I’m looking at race wheels and thinking tubular for the weight savings but i am really leery of the braking issues with a carbon rim rather than and aluminum machined surface. I’d prefer not to have to always bring extra wheels for possible rain.
Am I worrying too much about the rain problem? It has been described as making braking nearly nil on a 404 tubie - even with carbon pads.
I have no problems braking with my 404 tubulars. The NEW 404s have a very nice braking surface and are very smooth. I have only used my these ones in some rain and it was OK - not great, but none are. I certainly didn’t feel unsafe. I do have the carbon brake pads, Ultegra brakes, Guru bike and go about 160 lbs.
My training rims are Reynold Alta race wheels, aluminum machined braking surface, clinchers. I would say the Zipps brake better than even the clincher Reynolds, but not as good as the perfect braking on my Ksyrium SLs on the rode bike.
I did a race in the rain today and had no issues with my carbon 404 surface and Zipp pads. I actually locked the wheel on accident coming into a 90 degree turn at ~35 miles an hour.
Kurt
Hello, You don’t consider accidently locking a wheel a problem? What i find with carbon in the rain is very little braking until the water is gone then grabby brakes. Its not impossible to manage but not a consistent as Al.
Styrrell
i got a little “over-zealous” with the rear brake. I was trying to rail a wet corner with lots of painted lines and tried to wait till the last second to grab the brake. i should have dragged the front brake a bit before to “scrub” some speed, but I came in a bit too hot. I was racing for the win…gotta “ride fast, take chances” some times.
Kurt
I have a 404 in the front and a 909 disc in the back. No problems at all. Get the tubs.
You should bring extra wheels to every event, I would imagine the cost of shipping the wheels is neglible compared to the cost of preparing and going to the event in the first place.
I find my 2004 404 front wheel is a little bit grabby. I’m using the coolstop pads for carbon rims, perhaps other pads are better. The braking is not bad, but modulation is not as good as with aluminum rims. I’ve never used them in the rain.
My take on sew ups: high rolling resistance, way overrated from a performance standpoint, PITA to mount, not worth the trouble. If I were to do it all over again I’d go clincher.
What kinds of courses to you typically race on? Will you only be using the wheels for triathlon or time trials? How is your bike handling/driving skill?
The reason that I ask all this is that you should be using the brakes minimally in a triathlon and or a TT. heck I have done entire IM bike ride and barely touched the brakes!
Now if you will be using the wheels for groups rides or bike racing then you may want to look into the special brake pads for carbon wheel use.
Fleck
Just for tris - but i generally like to ride the hilllier tris here around Madison and elsewhere.
I actually just scored a set of Reynolds DVs. I hope they work for me.
"My take on sew ups: high rolling resistance, way overrated from a performance standpoint, PITA to mount, not worth the trouble. If I were to do it all over again I’d go clincher. "
Agreed 100%.
Seems like most people have no problem with thiers but my 909 set sucks… it has plenty of stopping power but pulses, both front and back like a mf. Scares the hell out of me under power braking and is very hard to modulate if scrubbing speed through a fast sweeper corner. Yeah yeah, no braking while cornering I know, but sometimes when you’re really going for it, or those damn decreasing radius corners… Not sure what the deal is but the pulsing has always been a problem for me. I love the wheels otherwise, I just wish they’d brake smoother and more consistantly
For the record, USPS uses the aluminum rimmed Hed3s in bad weather, and people from Hed have suggested on this forum that riding in the rain with Stingers and H3 Carbons is a bad idea.