Aero wheels vs. non-aero

Triathlon Forum
1

I did my first multi-sport event this past Saturday. I ride a CAAD 8 with everything stock other than some craigslist aero bars.

I averaged 22.5 mph which seems ok considering I’ve only been working on bike fitness for 3-4 months. My question is, how much faster would I be with a set of aero wheels (planet x for example)? In addition, how much difference does it make going from a carbon aero wheel on the back to a full disc on the back? I’m trying to figure out if it’d be worth upgrading to aero wheels (both) and/or a disc on the back?

Thanks!

2

there is a wide range of answers here, and they will depend greatly on which particular aero wheels you use.

If you went from a normal box rim to a HED Jet 90 front / Disc rear or Zipp 808 front / disc rear you would save something like ~80 seconds per 40k

That depends on the wind though, if there was no wind at all the savings might be smaller. If there are lots of hills the savings will be smaller.

Planet X wheels aren’t quite as cleverly shaped, so they will save less time.

if you put crappy tires on your aero wheels, they won’t be any faster at all.

3

http://www.spinlitecycling.com/ZippAeroEdgeFlyer.pdf
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4

Thanks for the info. So I’m looking at +/- 3 minutes over 56 miles. Hmmmm…got some thinking to do.

5

you can get a good chunk of those minutes for cheap with a wheelbuilder wheel cover
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