Wheel covers for a TT noob (Need answers today - Sat)

dw300

Ok, so with PX doing a 15% off sale today, and me planning on doing a few TTs this year, I'm thinking of doing the following..

Purchasing a front 82mm PX Tubular - £169.99
Purchasing a rear wheel cover - £100 ??

So I'd have a particularly effective wheelset for maybe a dozen events a year for £270ish.

Assuming this sounds sensible, to go ahead and do this I need to know if I can get wheel covers made in the UK somewhere, or else I'll have a useless front wheel on my hands for a while. I've only seen the US Wheelbuilder Aerojacket so far.

If anyone in the UK is running a covered rear, could you tell me where you got them made please?

Thanks.

napoleond

I got an aerojacket from wheelbuilder for my Powertap Open Pro when I was TTing. It was ace!
There is a carbon manuf in the UK called RALtech, although I have no experience of them... http://www.raltech.co.uk/Prod_3-Wh-Cov.html

johncp

The front won't be useless even with a standard rear. Might look a bit weird but I've seen more than one suggestion that the front is more important anyway

mulletmaster

I ran a PX 50 front and my powertap wheel covered in tts last year. Only changed as I went to crank pm so can run my normal disc. Covers came from wheel builder. A lot of people prefer the 50 to the 80 front though so a more sensible method may be to buy a pair of 50s and cover that rear then you could road race the wheels as well

markynulty

mulletmaster wrote:

I ran a PX 50 front and my powertap wheel covered in tts last year. Only changed as I went to crank pm so can run my normal disc. Covers came from wheel builder. A lot of people prefer the 50 to the 80 front though so a more sensible method may be to buy a pair of 50s and cover that rear then you could road race the wheels as well

If you did go for the 50s, then you may be better going for the CT45's as they have the 23mm rims which according to some manufactures are more aero then narrower rims...

meesterbond

I'd look at Raltech for the rear wheel cover.

dw300

Thanks for the replies do far guys.

I had initially been looking for the CT45s, but cashflow isnt good at the moment. However, it looks like they'd be all round more useful when combined with a RAL Tech cover. I calculated that the heavier wheelbuilder cover would work about about £120 to get here, and heard they're not always the greatest fit. So £140 is good.

Question now is .. considering I have lightweight tubs for hill climbs, would the extra 500-500g for the CT45 tub version be worth the extra expense and hassle? I could sell my current everyday handbuilts for a fair chunk of todays sale price and use a clincher version as an everyday wheel ..

Thoughts?

napoleond

If money is an issue mate, I'd honestly sack it. As you say, you're a TT noob, Just have a season of TTing and improving rather than throwing money at it then you can reassess next year.

dw300

NapoleonD wrote:

If money is an issue mate, I'd honestly sack it. As you say, you're a TT noob, Just have a season of TTing and improving rather than throwing money at it then you can reassess next year.

The price is ok. The £70 saving today saves half the price of the cover. It's just going to have to go on the CC for now.

Plus, im getting old, and i was supposed to do what you suggested last season instead of this! Cant keep putting things off.

I'll get plenty of use out of the clincher version.

diplodicus

Quoting that Raltech website.
"Performance estimates are based on a number of assumptions. Individual results may vary. Key assumptions are:-
• Speeds around 30 mph.
• Flat course.
• Negligible wind.
• Typical rider and bike proportions."

(my bold) Jeez 30 sec saving over 25 miles if you are doing 30mph. :shock:

My fastest 10 mile is 27m 26s so about 22mph so I think the advantage I would gain would be a small percentage of nowt

markynulty

dw300 wrote:

Thanks for the replies do far guys.

I had initially been looking for the CT45s, but cashflow isnt good at the moment. However, it looks like they'd be all round more useful when combined with a RAL Tech cover. I calculated that the heavier wheelbuilder cover would work about about £120 to get here, and heard they're not always the greatest fit. So £140 is good.

Question now is .. considering I have lightweight tubs for hill climbs, would the extra 500-500g for the CT45 tub version be worth the extra expense and hassle? I could sell my current everyday handbuilts for a fair chunk of todays sale price and use a clincher version as an everyday wheel ..

Thoughts?

I bought the tub version a couple of months ago and they are a very nice wheel. Stiff, light and fast. Currently running Vittoria Corsa Evos on them and am very happy. Braking with the Swisstop Black Prince pads is as good as my Fulcrum 3s in the dry. Dont plan on trying them in the wet yet though lol.

If it helps, the wheels weighed just under 1400g out of the box. With the tubs glued on and a 12-25 cassette fitted, they now weigh 2160g.

napoleond

diplodicus wrote:

Quoting that Raltech website.
"Performance estimates are based on a number of assumptions. Individual results may vary. Key assumptions are:-
• Speeds around 30 mph.
• Flat course.
• Negligible wind.
• Typical rider and bike proportions."

(my bold) Jeez 30 sec saving over 25 miles if you are doing 30mph. :shock:

My fastest 10 mile is 27m 26s so about 22mph so I think the advantage I would gain would be a small percentage of nowt

I found that with aero gear compared to a normal road bike I'm around 3 minutes quicker on my club 10 route!

johncp

diplodicus wrote:

Quoting that Raltech website.
"Performance estimates are based on a number of assumptions. Individual results may vary. Key assumptions are:-
• Speeds around 30 mph.
• Flat course.
• Negligible wind.
• Typical rider and bike proportions."

(my bold) Jeez 30 sec saving over 25 miles if you are doing 30mph. :shock:

My fastest 10 mile is 27m 26s so about 22mph so I think the advantage I would gain would be a small percentage of nowt

Aero improvements bring bigger time advantages to slower than to faster riders, have a look here http://www.cervelo.com/en/engineering/t ... iders.html

diplodicus

The point I was making though is that their own website was saying 30s over a 25mile tt at 30mph.

diplodicus

@ Johncp

I see what you mean by slower rider gaining more advantage. Putting some figures on it:-

25mile tt at 30mph is 50mins.
if we save 30s time becomes 49m 30s, this is equivalent to 30.3mph about 1% increase in speed

25mile tt at 22mph is 68m 11s
so at 22mph I would gain say 0.22mph
25mile tt at 22.22mph is 67m 30s
so yes slower rider gains 41s instead of 30s

However I have assumed a linear gain in speed of 1% but is that true? We know that drag increases proportional to the square of speed, so presumably at the slower speed I would not gain the full 1% speed increase.

On a 10mile tt it looks like it would save 16s.

Happy to be corrected if I've miscalculated as I have been drinking

napoleond

In my experience (n=1) a disc cover wheel gave me about a 50-60s on a 10 over a 32h shallow wheel.