Carbon fiber Wheels Road Bike?

Question

I am pretty much a beginner in road cycling, but the "mod bug" has already set in. I Currently have a titanium bike with sram rival parts since I really could not tell much of a difference between that as the red grouppo. I am pretty happy with everything on my road bike except well the mavic askium wheels. Sure they are pretty solid, but I want carbon wheels. I will be honest that it is mainly for the looks. I love carbon fiber (must have been from my car collecting hobby). I average 19-20 mph as a nice more relaxed speed and 22-23 mph if I really push myself on a 25 mile trip (each way).

I am debating on whether to get carbon fiber clinchers or tubular wheels. Money is not a problem. I want to go with the safer one. I might eventually upgrade the front fork to allow for disc brakes so overheating the rims would be a non issue.

Answer 1

May I suggest something?



Forget the change to carbon fiber wheels. Although it is true that wheel weight is the most important aspect of performance it will not be a change that you will be able to quantify... in fact, it is a change that almost nobody out of the profession will be able to quantify. Personally, I think that carbon fiber wheels look terrible.



There is absolutely nothing wrong with Askium wheels. Keep them.



Regarding a performance difference between Rival and Red, again, this is not something a "non-professional" would be able to detect as SRAM has engineered their product line to work equally well regardless of group. Being in the industry I can use any component from any manufacturer on the face of the planet for free, and I use Rival as well.



Tubular (sew up) wheels are much more labor intensive than clinchers and unless you race they will be a thorn in your side. Maintenance is quite difficult and you will only get one flat in a sew up before you pine away for clinchers. Are sew ups higher performance? Yes. Will YOU be able to feel the difference? No.



As far as safety, either clinchers or sew ups are about the same but the level of maintenance is wildly different. It generally takes about 48 hours of work and waiting to repair a sew up while it takes 10 minutes or less to repair a clincher flat.

Answer 2

Carbon Fiber Wheels Bike

Answer 3

One option that has not yet been discussed is road tubeless. There are road tubeless wheels now available in both alloy and carbon fiber. I would choose an alloy tubeless wheel. Road tubeless offers the ride quality of tubulars with the repairability of a conventional clincher. The jury is still out on the advisability of disc brakes on a road bike. There is certainly a weight penalty and you can't be sure your bike could be upgraded to accept disc brakes. If you choose that route, buy a bike that is already set up for disc brakes. Upgrading is tricky, you can easily exceed the price of a brand new bike with all your desired improvements by trying to adapt your current bike to new and improved components.

In terms of safety, one of the reasons why professional cyclists use tubulars is safety. When you flat with a clincher tire, within seconds you are riding on the metal rim. If you are in a curve, you will crash. With a tubular tire, you still have rubber between the road and the rim and you retain control. You can even ride for awhile without damage to your wheels. Road tubeless tires also allow you to retain control in the event of a puncture and they also are almost immune to pinch flats that can affect regular clinchers and to a lesser extent, tubular tires

Answer 4

Carbon fiber has a slight weight advantage and distinct ride advantage for long races. This is because CF dissipates shock if properly designed. But CF bikes are plagued by fragility during life's little oops moments. A simple sideways fall and nicking a sharp object can ruin a frame. And most of the time you are left with nothing more than the choice of getting a new frame, albeit at a reduced cost but still expensive. Ironicly the fork is a safer place for CF because the wheel tends to rotate away from these dangers.

Answer 5

Performance: a deeper aero cross section combined with carbon spokes or bladed conventional spokes can give you 2 minutes in a 40k time trial.



Tubie vs clincher: Small weight advantage for tubies. Better ride for tubies (IMHO). Faster changing a flat tubie in the heat of battle. Very slight performance advantage to tubies.



Safety: Deep section wheels can give you problems in crosswinds. Almost lost it once leaning into a turn when a tailwind became a crosswind. The front wheel tried to lift. Managed to finish the turn with only an inch of road to spare.



Tubies vs clinchers are equally safe if the tubies are glued on properly. After changing a flat on the fly, you're relying on remnants of the old glue to keep the tire on. I've never rolled one off the rim, but it makes me nervous enough to take it easy on turns for the rest of the race.



I use conventional wheels with clinchers for training. Deep section carbon with tubulars for racing (triathlon). Yes, the feel and performance is significantly different.



P.S. If your carbon rims don't have a metal braking surface, brakes disappear completely in the wet!

Answer 6

Why mod the wheels? Fit Continental Grand Prix Supersonic tyres in 20C [run at 6 BAR], the fastest tyre you can buy. Convert your bike to a carbon fibre rear derailluer, handlebars/stem, seatpost, in fact there are other tasty carbon fibre bits, not just the wheels. If your bike had full carbon fibre accessories would say the weight saving would be the same if not better than fitting new wheels.

Answer 7

Why put carbon wheels on your bike to only add weight with disk brakes ? Those wheels only weigh 1800 grams. If you are only going for looks get a set of deep V rims.

Answer 8

tubulars BIG NO

carbon small no

disk brakes on road bike - NO



overheating rims - come on



if you want safe i would not advise carbon anything

sorry





wle

Answer 9

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Answer 10

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