What are the drawbacks of using race wheels (HED3, JET 60, 90, etc.) as everyday training wheels? It seems that a lot of people buy race wheels, but they don’t use them for everyday training. Why not? Thanks for your thoughts!
Race wheels are often lighter, potentially more fragile. Likewise, lighter tires are often used that have limited life and puncture resistance. Additionally, some use tubulars for race wheels, clinchers for training. Carbon braking surface can wear quicker than aluminum.
For me, I want to actually train, not be fixing flats, replacing carbon rims due to road damage and other annoyances. Durability is more useful for training IMO.
There’s also some ancient history about training on heavy wheels, racing on lighter wheels/tires would make your “faster”. Power is power so it make no difference in conditioning, just speed.
For me, my race wheels are far to expensive to replace. I use training wheels that are heavy and bullet proof…less maintenance costs and worries if I hit that pot hole on accident. I also love the feeling of the new speed when changing to the race wheels. It really helps me feel mentally ready for a race. I do suggest some training on race wheels though. Like everyone says, never try something in a race you haven’t tried in training.
money. my training wheels would cost about $400 to replace… my race wheels would cost $2000 to replace.
And people will not like you if you ride around on Hed3s all the time. true story.
As the above poster said, in general, race wheels are lighter, faster, but more fragile. If I had a track-day car and it was all tricked out, I would probably only use that for track days as well, not an everyday beater.
That said, I hear all those Hed (Hed 3, Jets) are EVERYDAY strong, so I wouldn’t worry about them. HOWEVER, I wouldn’t want to put my expensive TYRES (yes, it’s the brit spelling, even if I’m not Brit… it just looks cooler to me) as everyday tyres. Just too expensive. If you don’t mind changing tyres for everyday training and riding (feasible only with clinchers, I presume), then have at it.
I don’t know if I should admit this, but I even run tuffy tube protectors in my training wheels…talk about extra weight! But, I haven’t had a flat tire in years (in SoCal on terrible roads). The only time I change a tube is when I wear out my tires.
Race day advantage, durability/reliability and price. Training on heavy less aero wheels means you will be working a bit harder during training. Slap those $2k wheels on race day and you will (if nothing else) feel faster which will give you a mental advantage (again if nothing else). Not to mention you will spend more time training and less time changing flats because your wheels will be more durable with the heavier tires (that is if you use puncture resistant ones and I highly recommend them) and lastly it is a lot cheaper to replace a lower end training wheel vs. a higher end racing one after you fall into that nasty pot hole.
Save the go fast toys for when you need them…on race day!
If you save your race wheels for races only, how far before a race would you slap them on to get used to handling them (if at all)? Also, what are race tires? Do people use different tires for racing vice training? Thanks!
I’ll ride my race wheels once or twice before my first races of the year to make sure everything is OK…Tires and shifting.
I train on Conti Gatorskins and race on Michelin Pro Race
jaretj
Are race tires less durable than regular training tires?
For the ones that I use…Yes.
They are also more expensive. I train on roads with a lot of glass and don’t like to cut up race tires.
jaretj
I usually put mine on a few days before the event to insure that everything is shifting and working properly and do a short ride with them. That’s about it. There is not a whole lot of ‘adaptation’ time in my opinion. As far as tires go, yes there is a difference. Racing tires tend to be lighter (just like the wheels) and are designed with the idea of minimizing rolling resistance on race day combined with a set of light aero wheels and you are setup to go faster. While some clincher race tires (like the pro race or conti gp 4000’s)tend to hold up quite well for training, they are expensive and do end up failing at some point like most things. I do have a set of Maxis Refuse on my trainers and they are literally bullet proof and inexpensive. I recently just changed them out because the tread was gone but no flats. Keep in mind that all things can fail…wheels, tires, stems, bars, chains, etc… so I always like to minimize the risk of it to maximize what little amount of time I have to train.
Bottomline, racing wheels are for just that…racing. If you want your bike to have the bling factor on your training rides then go for it but that does come with a price which is why you don’t see many people doing it.