I moved from flat, windy Texas to Oregon, and would like to get set of lighter weight wheels for climbing and to help with stability from crosswinds going down fast descents. This is for my road bike with disc brakes. I’m currently running a set of 60+mm wheels with 28mm GP5K tubeless.
For around Bend I wouldn’t go that shallow; none of the climbs here are nearly steep enough. Plus, that’s heavy for a 30mm. Would look at the 44 instead, or something like an SES 3.4 or Foundation 45.
I moved from flat, windy Texas to Oregon, and would like to get set of lighter weight wheels for climbing and to help with stability from crosswinds going down fast descents. This is for my road bike with disc brakes. I’m currently running a set of 60+mm wheels with 28mm GP5K tubeless.
Although perhaps not the first wheelset to come to mind with your initial ‘climbing’ requirement, I went with the Roval CLXII and they are phenomenal. Their primary design goal was that stability and they do that in a way that seemingly defies physics. So there are lighter wheels, although note they are pretty light, but the handfull of seconds you may lose on a long steep climb you will make back in minutes on the descents. My typical saturday ride group locally is 100-120km and 1500-2000m vertical. Some short sharp gorge climbs at 20%, some 10-15km steady climbs at 2% average.
The shape is the same as the CLX I so if budget is tight get some of those second hand, only difference is that technically they aren’t listed for tubeless, where the second versions are.
Have you crunched the numbers on this? Spoiler alert-for climbing wheels are not the answer.
It’s very roughly 100g per 10mm wheel depth, you can get lighter/heavier wheels at any depth/spoke/hub combo, but as an 0rder of magnitude estimate it’s good enough. So let’s just say the wheels are 300g lighter front and back.
On the stereotype (of mine) 1 mile climb at 10% at 300w, negating any aero effects:
At current weight=7.89min
Minus 600g (rounding up from 1.32 lbs to 2lbs because the great bikecalculator.com only allow 1lb increments= 7.81min
That’s a 4.8 sec gain over 8 minutes. You’re from Texas now so far be it from me to tell you what to do, but if it was my money I wouldn’t spend $1000 to go slower on descents and flats for marginal gains on climbs. There’s easier ways to shed weight from the bike/RIDER system.
Stability-wise, I’m a proponent of the deep rear/shallower front. It’s been discussed by smarter people, but essentially the effect is that in a crosswind the rear is pushed more than the front. moving the ‘center of pressure’ rearward. This has the effect of pushing the bike from the wind, but also steering the bike back into the wind, rebalancing itself
That’s a 4.8 sec gain over 8 minutes. You’re from Texas now so far be it from me to tell you what to do, but if it was my money I wouldn’t spend $1000 to go slower on descents and flats for marginal gains on climbs. There’s easier ways to shed weight from the bike/RIDER system.
Stability-wise, I’m a proponent of the deep rear/shallower front. It’s been discussed by smarter people, but essentially the effect is that in a crosswind the rear is pushed more than the front. moving the ‘center of pressure’ rearward. This has the effect of pushing the bike from the wind, but also steering the bike back into the wind, rebalancing itself
Please listen to this. It is good advice. To many people are stuck on the “lighter is better” train and don’t do the math. The only time a lighter but less aero wheel is going to be faster is if your race/ride starts at the bottom of a steep climb and ends at the top.
I had a friend who was looking at two bikes a couple of years back; one was 15 pounds and not aero and the other was 17 and aero. I crunched the numbers and showed him that the time he lost with the weight going up was gained back in the aero on the downhill. Despite spending a lot less time on the downhill, the aero gains were much larger than the weight losses.
People who push ‘light weight over anything’ usually try to say that the weight will matter at that moment when you have to make the break (for bike racing) while ignoring the disadvantage they pose for the rest of the race.
Vote for HUNT 40’s. Just got them on a 25% sale from their website. $671 for the pair (I didn’t have to pay shipping by picking them up at their distro center). Tubeless ready. Great in the crosswinds and for climbing in the mountains. Bladed spokes, and never heard of them until recently (last 5 months or so). Quite happy with the full carbon rims.
My recommendation is to stick with Eugene, Oregon based Rolf wheels. I bought a set last year and absolutely love them. The ARES3 (30mm), ARES4 (40mm) and ARES6 (60mm) are very sweet carbon wheels for climbing. Last year, I replaced my Zipp wheels with Rolf wheels and will never, ever go back to the overpriced, under performing Zipps.