Hi everyone,

I'm interested in getting one of the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL3 bikes. I notice that they're using carbon fiber wheels. Will you ride those sort of bikes to work? I consulted with LBS and the guy said he wouldn't do that because carbon fibre wheels break easily when hitting curb/pot hole. Is this true?

I currently have Giant TCR Advanced 1 and has Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheel and it's pretty strong.

Thoughts?


Cheers,
Tommy

Larger cross section tires will make a bigger difference , something like a 32 tire , better than a 23.
when dropping into a pothole ... But its your money
If you want to commute on road Race wheels
and you can justify it to yourself ..

Personally, I'd take the race wheels off and use something cheap for commuting. I'd put the carbon wheels back on when I wanted to race, or do a difficult ride that involved a lot of climbing or whatever.

Carbon isn't as impact-resistant as some metals, although it's very strong. You shouldn't be hitting curbs anyway, though. I'd be worried about someone stealing them, and possibly about giving up some breaking power if the rims are carbon fiber.

I see...



The bike that I'm interested to get is the 2011 Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL3 SRAM and it turns out that the wheels are Roval Rapide SL 45 which turns out to be combination of both aluminium and carbon.



This is the URL of the bike: https://www.specialized.com/au/gb/bc/...01&scname=Road





What's your thought of riding that bike to work? What I'm most concerned really is the durability of the wheels themselves. The road in Perth, WA (where I at in at the moment) is not so bad. It's not like cobble stone or anything like that and the route that I normally go through doesn't have any potholes or anything like that.



What's your thought on this?



Thanks everyone.





Tommy

Personally I stop and shop on my trips about town, so a carbon fiber race bike is very impractical ,

as It cannot carry a pair of panniers to load up with food and beverages,

and I rarely ride my old road bike because of its lack of carrying capacity.

But if you are young and want to go fast on yourrace bike to your secure bike lock up at your job
and then race home again at the end of the day you dont need to seek permission from us old Farts..

If you ride something not so fast a bike the rest of the week, sturdy and cheap to maintain,
when you get on that 12 pound wonder bike for the weekends sporting events you could break away from the pack
with a gap of minutes behind you..

Do yourself a favor and save that bike for the weekends. Ride something else to work.

I thought carbon was strong alls i ever hear is people worrying about breaking it, maybe they should just stop using it till its all figured out, i mean really i ride a steel tank the last thing on my mind is something breaking

I know people who ride some high end bikes into work now and then so I don't see a problem with the bike so much as long as your comfortable that it's not going to get ripped off.

As far as the wheels go, I would like at it this way. Let's assume for the moment that your carbon wheels are just as durable as a typical aluminum wheel. Which one is going to cost you an arm and a leg to replace if it does get damaged?

I would get a set of cheaper wheels that you use for commuting and put some long wearing, puncture resistant tires on them. Put some grippy, fast tires on your carbon wheels and save them for weekend rides/racing.

I have two sets of wheels that I use. It's mostly because the race tires are spendy and wear relatively quickly but I'd just as soon save the better wheels for when I really need the performance anyway.

If you have a secure spot to keep the bike locked up duing the day, you'll be fine. Those wheels are sturdy and shoud last a long time.

I commute with a CF bicycle. If you ride straight to work and back and you have a secure place to keep your bicycle, like your office, then a CF bike will make the commute fun. If you plan on stopping anywhere, have to lock it up outside or you have to carry anything that won't fit in a backpack, then I don't think a CF road bike will fit your needs.

As far as the wheels go, I don't have a pair and have no experience with them. I would buy a set of cheaper wheels to commute with for a few days. During that time pay attention to any pot holes and other big bumps and jolts that you take during the trip. If you don't have any at all, then I say put the CF wheels on.

Carbon fiber wheels won't trigger traffic signal sensors. Aluminum rims will.

I say go for it. If something breaks then replace it.

+1

There are people where I work who commute in sports cars - makes no sense to me either.
If you are going to commute regularly, then invest in a bike which is well suited to that purpose - able to carry stuff, durable, reliable, and comfortable.

I don't see the issue if the roads are the same quality as whatever your weekend ride would be, otherwise, you'd have the same issues then too.

Personally, I commute on a fairly light road bike and love it way more than the touring bike I used to ride. It feels more nimble, accelerates faster, I actually get to work faster on it than I used to. Obviously these traits might not be what everyone cares about, but the most important thing is it's just more fun for me. Of course, it seems like most everyone in the commuting forum doesn't feel quite the same about road bikes.

I can carry everything I need in my messenger bag and my road bike meets your other three requirements. Just because you don't understand why someone would want to ride a faster bike (or drive a sports car to work) doesn't mean it's wrong.

Oh bother.

If you have that much cash disposable, get the bike, get another wheel set for commuting if you're worried about those not holding up.

No, maybe not wrong, but it's beyond silly. I guess it is wrong if you think on a societal scale, but consumerism seems to be the norm, and is inherently selfish and destructive to us all. That's a different topic though, and one most people can't swallow.

If it were me, I'd be wondering why I'm willing to part with that amount of cash for what amounts to a status symbol. Materialism =/= the path to dyin happy.

That being said, I have a ridiculously priced bike myself, but for an unfortunate reason (I'm 6'8".) I commute and run errands on a fairly cheap bike.

There are a lot of reasons that I wouldn't use that bike for commuting, but the strength of the wheelset isn't one of them. On the other hand, if I had that bike, I don't know if I could keep myself from riding it to work at least once in a while. The biggest danger is probably that you might get to work and decide to just keep riding.

OP, go for it. I ride my fancy road bike to work now & then, too. It's too nice to keep cooped up at home during the week.

do it... or you will regret not.. thats how the mind works.

Do you remember when someone's grandparents would have an entire room of furniture that was cordoned off from the rest of the house, so it would be in pristine condition for the once every 5 years it ever actually got used? Or how they would put these uncomfortable plastic coverings over the couch to "keep it in good shape" which totally ruined the experience of sitting on the couch?

I don't understand why someone would do that. I also don't understand why I would ever want to drop $5k on a bike, then only "ride it on the weekends". It just doesn't make sense to me to spend 90% of my time on a bike that cost $500-$1,000, and 10% of my time on a bike that cost $5k. If I was going to do that, I can't see any reason to buy the expensive bike to begin with.

Suppose your typical weekend ride is a 6 hour expidition along well-paved rural roads and your commute is a 40 minute ride along urban streets infested with stop signs, traffic lights and potholes. Do you still not see why anyone would have a weekend bike and a commute bike?

The Tarmac is a race bike. It might be fun to use for the commute if your commute is along open roads. It might even be fun to use in the city when the weather is nice. On a dark, rainy night I think I'd be cursing the clip-on fenders, seatpost rack and skinny tires. Then when the weather turned nice and I took the Tarmac out for a weekend ride, I'd might be cursing myself for not having replaced the cables and cleaned all the shiny bits as the rear derailleur clunks instead of shifting. And I'd definitely be cursing the road grit when I had to replace those Dura-Ace parts three times sooner than my non-commuting buddies from the local club ride.

Returning to the wheels, like any wheels -- regardless of material -- they've only got so many miles of life in them. So the question is, how many of the miles on that $1500 wheelset do you want to spend riding from stop sign to stop sign on your commute?

This is the answer.

Carbon is pretty strong; it's also expensive, which is the real reason people worry about it. Carbon frames are wonderful when you're riding them, but they're vulnerable to theft and insults at the bike rack.

...no, not really. Constant stops is where I like the race-like tarmac the most! - stop and start is exciting on the Tarmac. It's designed for sprints and quick accelerating. I had a Cannondale Touring bike before it, and I really hated stops a lot more with that because it felt so plodding to get going again.

If you're commuting to save money (nothing wrong with that at all), a fatter tire means you can use a less bright light because you can roll over smaller objects that your light doesn't light up. In my case, I just own a bright expensive light that lights everything up on the road enough that I can clearly see sticks big enough to worry about, potholes, etc. I find the carbon frame works just as well as fatter tires do for vibration absorption - actually, I think they work better (until you get into tires at least 1.5", which start to noticeably slow me down).

As for the rack, I keep everything I need in my desk at work, and we have a cafeteria at work (and if we didn't, for smaller stuff an oversized under-seat bag would probably work). I don't need to carry much with me. I can understand wanting more storage space, but when I've occasionally commuted with panniers that are anywhere near full it creates some noticeable drag and it's not as fun. I'd rather have my commute be more fun, than carry more stuff (and for my particular commute I can do that).

I haven't had any problem with skinny tires in the wet as long as I buy a decent wet weather tire. Obviously I don't take turns as aggressively and stuff, but I have ridden in the pouring rain several times on my Tarmac and the grip has been fine.

I'm not really into the "bike as a trophy" thing - my bike is something I use, not something I polish up and display. Grime on my bike on a group ride is not a concern. I'm far, far more concerned with just having a good time with whatever I'm doing for the majority of my biking - which is commuting when I can actually regularly commute to work.

You left out another point - of course, leaving a $5k bike sitting locked up outside hardly seems like a good idea. I used to be able to do it at work - worked at a bank location, full time security watches the parking lot (and other people had expensive bikes there as well, nothing ever got stolen from out front). If I had to leave it locked up elsewhere, it would be a different matter, and I wouldn't be able to ride my nice bike...

Regarding replacing components, I didn't drop $5k on a bike to start worrying about "using it to much and wearing it out".

Of course, another decent alternative that I hear a lot about is to ride the nice bike commuting in good weather, and when the weather looks bad ride the cheaper bike. That makes sense to me - I actually own a 2nd cheaper bike myself for this and because I needed something for grocery shopping and some light touring that could carry some weight on a rack.

But saving all the fun riding for the weekends - that just seems ridiculous.

Well, that's why I bought nice wheels - to ride them. If they wear out from riding, they wear out from riding. I'm not saying that if they did wear out, I might not replace them with something less expensive. I have expensive wheels on my Tarmac - but it came with them, and I did my research that they were still sturdy wheels that weren't going to need constant truing or something. I think they're Mavic Ksyrium ES's? Not 100% sure - but they're lasted the last 2 years, and finally maybe could use to be trued, despite my propensity to bomb off curbs onto the street, ride over grass, ride on packed-limestone trails - etc with them.

I ride my bike to use it. If you're biking to work to save money, I can see why you wouldn't want to use your expensive bike, sure. And only riding the good bike on good weather days - alright, I mean I can understand that.

But only riding it on the weekend? What a waste. I can't imagine dropping $5k on something I only use every now and then. Plus - bike commuting to work on my Tarmac is definitely more fun. :-D

I don't get how the OP buying a bike that he wants and riding it to commute is being materialist. I would think that buying such a nice bike to only ride it on the weekends is being materialistic.

Who is the master, the material object or the owner? If the object is the master then the owner will not use it as intended. The owner will baby it and put it on a pedistal. If the owner is the master, they will use the object as it is intended. They will not fear using the object but they won't neglect its usual care either. I would say the former is a materialist and the latter is not.

To the materialistic an object is a symbol of status. To the nonmaterialistic, they are just objects.

Those wheels will last thousands of miles. They essentially are an alloy rim with a CF fairing. What will wear out is the braking surface, just like an alloy wheel. If you don't ride them everyday, what are you going to do with them - save them for 20 years when they are obsolete in ten?

Don't do it, commuter wheels should be heavy and solid if they're going to last. Nevermind wearing out the braking surface on a carbon fibre rim.