There's been a lot of discussion about aero wheels lately and was wondering about handling in windy conditions. My wheels have aero spokes, but the rim is fairly standard. It was pretty windy on my ride today and I was getting blown around very easily. Do you guys who have deep rim aero wheels change to different wheels when it gets windy?

At some point the wind can get strong enough to blow anyone around. The heavier you are the more it takes (all things being equal like tire pressure, rim and frameset, speed, etc.). I feel crosswinds more going downhill and once I had a front tire going down and a strong on-shore wind at Del Mar made it feel like my brakes were on. I guess I'd like to go as aero as possible without getting pitched across the road into traffic. There's some video of guys getting tossed like rag dolls in a crosswind. At least we can usually still ride. GL

I was on the Oceanside trail heading out to the beach today. Wind gusts were probably around 15mph. I'm 175lbs and a couple of times I got blown several feet to the side. I could feel the wind grab my front wheel and turn it. If I had some of those deep-rim aero wheels I would have probably ended up in the ditch.

as said above wind always affects you. if you have spoked wheels the whind will not be a big issue, if you have disc wheels then wind, especially a crosswind, is bigger deal

I've been learning to ride my new 56mm deep wheels in stormy bay area weather over the past few weeks. I've only had a couple of scares from strong wind gusts on twisty descents. Otherwise, they're completely manageable on flats with winds up to 25mph and wind sheltered descents. Even crossing the GG bridge is no problem with very strong, but constant crosswinds.

Bottom line is they're about 2mph faster at speeds over 20mph and faster at any speed with a tailwind. So well worth the trouble.

You just need to get used to it. I'm roughly 125lbs and ride 50mm front and back with aero spokes most of the time. First few times I got caught in the wind it scared the **** out of me, but now it's no problem to keep straight in the crosswinds. I have a rear disc cover I use for TTs and tris as well, and it's even more stable with that in the wind.

I ride 50mm wheels all the time, by the time it gets where the wheel become too much to handle, I won't be riding anyways because riding at my threshold at 12 mph isn't fun.

I've found my deep wheels are WAYYYY better than Mavic Ksyriums. The Mavics are horrible with crosswinds, its like the wind grabs and yanks them, while the deeper wheels get pushed gently by the wind.

You have to ride the aero wheels, esp the front.

Having said that I find them unnerving at high speeds in gusty winds (50 mph drafting a truck; 50 mph down gusty wind descents like near Torrey Pines). I swapped to regular wheels to prepare for those kind of moments.

At home, where I rarely break 45 mph, aero wheels are fine.

It's easy to get used to. After a few rides in the wind, I don't even notice it now.

I switched out the thick bladed aero spokes (Pillar 3.4mm blades, IIRC) in my Neuvation M28s for DT Aerolites (0.9mm x 2.3mm). That made the wheels much more pleasant in cross winds, and saved 40g per wheel to boot.

When I built my HED Belgium wheelset, I used the same spokes. I was out in 25 gusting to 35mph cross winds a couple of weeks ago, and the wheels were stable (the wind wasn't affecting steering) although I had to lean into the wind for balance.

In the next couple of weeks, I'll have added a set of Zipp 404's that I'm building up with CX-Rays (same basic dimensions as DT Aerolites) so I guess I'll find out how they are but I'm suspecting that I'll prefer the HEDs for windy days.

What about zipp 101's? Although they are a aluluminum clincher, their toroidal shape makes them almost as aero as a deep rim carbon wheel. Since the 101's aren't very deep, I can't see them being affected by wind very much.

One thing is it's all relative.

When "aero" first became popular (early 80s), the Araya ADX-4 was considered "aero". Today it'd be considered a very small non-aero rim. I'm guessing it was 25mm tall, give or take. If you used oval spokes then you were really cutting edge.

I got soundly criticized for using an oval spoked ADX-4 front wheel at a crit one year - "too dangerous" "are you an idiot?" etc. Now it's normal to use 60-90mm tall front wheels on the same course, even when it's relatively windy.

So for me, I get uneasy at about the 58-60mm rim height in gusty winds where I'm hitting 50 mph. 45 mph, 60mm is fine. 50 mph, not so fine.

My "non aero" rims are HEDs and probably just slightly under 30mm tall, and they have oval spokes up front I think. To me they're "non-aero" and not affected by wind.

Incidentally this all has to do with the front wheel. The front wheel turns slightly in heavy wind and puts you slightly off balance (since, by definition, you balance a bike by making small steering inputs).

A tall rear wheel stabilizes you - I've paired a disk rear with a non-aero front, or disk + trispoke (Specialized TriSpoke aka HED3) front, in pretty windy conditions in tight crits. A 90mm rim in back (Jet9) with the non-aero front is extremely stable.

*edit* there's yet another factor. "Aero" doesn't necessarily mean "affected by crosswinds". Apparently the Stinger6 is pretty tame in crosswinds (and here I was thinking I was a good bike handler). Other similar height wheels can be harder to handle. So a Zipp 101 wheel, for example, may test well for aerodynamics and still be relatively unaffected by crosswinds.

The wind on that trail sucks in the afternoon.

I did the first race of the year in gusty coastal winds with a front 60mm Hed and CXray spokes and a box section rear.

no problems.

high speed descents in gusty crosswinds - i wouldn't, but I'd do anything else with deep wheels for sure.

cdr,

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I only race TTs in the 10km-30km range. For example, one of my main races is pretty flat up until the hill at the turnaround. On the way down I'm looking for high speeds. This course is near the water, crosswinds are likely to be an issue. I have a powertap HED Belgium in the rear and I'll put the disc cover on that. Up front I've got my trusty Neuvation M28 which is 27mm deep, I believe. I've been wondering whether to go to 50mm up front in hopes of gaining an advantage in the above-mentioned conditions. Thoughts?

The front wheel is where aerodynamics really plays a part as it's on the leading edge of the bicycle. The tradeoff being that you don't have a lot of weight over the front wheel to control something super deep when it's windy.

However, if you are in the aerobars, your elbows are going to be more over the front wheel and therefore you will have more weight towards the front end of your bike. This is why it's a lot easier to control a deeper wheel on a time trial bike. If you are doing a lot of sub 30K time trials I would absolutely go with a deeper front wheel, you may even want to consider a 58mm up front versus the 50.

Crosstailwinds really amplify aero wheel effects, esp with a taller wheel.

I rode in Hurricane George (Coconut Grove area to the Key Biscayne causeway and back) on dual TriSpokes with two other riders. It wasn't pleasant but we didn't take each other out (and trust me, I was drafting as close as I could). On the way back I went 60 mph for about a mile. It was a blast and worth every moment of suffering elsewhere.

Head on you'll see that wheels don't differ much - it's the crosswinds that make the difference.

If you do mainly TTs, I'd build a repertoire of wheels, going taller and taller until the wheel you get last is unmanageable in all but the calmest days.

I'd also get bigger gears. I know that that technically it's possible to go really fast on smaller gears, but that high cadence (120 rpm or more) comes with a price. If you have bigger gears that you can turn slower, you'll reduce your heart rate a bit. Not important for hummingbird types, but for me it's critical. When I move up hard or am sitting on a fast moving line of riders, I'll purposely gear up to reduce cadence. So get an 11T at a minimum for the front (no 12s or 13s). Up front a 53 minimum, maybe a 54 or 55, even a 56.

A plus: even if you don't use a 56x11, the jump between the 14 and 15 is smaller when using a 56T ring. This is because a one tooth difference is percentage-wise lower on a 56 versus, say, a 50.

Along those lines I'd also use a bigger inner ring. If you can go really big I'd do a half-step set up, where the two rings are so close that the inner ring is a half gear down from the jumps on the outer ring. Usually this requires a 4T-5T diff (48/52). A 48x12 is between a 52x12 and 52x13.

You can also figure out the biggest gear you may use going out and get a ring that matches that gear with your 11T. Maybe it's a 46x11 for example. Make sure your low gear allows you to get up the hill okay (46x23?). Then you don't have to keep shifting the front derailleur - you shift it once, at the turn around, and then you use the outer ring on the way back.

cdr -- I ride a Rival setup 53/39 and there is absolutely no danger at present of me needing to go bigger than 53/11 (got the 11-25 in back ;-) I weigh 145 and FTP is in the area of 240w at this time. My TT race cadence runs between 90-100 RPM. I have yet to race a TT that requires me to drop down to the small ring, but I know that is coming in the future. I expect to learn a lot about my strengths this season as I race quite a bit more.

coachboyd -- good point re: weight over the wheel. This year I switched out my Profile Design T2 bars to a cleaner Deda Parabolica set, upturned at the ends to reduce my frontal exposure. Balance over the front feels good so far.