cdw wrote:
Shifting all the way. Wheels are the most overblown, overpriced item on your bike. And it is not that hard to quantify. For about 3500 feet of climbing, you save about 14 seconds per pound. So if you saved two pounds on a wheelset, which is a lot, you gain roughly a minute to 1:30 on a really big climbing day (like 10,000 feet). That could be 90 seconds out of 5-7 hours of riding, depending on how fast you climb. Upgrading to carbon wheels might look sexy, but is ridiculously expensive.
If you have not tried electronic shifting then think of it this way. Remember the way the bike shifted right out of the store when it was perfectly tuned? Electronic shifting is better and never needs any maintenance and never stops shifting perfectly.
In a way, always being in the right gear will make you a more efficient rider and shifting is practically effortless.
On a ride where your average speed is over 15 mph, then aero wheels will start to matter more, but for climbing, the gain is very small.
I def disagree with this.
Most tri courses are not mountain courses, they are flattish. Where carbon wheels greatly excel.
Carbon wheels are also almost required if you're a FOP triathlete cyclist trying to still improve, because going from like 23-24mph or 24-25, etc. has incredibly huge power requirement gains at this point (as compared to going from 13-14mph, for example). Like 40+ watts/mph and upwards from there.
I fell into the 'wheels don't matter it's all power' advice for a long time, as that's advice given to beginners. I think that's fine for beginners and casual triathletes who aren't trying to push their max, but once you're in this sport as a regular and really trying to push your limits, carbon wheels and aero helmet are crucial for that last 1mph on the bike. And the stronger/faster you get, the more important the aero becomes because of the exponential power requirements of going faster at higher speeds.
On bike mountain climb courses, yes, aero gains are heavily neutralized, so don't expect a huge gain if you enter like a cyclist hillfest grand fondo with 10k+ of climbing.