Originally Posted by
Jughed
So, Cannondale claims their aero bike with deep section aero wheels *can be* 3 min faster in a 40k TT over its regular race frame with normal wheels. 2 min faster with equal wheels.
I'm guessing that 3 min savings is at or about 300W (what most tests quote), going 40k into the same wind conditions the entire way. Probably dead flat, no tail wind sections...
That was the basis for my post above. Take a 2k 105 road bike with decent tires, real world conditions with stop lights, traffic, head/cross/tail winds, dogs - and the real biggie - being human and not holding 300w for an hour - how much time does that extra $5-8k really save? A minute? No time if you get stuck at a few redlights?
I 100% agree. It hasn't stopped me into buying into the aero marketing buzz, but yeah in real world scenarios aero IMO doesn't matter as much especially as a smaller rider. On a shallow light wheelset I can spin up and climb better, granted I do makeup time on the flats and descending with an aero bike.