Do deep rim carbon wheels make much difference?

jza86058

I'm a keen but,"improving" 30 something 3rd cat road racer. I note that many competitors are showing up with flash looking wheel sets that make my old Campag Nucleons look like something from the stone age. The races I tend to do typically don't involve any hills over 100m in vertical height gain so I'm not really benefiting from the low weight of my Campy's. However, when I look at the cost of replacing my old wheels with a set of quality deep rim carbons (something like the Easton Tempest or ZIPP 343) it seems astronomical (yep, I'm married and I have kids).

Does the aerodynamic profile make much difference, are the top of the range wheels significantly better than the cheaper ones?

Bottom line - are other racers buying an advantage over me?

vermootencp

I can't help you, being a know-nothing, but the Weight Weenies forum is much more racing-oriented than here - there's even a T-Mobile pro who's a regular poster (Adam Hansen, whose username is zakeen): http://weightweenies.starbike.com/phpBB ... um.php?f=3

I asked a (different) question about wheels the other day and got good info: http://weightweenies.starbike.com/phpBB ... hp?t=31429

Andy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<font size="1">"I'll do what I can to help y'all. But the game's out there, and it's play or get played. That simple."
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monty_dogcp

IME deep rim carbon wheel only make a difference on fast 60 kph+ downhills and any lighter wheel is obviously going to help on the hills. I doubt there are many 3rd cat races where they'd make a hap'eth of difference because you're mainly riding in a bunch in turbulent air, but it's always nice to have a pair of good wheels for race days. If money's tight, there's nothing to beat Planet-X carbon wheels