I have a 2017 Cannondale CAAD12 and I have been running them with Cosmic Carbone wheel set and I love the way it rode, very responsive, quick steering, stops on a dime, and with the 25mm tires rode nice. I recently switched and put a pair of Zipp 808’s and while it really makes the bike look cooler, it feels very heavy, steering seems a lot slower, acceleration also a lot slower, and even top speed seems to have taken a hit.
I was under the impression deep wheels are supposed to make one go and maintain speed but unlike my Tribike where using a disc in the rear and 808 in front, I can go about 24mph and hold that speed with fresh legs for miles and miles. But with 808 on my Cannondale, I can barely reach 22mph without feeling worn out quickly.
I am not sure if anybody on the pro tour is using 808 on road bikes but for me at least it seems a lot slower, Perhaps it is because I am not as aerodynamic as I am on my tribike and it seems the way a tribike is setup, it helps maintaining top end speed where again, the 808’s seem very sluggish and harder to hold a top speed. Another thing I noticed, the 808’s when you spin the wheel just keep rolling and rolling and rolling where the Cosmic Carbones don’t spin as freely yet feel a lot faster.
it feels very heavy, steering seems a lot slower, acceleration also a lot slower, and even top speed seems to have taken a hit.
There’s some physics involved here to explain this. With any spinning object, the more weight which is located farther from the axis, will produce a higher angular momentum, which is the spinning-brother of linear momentum. Basically, if you had a 10 pound wheel and all the weight is at the axis, vs all the weigh at the rim, the wheel with more weight at the center will be easier to accelerate but also easier to slow down.
808’s have a deep carbon wheel so they accelerate quicker but theoretically also maintain speed easier (but you have more wind resistance when the speed increases so it’s almost nullified).
As far as steering is concerned, you have more surface area to catch area at a yaw angle. So, basically, deep dish are harder to steer. I can barely ride my Supersix with 808’s no hands. Makes me nervous and I’ve been riding 10 years.
But with 808 on my Cannondale, I can barely reach 22mph without feeling worn out quickly. There’s really too many things here to decide if this is accurate. Wind, fatigue and so on.
Some things not mentioned is that there are small designs in each wheel which make the hub heaver or lighter, the rim heavier or lighter, different aerodynamics with spoke designs, and also different rim designs to make them handle yaw wind differently. But, regardless of any proprietary design (Firecrest, Hed FR, etc.) that more weight at the edge of the wheel makes them accelerate and slow down worse.
Idle, thanks for the insight! I am pretty knowledgeable about running marathons but when it comes to cycling I am very new at this. I am really tempted to go back to my Cosmic Carbones in spite of the fact they don’t look as top shelf as the Zipps. I really hate the weighty feel of them but ironically the 808’s on my tribike seem to perform very well. On a road bike it doesn’t quite feel the same. Maybe this is why I don’t see a lot of people using 808 on road bikes. I see them on tribikes but not road.
