One bike, two wheelsets?

carbonfool

I am going to be doing the winter series races in Hillingdon as a CAT 3 virgin and was wondering how people get time on their race bike over winter?

Do you have two wheelsets, one for race one for training?
If so do you just accept that you will need to adjust the brake shoes and rear derailleur when swapping between the wheelsets?
Has anyone found a perfect two sets without adjustment required?

I intent to race on Easton EA90SLX but I train on heavier duty ones through the pot holes and winter muck of the fabulous lanes in the Chilterns.



Cheers.

brownbosh

Can you be a cat 3 virgin?

steve23

i am lucky enough to have my race bike and a winter bike. i use my winter bike all through the rubbish weather......

however, i have 2 sets of wheels for my racing bike. my best wheels (campag shamals) that i only use to race on, and some training wheels that i use whenever i ride my race bike outside of a race!!!

im quite lucky in that respect, as i have a spare set, but i suppose it just makes my best wheels last longer! (i hope!!)

meagain

No doubt I'm missing something obvious here, but (with vert d'outs) why any need to adjust brakes unless a different width rim? And even if want wider training tyres, same size rim should be OK.Nor do I usually have to adjust rear mech when swopping different 9 speed mtb rears. At worst maybe have to alter the stops.

Rich-Ti

My Fulcrum 1s are my only wheels - summer, winter and Hillingdon! 8)

carbonfool

Thanks for the answers,

cat 3 virgin? sure, I have only raced with 4th cats in 2008 sept/oct meetings. The 1/2/3 cats had their own race, so this will be my 1st time with the 3rds.

I changed a set of wheels for cr.ap weather from summer and had to do some adjustments, I thought this would not be ideal tinkering/testing with race bike before event etc. I do also have a winter training bike which I have been using but it does not inpire me to 'give it some' like the nice fitting race bike - which ideally I would do more miles on.

On the mtb side, swapping between wheels with disk brakes can be a right royal pain having to change the caliper distance with shims as each manufacture seems to have miniscule hub measurement differences.

I suppose the answer I was looking for was I train on brand c, model x but race on brand c model y and as there is no adjustment necessary!

andy_wrx

I've never experienced a problem swapping between wheels, never had to adjust the brakes, never done more than a minor 1/4-turn tweak to rear mech adjustment but the end-stop settings are fine.

This includes
- swapping between Ksyriums & Fulcrum 5's on my 'best' bike,with 10sp
- swapping between Shimano WHR550's and some Spesh OEM wheels with Alex rims/Spesh hubs on my 'winter' bike with 9sp
- swapping between the same Shimano WHR550's, same Spesh OEM wheels and Mavic Cosmic Elites on my TT bike with 8sp cassette fitted

I guess if you were swapping backwards and forwards between carbon wheels and alu you'd definitely want to change brakepads, but I have here 2 sets of wheels on my best bike and 3 sets on the other two bikes which I simply switch around without touching the brakes - all these rims must have the braking surface at the same height give or take a mm. I have perhaps had to adjust the pad in-out slightly using the screw adjuster, but that's all.

Similarly, the 2 sets on my best bike have the same 12-27 10sp cassette, but I have 12-25 Shimano cassette and 12-26 SRAM fitted to the 9sp wheels and 12-21, 12-23 & 12-25 Shimano cassettes fitted to the 8sp wheels and they swap-over easily enough - never had to adjust the mech end-stops, just perhaps a 1/4 turn of the adjuster to make them run sweetly and shift cleanly.