Have got club championship road race tomorrow and the weather is currently raining and predicted to continue tomorrow. I was hoping to use my Zipp 808 tubulars as our course is quite flat with only 2 small hills and I am planning to go solo mid race.
My question is: has anyone with a full carbon rim used used them in a wet road race and if so how was the braking and wear on the rim with the extra grit picked up.
If it was an IM or important TT race would use them and not worry but as I will be braking more often and aggressively in a road race I am a little concerned about how the braking surface will end up.
has anyone with a full carbon rim used used them in a wet road race and if so how was the braking and wear on the rim with the extra grit picked up?
I raced them in the rain in both a crit and a road race last year and in both cases, even with Kool Stop carbon pads, whiel others may have had different experiences, in my case braking action was nearly nil! In fact the only crash I have had in several years occurred last year during that crit as we raced in a torrential downpour and I got ‘squeezed’ between two riders on a decreasing radius turn. Entered the turn at 29 mph and with both brake levers buried to the bars, speed was not decreasing while the space between the two riders was! As for road grit scoring the rims, in the road race I did not use the brakes much at all except for corners and had no problems with scoring and the course for the criterium is a city park so road debris is usually not a problem.