Semi Aero Wheels

Haynes
Haynes Posts: 670
edited October 2010 in Workshop
I havent looked at bike bits in that much detail for a while, but a few years back i'm sure there were more semi aero wheels around. Now it seems to be either carbon with quite a deep aero section at huge expense or none at all. There was also a trend towards very low spoke counts.

My bike came with some Bontrager Aeros with 16 spokes front and back. I need to replace them, and it seems that most of the options eg Shimano RS80s, Fulcrums 3s or 1s, Mavic K elites etc dont have any sort of aero section. Also, i'm not even sure if all these wheels have aero spokes.

In recent years has the idea of semi aero rims and low spoke counts been discredited as either inefficient, ineffective or unreliable?
<hr><font>The trick is not MINDING that it hurts.</font>

Comments

  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    Fashion - most people tooling around on deep section wheels simply don't ride fast enough to benefit but they think it looks cool...
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • weapons
    weapons Posts: 367
    There are semi aero wheels about - I have a set of roval echappee that have 30mm rims, aero profile. Mavic cosmic elites, American Classic 420 aero.
  • majormantra
    majormantra Posts: 2,094
    It depends what you mean by semi aero. All the big wheel manufacturers do so-called mid-section rims, i.e. around 24-30mm. That would once have been considered quite aero and would probably be 'semi' now, proper aero being around 45mm+ these days

    I've just ordered a set of these at 31mm and 1400g:

    http://bikesoul.com/2009/index.php?opti ... &Itemid=11

    How deep do you want to go?
  • Little point in aero rear wheels as by the time the air reaches the back of the bike it is already 'dirty'.