Excellent. Tires/tubes are a passive equipment choice that let you save watts no matter whether you're in a pack, off on a solo breakaway, or trying to bridge up; whether you're coasting downhill, climbing a hill, or cornering hard in a crit; whether the wind is blowing or it's calm; whether you're sitting up or in the drops. The savings may vary according to speed or the road surface but the savings (compared to a crappy set of tires and tubes) are always there. Whether those savings are enough to determine the outcome of a race is a separate issue from whether those savings exist.
The same thing applies to frames.
Yes & no on both tires & frames, however the above arguments are being made in a bubble, and not in a real-world situation. For example, if you were to simply look at the raw data for a tire's rolling resistance, you could make an argument that a certain set of tires is the "fastest", and while that may be technically true based on the sole criteria of rolling resistance, that doesn't make it the fastest tire overall---depending on the application (especially in road racing & crits). I'm not going to dig it up, but I've seen tests showing that the Michelin Pro 2 Race was one of the "fastest" tires out there: you couldn't pay me to put those on my bike in a crit. Ditto for most of Specialized tires in the late 90s/early 2000s---just hard as nails rubber.
What is faster: the tire that gives you ultimate confidence in a crit/road race/descending, allowing you to take corners at maximum speed or the tire that in a lab--in a straight line--is the "fastest"?
The same holds true for frames: I have ZERO doubt that Cervelo's S5 is more aero than my Parlee. However, simply based on the geometry alone, there is no way--for me--that it is "faster" in a road race/crit, and especially climbing & descending, and that is what matters to me. All the Cervelo fanboys here on ST seem to get their panties in a bunch whenever someone laughs at Cervelo's claims of aerodynamic superiority, but bike frame aerodynamics, in 99.9% of crits/road bike racing (non TT), DON'T MATERIALLY MATTER.
If it did, we'd be seeing A LOT of near pros showing up with TT helmets & deep dish wheels to road races, hoping to "save" those extra few seconds.
Or maybe Cervelo's marketing department hasn't thought of that yet?
____________
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." John Rogers
The same thing applies to frames.
Yes & no on both tires & frames, however the above arguments are being made in a bubble, and not in a real-world situation. For example, if you were to simply look at the raw data for a tire's rolling resistance, you could make an argument that a certain set of tires is the "fastest", and while that may be technically true based on the sole criteria of rolling resistance, that doesn't make it the fastest tire overall---depending on the application (especially in road racing & crits). I'm not going to dig it up, but I've seen tests showing that the Michelin Pro 2 Race was one of the "fastest" tires out there: you couldn't pay me to put those on my bike in a crit. Ditto for most of Specialized tires in the late 90s/early 2000s---just hard as nails rubber.
What is faster: the tire that gives you ultimate confidence in a crit/road race/descending, allowing you to take corners at maximum speed or the tire that in a lab--in a straight line--is the "fastest"?
The same holds true for frames: I have ZERO doubt that Cervelo's S5 is more aero than my Parlee. However, simply based on the geometry alone, there is no way--for me--that it is "faster" in a road race/crit, and especially climbing & descending, and that is what matters to me. All the Cervelo fanboys here on ST seem to get their panties in a bunch whenever someone laughs at Cervelo's claims of aerodynamic superiority, but bike frame aerodynamics, in 99.9% of crits/road bike racing (non TT), DON'T MATERIALLY MATTER.
If it did, we'd be seeing A LOT of near pros showing up with TT helmets & deep dish wheels to road races, hoping to "save" those extra few seconds.
Or maybe Cervelo's marketing department hasn't thought of that yet?
____________
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." John Rogers
