Carbon wheels and commuting

gtvlusso

Does anyone commute on Carbon wheels?

How long do they last? Any breakages?

Thoughts?

dhope

gtvlusso wrote:

Does anyone commute on Carbon wheels?

How long do they last? Any breakages?

Thoughts?

Wrath Rob does occasionally when his tarty white mudguards are dirty.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Two thoughts:

You might as well have a flashing neon bullseye suspended from illuminated airship hanging over you.

Don't in the rain. Just don't.

Wrath Rob

Greg66 wrote:

Two thoughts:

You might as well have a flashing neon bullseye suspended from illuminated airship hanging over you.

Don't in the rain. Just don't.

+1 to both of those. Make sure you're ready to defend your scalp rigorously or make it very obvious you're not trying, while still holding a good pace.

Also, make sure your brakes are properly adjusted. Mine were INCREDIBLY noisy until I made sure that the pads were properly flat on the braking surface (with a little toe-in). Great if you want to scare some muppet pedestrian/nodder, not so good if you're just slowing down for some lights.

asprilla

I commuted on mine for a week when i first got them.

Got a crick in my neck from constantly looking over my shoulder.

plumpy

Approaching it from a completely different angle...I always think that if you wear your party dress to work every day, you're not going to feel very special the next time you wear it to a party...

Race day - race kit, race face

if you have race carbon wheels and commuting carbon wheels then please ignore this, and welcome to the forum Lord Sugar.

okgo

Agree with plumpy on that.

Also can't really see why you would want to, unless you are indeed dripping in cash, they are a total waste of money for commuting.

gtvlusso

I was thinking about replacing the rear only. The 40mm deep vee alloy wheel is damn heavy and I need cheering up after killing my bank account getting the car through it's MOT.

memsley89

plumpy wrote:

I always think that if you wear your party dress to work every day, you're not going to feel very special the next time you wear it to a party...

I agree entirely with this. I keep my commuter bike as a piece of junk (well, ish) so my already ridiculous race bike feels even more ridiculous everytime I ride it

asprilla

memsley89 wrote:

plumpy wrote:

I always think that if you wear your party dress to work every day, you're not going to feel very special the next time you wear it to a party...

I agree entirely with this. I keep my commuter bike as a piece of junk (well, ish) so my already ridiculous race bike feels even more ridiculous everytime I ride it

Looking at the seat angle in your sig I can see why your race bike feels ridiculous

UndercoverElephant

I'm sure it depends on the wheels, but I know of a couple of guys who've broken Zipp 404s within a few races of buying them.

I certainly wouldn't commute on them.

greg66_tri_v2.0

UndercoverElephant wrote:

I'm sure it depends on the wheels, but I know of a couple of guys who've broken Zipp 404s within a few races of buying them.

I certainly wouldn't commute on them.

404s used to have a pretty dubious reputation for developing cracks around the spoke nipple. They are supposed to be more robust these days.

jeepie

I was amazed to see Mike Hall using carbon wheels for this round the world record breaking attempt: http://road.cc/content/news/59716-inter ... record-kit

I guess they are a lot stronger than I thought and therefore may be an option for commuting, as long as it's not raining, which it is, most of the time.

UndercoverElephant

Greg66 wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

I'm sure it depends on the wheels, but I know of a couple of guys who've broken Zipp 404s within a few races of buying them.

I certainly wouldn't commute on them.

404s used to have a pretty dubious reputation for developing cracks around the spoke nipple. They are supposed to be more robust these days.

Both times they were the brand-new Firecrests, one decent pothole and they're toast. Try avoiding potholes up here

From what I can see, the rims are just very thin to keep the weight down. Perhaps we just got a bad batch delivered to Scotland.

greg66_tri_v2.0

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Both times they were the brand-new Firecrests, one decent pothole and they're toast. Try avoiding potholes up here

Christ!

IP - you listening to this?

Wrath Rob

memsley89 wrote:

plumpy wrote:

I always think that if you wear your party dress to work every day, you're not going to feel very special the next time you wear it to a party...

I agree entirely with this. I keep my commuter bike as a piece of junk (well, ish) so my already ridiculous race bike feels even more ridiculous everytime I ride it

Agreed, but I spend ~ 1/2 my riding week on the commute so its nice to break out the good bike every so often. Plus the carbon wheels have the PowerTap built into them, so if I'm doing some training on the way home then I don't have much choice.

mtb-idle

yup, here's me commuting on my carbonwheels

mtb-idle

darn 'pooter

majormantra

Jeepie wrote:

I was amazed to see Mike Hall using carbon wheels for this round the world record breaking attempt: http://road.cc/content/news/59716-inter ... record-kit

I guess they are a lot stronger than I thought and therefore may be an option for commuting, as long as it's not raining, which it is, most of the time.

He had discs though, which removes the main drawback (apart from cost) of carbon rims.

rolf_f

MTB-Idle wrote:

yup, here's me commuting on my carbonwheels

Lol - TT helmets at 12mph..... That's a video to instantly make you hate the company and everyone involved in making the film