I went with Boyd 58 wheels and love em. Super sexy look and the wide profile makes the ride nice and cushy with my 25c GP4Ks. I am in total agreement with others on here; just because AERO only makes a few seconds difference in the 40k times, doesn't mean they aren't worth it. I love my wheels and how they look. My friends love checken' em out too. We are all consumerists so there's no issue; none of us are retro-grouches so there's no problem there either .

Your answer if you're going to nitpick about the minutiae is that everything sucks against a skinsuit and aero jerseys aren't that much better than a standard jersey as long as they all fit properly.

Along those lines, while I agree about body position probably being the most important thing, in road racing, being in the most aero position possible is not really practical or even doable a lot of the time, at least when you're talking about road races and crits. The nice things about clothing, wheels, frame, etc. is that they're all aero all the time even when you're not or can't be.

Just like here, huh?

Good replies, thanks! While I agree that I'll probably never take full advantage of a nice set of aero wheels, I believe they'll make me feel like riding faster. I like the look and if I can gain any advantage at all that would be a plus. I've been making strides to get lower on the bike and have the stem flipped with only one 5mm spacer below so I'm about as low as I can go aerodynamically speaking. As far as clothes go, there's only so far a slightly overweight 43 year old man can go when it comes to kit fit, I don't ever see myself in a skin suit but have gotten comfortable wearing my lg bibs and a snug Cannondale jersey so again about as far as I'm willing to go for the sake of aerodynamics. A new helmet sounds like a good place to start, I'm currently running a Specialized Echelon II which I chose because it actually fits my oversize melon quite nicely but maybe it's time to look around for something a bit more streamlined? I haven't completely ruled out a lighter set of wheels just yet, I still like the thought of having some Hed's or H+Son's built up or possibly trying something like the American Classic Argent's which are wide, tubeless, light (1392g), 30mm deep, and they claim to have an aero advantage due to the way the tire profile fits the rim?

stop the aero advantage thought process already. Get the wheels if you think that they will make your bike look sexy and if they euphoria will help you pedal faster and or ride more then it's a "win win". But stop with the pretense of getting an aero advantage. The best riders in the world would gain seconds over a 40K distance, where does that leave you and the rest of us.

You will get better "aero" if you adjust your posture on the bike. And for the record I am an over weight 42y/o looking to get sexy wheel also.

Those, with White Industries T11 hubs

I dunno, but while it's hard to absolutely isolate aero advantage, I set all my PRs on my Argent wheelset, which I swap between Ksyrium Equipes on one bike, while I have another bike with either Velocity Aeroheat or Mavic Open Pros rims. Regardless of the mix-n-match, PRs all belong to Argents.

I'm firmly of the opinion that aero helps carry speed and allow a higher average during recovery or sub-max efforts, which then allow longer, harder max efforts. If I can drop back to Tempo and shave another 5-10bpm, I'll last longer and have more punch for efforts. Aero wheels are like Viagra, you see?

It's almost impossible to look at a typical ride and quantify what you did with the extra energy; I might average 19.2mph over 50mi @ 1.7k ft elevation one day, but grab a segment PR another day over the same ride while averaging 18mph. Does the lower average mean the aero didn't help? Of course not. Could've been weather, traffic, or just the goals of the ride.

Like Silvercivic27 said, the beauty of aero wheels is that they're at your service anytime you want to take advantage of them. I don't need to ride as hard as possible all the time on every single ride to derive benefit, so while I might make several seconds on a 40km TT, I'm happy to take two seconds on my favorite 1.5 mile segment when I drop the hammer and go for it. Netting than one PR is all the result I need to know the package is working.

^This!

Is my aero Venge faster? Yes...because i tend to puit more effort into it and hit the hills harder, since it is a "fast bike". If I try doing the same on my old Klein, it is just as fast.

It depends on how you define "sucks," "standard jersey," and "fit properly." EpixGear on slow twitch only extrapolated a 7 second gain going from aero jersey to skin suit over 40k with a heavy head-wind in one direction (1:10 and 1:17 versus a club cut jersey) based on unspecified speed where the implications are fit riders on triathlon bikes.

From Drag difference between a normal bike/bibs and a tri suit?: Triathlon Forum: Slowtwitch Forums

"club cut" is standard for many people and considered to fit properly, although in good shape euro-cut jerseys which larger people confuse with race-cut fit me looser than club-cut in bad or even fit by American standards shape.

Louis Garneau XS pro-fit, quite nice at a relaxed pace. They don't make a smaller size, and it would have fit issues in the shoulders or due to length if they did.


Louis Garneau XS skin-fit, for high-speed:


I'd love a comparison of that sort of difference, on a road bike without aero bars, at a more typical 20-22 MPH solo speed.

I'll preface this by saying, no offense to OP and I'm not saying this is him, BUT

The ironic part about the whole "aero wheels to make me look and feel sexier so I will ride more" is, to most everyone else, seeing an overweight, out of shape middle aged guy on aero wheels (especially the ones plastered with giant decals) makes them look WORSE than riding regular ones. Unless you really look the part of a fit, fast, strong cyclist then wheels like that make everyone look like a poser, IMO. And of course, we make our bikes look sexy for the benefit of everyone else out there, don't we? Think about it. If you were alone on a deserted island with no one else to see you and your bike, would you really bother with "visual upgrades"? I know I wouldn't. I don't as it is in a local area with many dozens of other people out there every day.

Co-incidentally, when one does look the part enough to be able to "get away" with that look, said person is also usually fast enough to actually reap some of the benefits.

I desire to keep my bike as understated looking as possible, if you hadn't already figured that out. I'm not fast or strong either, btw.

i get it.

So the day to day variance in wind, how you feel, the elevation gain, blah blah blah, means the "noise" will usually swamp out any measured "gain" from aero wheels. I agree with others here, especially if you're not racing, that deeper wheels are mainly an exercise in making your bike pretty or aesthetically pleasing to yourself. Just get what's good looking to your eye and is within your personal budget. It's nice to ride a bike that you think looks good.

I get what you're saying and maybe I started my journey back when I first got my road bike as somewhat of a poser, who knows, I was into the sport and enjoyed every second on the bike. A year and a half later and at my best down 50lbs from where I started, best fitness level since my 20's, and feeling stronger than ever. I need to loose another 15-20lbs to be where I'd like to be and have been working to get there, hopefully by May. As far as understated goes, my bike is a Caad 10 Black Inc which is all black, I even removed all of the Gold lettering and stripes to tone it down a bit. If I end up getting the Hed's, I'd more than likely remove the big "HED" decals too. I dress in plain black LG bibs and a plain solid color jersey, no team kits here. Also, if I were stuck on a desert island with nobody to impress, I'd still want the baddest mtb man has to offer with an endless supply of tires and nutrition!

Aero wheels give you incremental speed. Just like a previous poster said, just like a aero helmet and according to specialized, if you have hairy legs, shaving them will give you the same benefits (at zero cost). All these little benefits add up to a significant time for racers, for recreational riders does it matter?

add aero full carbon wheels cause they look nice, if that has a placebo to make you ride faster and more, then it might be worth it.

So, since you haven't bought wheels yet...

I would recommend demoing some wheels if you possibly can, especially whatever you think you are going to buy. There's more than meets the eye - stiffness and how they handle in wind are hard to describe, if you can try them it would be good.

Also, make sure they fit in your frame, I have a Scott Plasma TT bike that I can't put my Zipp 303 front wheel on, the frame is too narrow.

Go deep


go balls deep.

Good advice, I have a shop that demo's Reynolds wheels and they said no charge for me, just tip the mechanic swapping my cassette over so that's a good place to start. I believe the caad10's can fit 28's so I should be ok, and the newer Reynolds are pretty wide so I'll find out soon enough, thanks.

That fast person is going to face just as much derision from the non-cycling masses because of the tight spandex fit. Might as well just ride what you want, and **** the haters.

Sounds like you'd like my new bike so thought I'd post a picture to further tempt you: do eeeeet! You know you want to! Jet Jet Jet!

Nice! One of the best looking I've seen anywhere.

I'm a little sad at how much influence everybody else has on your behavior & opinions.

This is more my style...

Having said all that, I just went for the maiden voyage on my new Reynold's assault wheels. I'm pretty convinced they pedaled themselves.

But real comments - they're not super deep by any means but I could definitely feel the wind on the front wheel, and I'm not a small cyclist either. The thing that surprised me was how flighty they felt bombing down a hill at a little over 40+. My AL clinchers felt much more stable at that speed, so that surprised me a little.

I was probably about a minute faster on my 13 mile route tonight than I was a week or two ago, and I included a little detour tonight to a public restroom. The fact that I was well rested probably had more to do with that than the actual wheels but I enjoyed the sensation of riding on them and pushed a little harder than I normally would. I don't want to be "that guy" you know.

I'll have to do some little scientific experiment, but I think I got some rear pad rub when I was out of the saddle climbing up a short but steepish hill. I say "think" because the traffic noise was challenging. The wheels are so true I put the brakes pretty close to the rim, certainly closer than they were on my other rims last time I rode. With only 24 spokes in the rear I guess that's to be expected.

$800 though, I really love 'em for that price.

[QUOTE=TrojanHorse;17604771]I'm a little sad at how much influence everybody else has on your behavior & opinions.]


It's not as sad as how you carved up my post to try and make it look like it had the opposite meaning from what it did.

Did I hit a nerve? How many aero wheel sets and other items do you have that are carefully selected for aesthetic value? They all nicely match your team sky / raphpa / retro systeme-U kit? I bet you're just the belle of the ball at the group rides. Does your purse have an aero component, so it doesn't hold you back too much as it hangs jauntily from your arm?

Now that deep wheels are "the look" and have become common, I'd much rather be different and old-school by riding my plain-old aluminum non-aero wheels. -and i wouldn't pay hundreds, or $1000 or more for wheels that don't do anything more than any other wheel....

Sweet ride!

And again it seems like I extracted your exact viewpoint from your post because you're repeating yourself again in this one. I'm curious as to how you think that was the "exact opposite" meaning from what you intended. It was pretty clear.