Originally Posted by
3alarmer
...the answer depends on why you are riding in the first place. If your goal is to compete (like in racing), yes, you are at a disadvantage. If your goals run more toward fitness and exercise, and you're having a good time on your steel bike, maybe it's fine for you. What happens at speeds of 20MPH and up is that air resistance becomes more important as a factor. Some of the aero improvements in wheels would make you faster. But is faster your real goal here ?
This topic will doubtless go 14 pages, so I thought I'd get in relatively early and then just
.
Including a discussion of how Big Disc and Big Tire are conspiring to get you to buy something awful the pros only ride because they have to, and several pages on whether Big Disc and Big Tire are a cartel under the Oxford English Dictionary's definition, and whether or not any particular poster is in any position to make that claim.