ela002

Is it bad idea to go for aero wheels 50mm if I weight 130lbs or I am going to have problems with crosswinds?

DScott

No.

roy5000x2

Yes.

jbhowat

You will definitely need to learn how to handle them in cross winds, but they aren't that bad. 70+mm can be sketchy on windy days (808s, 1080s,etc)

clausen

Maybe.
Depends on the crosswinds.

ela002

Maybe I should use lower profile wheels like zipp 303?

DScott

No.

brian416

You'll be fine with 50mm wheels. When it gets windy enough that they will cause problems, its windy enough that you most likely won't be out riding anyways

carpediemracing 

You can definitely ride the wheels in most conditions. You should also keep a less obvious profile front wheel around "just in case".

https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...-all-time.html

I rode on Zipp 440s (pre-404s), Trispoke, Rev-X, and others regularly in training at just over your weight (140s, which is another world away from where I am now). At 150s I rode the Trispokes in "just before Hurricane Gloria" hit Florida - steady 50 mph winds, gusts up to 80 mph. Granted, I wouldn't have wanted to do a crit then, but I did ride with two other people, and we were riding pretty tight when we were fighting the wind.

The key is to ride the wheels in all conditions, regularly.

Let me repeat that.

The key is to ride the wheels in all conditions, regularly.

Don't save them just for races or whatever. You need to train on them in all conditions. If you always ride a 50 mm rimmed wheel, you learn how it handles in all sorts of conditions. Then, when you show up at a ride and the wind is gusting at 30-40 mph, you'll be able to get on your bike confidently, knowing that you can hold your line, knowing exactly how much leeway you need in the group.

If you use the 50s on "special" rides, then you're basically doing your special rides in a state of not totally understanding how your bike will handle.

And here's another key thing.

If you feel that last statement is false, then the statement absolutely definitely applies to you, because you don't even know what you don't know.

I understand that there are experienced riders (I consider myself one of them) that can get on and off different wheels and be reasonably fluent on different sets immediately. That's fine. It's when you have to deal with something unusual - a gust of wind due to a close-passing truck, maybe a perfect wind tunnel effect between two tall buildings, whatever - that's when you have to know exactly what the differences are between your 50s and your 30s (or whatever). It's not just one condition, it's when a couple factors pile on top of each other that it becomes significant.

For example, I understand that 50s take more steering (well, I have 46s, so I'll call them 46s when applying this idea to myself) than 20s (box section). I understand that my 58 front take more steering than my 46s. When I say "steering", I mean actually steering the bars, not just turning from the hip (and if that's a foreign concept, there are other things to work on - another red flag).

So when I race on the 58 front, I understand I need to steer a bit more. And, yes, the first time or two when I need to make a correction, with maybe 6" of space around my front tire, at 32-35 mph, yeah, I fumble a touch. But I quickly adjust to a previously known state of "how the wheel handles" and I'm good to go. Then I'm comfortable with my sphere reduced to its normal size, maybe 2-3" to the sides, 3-6" in front, less if I know the riders around me.

(Sphere: https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...scenarios.html)

However, I did a sprint where I had a perfect storm of two additional factors - wind and weight distribution. I raced on a course I've raced on literally 120-130 times (Bethel Spring Series 10-14 times per year for about 10 years, then 6-10 times a year for 6 years). It was the last time I raced there, in June 2009. I was sitting in perfect position, 3rd wheel with 250 to go, and I knew I could just absolutely demolish everyone in the sprint.

I looked to my 7 o'clock, made sure it was clear, and I made a pretty big jump.

Problem was that I don't train on my 58 front, and I wasn't used to a slight bit more flex in that wheel.

I drifted all the way across the road, eased up and basically soft pedaled, trying to will the bike to stay away from the curb.

This was because of a combination of the jump (forward weight distribution, along with aggressive rocking, along with unweighting the front a tad), wind (slight cross wind), and previously known and understood wheel factors (slightly more flexible than the 46s, more steering necessary, etc).

I came close to taking myself out, and if someone had been to my left I would have taken them out. However, I didn't go down. I kept sprinting, but I'd totally showed my hand and after a downstroke or two I didn't pedal for a bit. Therefore I wasn't accelerating, other guys took off, and I got beaten resoundly at the line.

I'm saying all this because even though I know that the 58s are different from the 46s, even though I had sprinted up that hill literally hundreds of times, I still didn't realize exactly how the wheel would react.

And that was a huge mistake.

video of said mistake:
https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...ne-7-2009.html
(Check out 6:40 on and 8:35 on)

cdr

ela002

Thank you very much for your helpful replies.

robncircus

Ot but where is your group buy posted?

Thanks

Rob