a lot of grams on, but in the end, doesn't really matter that much out in the real world, unless you are climbing Alpe D'huez and Mont Ventoux on the daily. Cheaper things that can save a lot of weight are handlebars, tires, saddle etc. You can easily shave 300-400 grams from these components for relatively cheap.
Aerodynamic wheels are nice to have, but a good position on the bike will get you bigger aero benefits, for free. According to some articles below, an aero position will give you as much as 30 watts improvement at 40 kph. Going to aero trispoke wheels from box-section wheels only gave about 10 watts difference. The difference is less if you travel slower. Similarly, an aero helmet will save you about 10 watts at 40kph. Much cheaper investment than aero wheels (top end helmet will run you about $200 versus up to $500-1000+ for wheels).
https://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/...is-aero-19273/
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/videos...o-wheels-video
The advice I would give is: don't let your head get crazy by listening to all the marketing and "what your friends have". In the end, if you use common sense, the cost / benefit analysis is usually not good!
The aero benefits are usually like this: aero position > aero helmet > aero wheels > aero frameset > aero handlebars