I’ve be a lurker on here for a while but decided to finally post. As it is winter time here, I’ve been on the trainer more…which leads to some interesting trails of thought.
Once it starts to warm up and I finally get back out on the road, should I be training on my race wheels or regular wheels?? Do most people train with their racing wheels or switch a month or so before their race? I finally purchased some Zipp 404s clinchers this past season. I only had the chance to use them for 1 race but I have 3 “big” races coming up next year (have two 70.3s and Escape from Alcatraz planned…although thinking about using the road bike for Alcatraz). Should I train with the Zipps or just change into them a month or so before my race? (Obviously, I’m not using the Zipps on the trainer.)
One is that by riding them during training, you have a much greater chance of wrecking them.
The other is that you paid quite a bit for these, you should get your money’s worth out of them.
I personally only ride, “race wheels”(they are more fast training wheels;) ever. Unless I am on the trainer, which you are not doing. On my P3, it’s always zipp 808/60. On my slcsl, it’s mavic cosmics.
So I say go for it. But as I said you will get a few varying answers.
ETA: I guess I am not actually training on my race wheels, cause I race with tubie 900/808. Cause jackmott said to
I toss my racing wheels on about 3-4 weeks before my first event of the year. I keep them on for the rest of the season until winter forces me on the trainer at which time I switch to stock wheels.
On my TT, I used to swap 2 weeks before races to my 808 firecrest clichers. I had cosmic carbone sl as training wheels. That was a hassle, because I had to swap the brake pads too. Now I built up another training bike and wanted to buy some new wheels for that. But than I thought why and put my cosmic carbone sl on that bike so I just leave my Zipps on my TT the whole time next year.
TT race setup usually ready to roll with disc setup, front C50mm or 808
All aluminum training ride with Alum Clincher
Commuter with C50 tubular or deep Chinese for show, now just switched out to Cosmic clinchers which are really good wheels.
Building up a new bike, I would like to get a deep rear on that and run something fun on the front.
When you buy tubular wheels around here they are a) hardly used and b) cheap price. The challenge is to get deals on tires because I find if I ride roads where big trucks commute, I get flats.
training with race wheels is like swimming with fins. It makes it easier so you get a lower quality workout in said time.
Really? i just train off power meter, so having “race wheels” on just means MPH is faster and i enjoy riding my bike more, training rides would not change one bit in terms of “quality” of workout. Oh but it does give all the people i pass the excuse of “he must be going faster then me because of his wheels.”
Imma be rollin all day on my flo 90/disc when it warms up. Polly break out the regular wheels for in/around town stuff mostly but I love the bling and it makes a good conversation when I stop to eat chill in a park watch clouds or summin. People are like o fuck this brotha comin straight up out da rarri rn lmao
there’s nothing wrong with it, my personal preference is to training on a 32 spoke box section wheel that has lower spoke tension, rides a little nicer and doesn’t require a special adapter to inflate. With one set of decent training wheels you can go for years with just occasional rebuilds.
The other reason to ride training wheels is you tend to beat up the tires and you don’t want to cut up your nice race tires and get a flat after you spend all that time and money getting in the race
throw the race wheels on the day before and make sure the chain doesn’t skip and the brake pads are set right, take a nice ride and you’ll feel ready
Or ride the race wheels every day, I know people who do that. It’s partly generational, people never used to do it.
