Best climbing wheels?
07-25-13, 07:01 PM
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Best climbing wheels?
My riding territory is composed mainly of moderate hills with few flats, so I'm generally either going up or down. Lots of climbing overall. I currently ride older Ksyrium SL's which are great for climbing, but I've already replaced my rear once due to the dreaded cracked eyelet area, and want to consider something new.
I've tried Zipp 202/303 Firecrests, and I honestly felt that the Kryriums still climbed better, although the ride quality of the Zipps was stellar overall. So purely for climbing and sprinting, what wheels do you guys think really stand out?
I've tried Zipp 202/303 Firecrests, and I honestly felt that the Kryriums still climbed better, although the ride quality of the Zipps was stellar overall. So purely for climbing and sprinting, what wheels do you guys think really stand out?
07-25-13, 08:07 PM
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I'm pretty sure that the new Tune wheels that were just announced on Fairwheels blog today are going to be the lightest badazz climbing wheels available once they hit the market...of course...they ain't gonna be cheap...
...turns out Froome was climbing with them, so....let's all go buy some performance...
https://fairwheelbikes.com/c/forums/t...ts-sneak-peek/
...turns out Froome was climbing with them, so....let's all go buy some performance...
https://fairwheelbikes.com/c/forums/t...ts-sneak-peek/
Last edited by gc3; 07-25-13 at 08:11 PM.
07-25-13, 08:37 PM
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07-26-13, 02:55 AM
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Only climbing? Bouwmeester Hors Categorie wheels. Only 1030grams total front & rear together.
I have Mavic rsys also, very good wheels.
I have Mavic rsys also, very good wheels.
07-26-13, 04:40 AM
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Hand-built Stan's Alpha ZTR 340 with Chris King R45 hubs, and some tubeless tires. Smooth, light (less than 1400 grams), and worry free. You can't be a Clyde tho.
07-26-13, 07:05 AM
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As for sprinting, Zipp 404's or even 808's. At 35-40mph, aerodynamics become way more signifcant than weight.
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07-26-13, 07:09 AM
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Let's see; heavy, expensive, aerodynamics of a brick, poor ride quality, and still prone to asplode post recall redesign.
Lots to like.
Lots to like.
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07-26-13, 07:37 AM
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To the extent a wheel makes a difference climbing, it's due to weight. The 202's a are going about a pound lighter than Kyserium SL's. (as well as more aero) The only reason that you might think the Kyseriums climb better is that they feel stiffer to you.
As for sprinting, Zipp 404's or even 808's. At 35-40mph, aerodynamics become way more signifcant than weight.
As for sprinting, Zipp 404's or even 808's. At 35-40mph, aerodynamics become way more signifcant than weight.
07-26-13, 07:50 AM
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Unless your races only go up hill it's slightly faster to have reasonably light but aero wheels rather than light non aero wheels. The aero wheels will be faster on the descents and flat to gradual climb parts of the race.
If you're not racing the difference is so small as to be not worth bothering about. Get some decent hand built aluminium clinchers.
If you're not racing the difference is so small as to be not worth bothering about. Get some decent hand built aluminium clinchers.
07-26-13, 08:09 AM
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Merlin did that in another thread recently. Only the 2nd post and he gave a clear concise answer .... thread never reached it's potential after that ! 
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07-26-13, 08:15 AM
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Unless your races only go up hill it's slightly faster to have reasonably light but aero wheels rather than light non aero wheels. The aero wheels will be faster on the descents and flat to gradual climb parts of the race.
If you're not racing the difference is so small as to be not worth bothering about. Get some decent hand built aluminium clinchers.
If you're not racing the difference is so small as to be not worth bothering about. Get some decent hand built aluminium clinchers.
07-26-13, 08:31 AM
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Madfibers.
07-26-13, 08:32 AM
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Unless your races only go up hill it's slightly faster to have reasonably light but aero wheels rather than light non aero wheels. The aero wheels will be faster on the descents and flat to gradual climb parts of the race.
If you're not racing the difference is so small as to be not worth bothering about. Get some decent hand built aluminium clinchers.
If you're not racing the difference is so small as to be not worth bothering about. Get some decent hand built aluminium clinchers.
07-26-13, 09:54 AM
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It's not a straight percent. Aerodynamics becomes a larger portion of the forces opposing the rider as the rider goes faster.
As far as how much it is, you'll need to look up the aerodynamics of the wheels you're interested in.
As far as how much it is, you'll need to look up the aerodynamics of the wheels you're interested in.
07-26-13, 10:19 AM
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Ballpark estimate based on normal riding? Taking into consideration that our OP wants to climb, that implies a lot of descending, but that's also a small portion of the overall ride time. (I ask because I'm skeptical about whether aerodynamic wheels offer enough speed to justify their price for people who aren't racing.)
07-26-13, 10:28 AM
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Even though I don't race and have no intention of doing so, I'm very happy with the perceived increase in maintained speed I've gotten from 38mm deep quasi-aero wheels compared to C24s....although I'm sure it isn't all that much. But the deeper wheels are also lighter and more efficient at climbing....not to mention cheaper chinese carbon...
...point being, it's all relative, no?
...point being, it's all relative, no?
07-26-13, 10:40 AM
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Ballpark estimate based on normal riding? Taking into consideration that our OP wants to climb, that implies a lot of descending, but that's also a small portion of the overall ride time. (I ask because I'm skeptical about whether aerodynamic wheels offer enough speed to justify their price for people who aren't racing.)
07-26-13, 10:52 AM
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I built a simple model that assumed that I'd gain 1 mph on the descents on the Everest Challenge (three big climbs/two big descents on each of two days, 29,035' total climbing). The wheels are slightly faster on descents- I can tell when I am on training rides and am slightly faster vs the same riders on the same descents. Of course I don't know how much faster they are exactly, the 1mph is just a guess. It could be 2 mph if the speeds are high and there's not much cross wind. It's not 5 or 10 mph. The small extra speed from the aero wheels lets me stay with other racers in the EC and in their draft. I'm tall but light, and on the largely non technical fast descents in this race I was getting dropped by guys I'd dropped on the preceding climb. With the aero wheels I can stay with them or sometimes drop them. So say half that speed increase is due to my particular situation of not staying in the draft vs staying in the draft. The aero wheels weighed about 200g more than my non aero wheels. My model assuming 1 mph avg faster on descents said that the aero wheels would save me about 4 minutes but the extra 200g would cost about 2 minutes, so the aero wheels save 2 minutes over all. This is on a over all time of 12.5 hours so you can see that the speed improvement of the aero wheels OR losing a couple hundred grams is really small.
07-26-13, 11:02 AM
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So, quick question, if I'm slow as hell on the climbs anyways, say, 10 mph for a 5.1% climb, I would stand to gain more from ultra light wheels like Zipp 202, Reynolds RZR, the new Tune Skyliner, etc, right? On flat ground I can average 17-18 pretty easily, but the climbs are what I need to get better on. My bike is a boatanchor as well, well over 23 lb, so this is all hypothetical, since I ain't dropping 3k on wheels for this bike.