Which Wheels for Entry Time Trialling?

garetjax

Hi,
.
I'm considering buying a decent set of road wheels for use in club 10s, hill climb competitions and the occasional 25 TT.

I've tried several events on and off over the last couple of years and have used mostly old Mavic open pros and Mavic aksiums with tri bars clamped onto my road bike. I get around 25/26 minutes for a 10 ( average around 22-23mph).

Given my level I am not sure I would benefit from expensive aero wheels ( or would I?), and besides I want to use the wheels for hill climb competitions ( hill climbing is by far my strong point as I am a light rider and I've done alot of mountain biking).

So what do you think? Good clinchers that are fast for club 10s and light for hill climbs? . Willing to spend a few hundred quid.

thetrotter

First thing to do - and it costs you nothing - is to sort out your position. Just adding tribars to a standard road set up will leave you too high at the front and too far behind the bottom bracket. For time trialing you need to get your bars as low as possible (so take out any spacers under the stem) and get as far forward as possible (so push your saddle forward). A real pain to do this before every time trial but will make the biggest difference, if not having the bling factor of new wheels.

Once you've sorted the position, sort out the wheels. You really need 50mm depth rims for TTs which means carbon. You then have to decide whether to use tubs or clinchers. Tubs are more common but Planet X do some good 50mms in either clinchers or tubs and those are the ones that I would go for. You can use 50mm depth wheels for general riding as well if you wish. You will notice the difference a good set of wheels makes.

garetjax

Great thanks. Planet x look to have some decent 50mm clinchers that could well fit the bill.

i have tried to improve my position over time. I've also read that, after position, an aerohelmet will improve times more than flash aero wheels, which surprised me. Is this true?
I'm not too eager to part with my cash, but i've done alot of tme trial specific cycling over the Winter (rather than my usual mountain biking) and I guess I don't want to be overly limited by using my standard road bike. I am also considering getting a time trial bike rather than wheels as I know the position is the most important factor.

inseine

If you're thinking of a bike rather than the wheels, I think that is the way to go. I was much quicker on my TT bike than on a road bike because of the position. An aero helmet should help too aslong as you are low and the helmets 'tail' does not stick up in the air (check in a mirror!).
If you look at the figures the wheels coud be worth 10watts or so but if you choise wisely some of the cheaper wheels are not so much worse than the best and personally I've never gained with bling aero wheels over cheaper ones. Go for aero spokes with as few as possible. An old set of deep section Campag Shamals do the trick (I have a pair....).

thetrotter

I think that you're right to think about a specific bike for time trials being a better initial investment than wheels. Leaving aside the hassle of altering your position every time you put on tri bars, it allows you to use bar end shifters so you avoid needlessly getting out of the aero position. Certainly my big improvements came when using a dedicated bike but I do like deep section carbon wheels - and don't get me started on the sound of a disc wheel 8) An aero helmet helps but most people tend to move their head around defeating the objective.