The wheels you have are likely faster even on hilly courses than the Flo 30, certainly never slower.
When you are climbing, you aren’t really noticing the weight of your wheels. You are just noticing the climb.
Check out the Flo Cycling blog on wheel weight vs aero, they run quite a few scenarios. Even savageman was faster with the heavier, more aero wheel, and savageman is much hillier than anything else .
Awesome! Thanks for the response. That settles it…
The place where the 30’s would rock is if it windy/raining. Coming up out or aero to control the frame cause your getting blown off line is going to cost way more grams than your saving with the deeper wheels. Rain can get inside the deep wheels and weigh them down. I know at LP a few years ago guys were coming back into T2 with a few pounds of water inside their wheels/disk. The Flo 30 are great all round wheels for variable conditions.
The trick there, is the windy moments are also the moments when the deep wheels offer the most advantage (if they are not causing you to swerve around or crash of course)
Remember that in the rear, winds tend not to cause any handling problems. So if a hurricane picks up, keep the deep rear wheel on.
The place where the 30’s would rock is if it windy/raining. Coming up out or aero to control the frame cause your getting blown off line is going to cost way more grams than your saving with the deeper wheels. Rain can get inside the deep wheels and weigh them down. I know at LP a few years ago guys were coming back into T2 with a few pounds of water inside their wheels/disk. The Flo 30 are great all round wheels for variable conditions.
Then why don’t they allow disks at Kona? I’ve always heard that it was due to the wind?
Then why don’t they allow disks at Kona? I’ve always heard that it was due to the wind?
Because myths don’t die easily.
I’ve heard that nasty gusts have blown people over there, and I don’t doubt that.
But people run 90mm deep front wheels there all the time. Gonna get blown over even worse by that than a disc rear.
Yeah I know that you get yaw induced twisting of the front wheel with deeper wheels. I plan on 90-disk for my race set up but will keep my 30’s in reserve if its gusty. Constant wind no problem, gust can make decents hair raising.
Then why don’t they allow disks at Kona? I’ve always heard that it was due to the wind?
Because myths don’t die easily.
I’ve heard that nasty gusts have blown people over there, and I don’t doubt that.
But people run 90mm deep front wheels there all the time. Gonna get blown over even worse by that than a disc rear.
Kona 2001 was a really bad wind year, worst I’ve seen in Kona. I saw people being blown across a traffic lane or more. Their direction of travel didn’t change, front wheel was not turned (much), simply blown sideways. Looking at the riders ahead, everyone was riding leaning to their right, leaning into the wind. Felt like someone was pushing on your side at all times. When a “gust” came, riders were quickly blown one lane over. Lighter riders pushed further than heavier riders. There was a flag at one of the aid stations on the Queen K and it was out taut, at a direct 90 degree side wind. Debris didn’t tumble on the road, it stayed in the air. By watching the riders ahead, it was possible to get an idea where the wind would blow you sideways. Even with that knowledge, it was disconcerting to suddenly be pushed 5 feet, or more, off your path while still steering (mostly) straight. Was very glad to be off the bike that year!
So it wasn’t instability or steering torque, it was simply side pressure from the wind. I was riding Jet 60 front, Jet 90 rear that year. Was not bothered by steering influence of the wind as much as the side force. On days like this, and you can’t predict when it will hit, I believe a disc would have been problematic for many people as increased side area would have resulted in a greater side force from the “gusts”. (“Gusts” on the Queen K are not so much changes in wind velocity as much as areas of increased wind exposure due to terrain changes along the route).