Hello. Sorry if this has been discussed before. I see topics that I similar, but don’t exactly answer my question.
Last month, I purchased a set of Ryot 77 (77mm) wheels from FFWD. I finally did my first ride on them yesterday. About 80 miles with ~5000 ft of elevation gain. The first half of the ride it was quite windy, and I was honestly scared sh*tless. I spent very little time in my aero bars (none when descending) until the wind finally died down.
I am considering asking my LBS to swap these out for Ryot 55s (55mm version), but want to ask for ST input first.
Am I just being a baby here and will eventually get used to riding deeper wheels like these?
Will crosswinds still hit me like a ton of bricks on 55mm wheels? (ie. is there even a point to switching)
Are deeper wheels actually slower in crosswinds and on hillier routes?
To add context I weigh 180 lbs, my next race is St George in May, and my bike handling skills are probably sub-par as most riding is on the trainer.
I was very nervous when I first got a set of 60mm/90mm wheels. After riding them a while, I realized that they are no big deal and I wished I had gone deeper. I upgraded to 90mm/disc, which are my only wheels for the TT bike. I ride these outside, and high-gust crosswinds are not an issue for me. The key is to just use them. I would ride them anywhere now.
I rode St. George WC last fall, and the wind was ferocious. I was out of aero on the major descents, but that was definitely an outlier. I never felt unsafe, though I did improve my butt muscle pucker strength a bit.
I spent very little time in my aero bars (none when descending) until the wind finally died down.
Three things helped me with this when I was new to time trial and riding a bike like this outdoors.
Just time in saddle when it is windy, like not choosing to avoid it and going anyway.
and 3. go together: got a Garmin Varia and learned to “own my lane” on less busy roads.
For #2 and #3 there, the thing is you need to feel like you can make errors and corrections without getting hit by a car or riding so far to the right that you fear going off the road. Knowing what is or isn’t behind you and gaining some road width with that knowledge is big. Then you can stay in the aerobars and make corrections and practice.
If you must, make this spot even a short 1-mile long out/back that is a dead end or really low volume business park on a weekend or something.
If you don’t yank the bars around you won’t fall over. You’ll move in the road as pushed by the wind and making corrections, but practicing somewhere you can move a lot without penalty/fear helps a lot. You’ll learn to sail your ship soon enough.
I’m like the above poster, I now have a “race day” set of wheels but my training wheels are still a disc and 90mm front wheel. Just the “slower less nice” set.
Can you say about how long it took you to get comfortable in crosswinds on the 60/90 combo?
Also, if you’d been racing with something shallower like a Zipp 404 at St. George, would you have been out of the bars on descents anyway?
Can you say about how long it took you to get comfortable in crosswinds on the 60/90 combo?
Also, if you’d been racing with something shallower like a Zipp 404 at St. George, would you have been out of the bars on descents anyway?It probably took me a half-dozen outside rides with a little wind before I quit noticing. And to the point above, a rear disc makes a bike more stable.
St. George was crazy. I probably would have been out of aero on regular wheels there. Going 40 MPH with the sudden gusts and wind changes was very challenging. I was not concerned on the flats when I was going around 20 MPH and stayed in aero most of the time in those sections.
Maybe not in bunches, though.Ha, true. I should have said anywhere in time trial mode. I would never ride deep wheels in group activities.
First things first - do NOT make a quick judgment on your first few rides, or even your first month of riding, unless it’s so consistently horrible that you can’t deal with it anymore.
I do the large bulk of my training on an 88mm front and disc rear. You get used to it, but I’ll be honest and say if the wind is gusting really hard, you’ll probably have to still get into your drops off the aerobars.
I will also add that if you’re feeling the strong sidewinds with an 88, you will still feel it significantly on a 50mm rim. I used to ride 50s (which I still have), and it is barely better than the 88s in crosswinds.
You might even be better off keeping your 77mm wheels as your non-windy and non-hilly wheelset, and instead look for a lightweight nondeep hillclimb mountain set which will give you best handling when your on top of gusty mountains.
I gave my FLO 90’s away, after trying to make them work in the Kansas wind for 2 years. I’m older, and don’t want to crash again, and it was only a matter of time. I had a friend, and much better rider than me, blown off the road in a race, with 90’s, right in front of me. I was using Roval CL 50’s that day, and even they were a handful. I hate to admit it, but I’ve got a set of Rolf 30’s that I absolutely love, and prefer them to the deep wheels.
Give it a couple weeks to get adapted to the deeper front wheel (a deep rear is never a problem). Putting slightly more weight on the front wheel helps with stability (this occurs naturally with most aero positions, but scooting forward a bit works for roadbars/bullhorns).
Plenty of AG guys your weight ride 90mm wheels at Kona; and most 70-75kg pros do as well.
Thanks for the link. Hey just curious- where in the Bay do you do most of your riding? I mostly ride around Morgan Hill/Gilroy. Have been searching recently for some new routes.
I am amazed that many people feel comfortable riding 60mm or greater front wheels.
Or I must be pretty chicken as well. 50mm is the sweet spot for me. Noticeably faster than 40mm but much more stable than 60.
Paired with rear 80, 90, disc, doesn’t really matter.
I’d go with what makes you feel the most confident most of the time.
Thanks for the link. Hey just curious- where in the Bay do you do most of your riding? I mostly ride around Morgan Hill/Gilroy. Have been searching recently for some new routes.
I’m a bit further north (by Stanford), so Woodside/Portola Valley is great. There are also climbs up to Skyline (Old La Honda, Kings Mtn, Page Mill, etc.) and down to the ocean (Tunitas Creek, etc.).
Lots of great biking around Morgan Hill though (hopefully some south bay folks can weigh in). There’s the loop around the reservoir used for the Morgan Hill Sprint tri each May.
I have a perspective on the issue at hand that you might want to consider. If you look at most drag comparison charts for wheels of various depths, you’ll see that for the most part, there’s not much difference between the different depths at zero yaw, or nearly at zero yaw. It’s not until you get farther out into the higher yaw angles that the deeper wheels, such as a 90mm wheel, really starts to shine. The problem is, that’s when you’re most likely to want to have a slightly shallower wheel to cope with the winds. Luckily, the faster you go, the more the functional yaw angle approaches zero, so having a 60mm wheel isn’t as big a handicap as it might seem, relative to a 90mm wheel. If you can afford it and don’t mind carrying a bunch of extra wheels to the races, then get a 60 and a 90. If you can only get one, get a 60. IMO.
I am amazed that many people feel comfortable riding 60mm or greater front wheels.
Or I must be pretty chicken as well. 50mm is the sweet spot for me. Noticeably faster than 40mm but much more stable than 60.
Paired with rear 80, 90, disc, doesn’t really matter.
I’d go with what makes you feel the most confident most of the time.
I posted above earlier, but at least for me, there’s almost no noticeable difference for me with a 50mm vs an 88 front. I was surprised at first at how much I could feel the wind on a 50 compared to a training wheel, but also surprised at how non-noticeable for me the difference is with the 88s compared to the 50. I’ve been riding 88s since. I never use the 50s anymore.
I would say ride the 90 wheel and give yourself a chance to get used to them.
I had a similar situation where I had descended for 20Km out of aero on my new 90 deep wheels that I recently moved to from my 50 deep wheels. It was also a very windy and super gusty. and it was getting scary at anything above 60kph.
I am much more confident now and have since not been in a situation were the wind has pushed me out of Aero position, and I had done that same descent and ridden on very gusty days.
So give yourself a chance and if in a couple of month you still don’t like them, change
