Best 40-60mm tubular wheelset for road racing & crits?

06dhewett

Hi all,

Any thoughts on tubular wheelsets in the 40-60mm rim depth range (generally accepted as the optimum depth for varied road racing - do you agree or could I stretch to e.g. ENVE 6.7s?) best suited for a taller rider (i.e. stability less of an issue, 75kg) for UK road races and crits? Taking spinning up a heavier, deeper rim out of corners and during accelerations (although deeper rims will generally be stiffer) vs aerodynamic advantages into account . . . I'm never going to be a mountain goat and my sprint is good but not exceptional, I'm more of a breakaway rider.

Currently considering the following:

FFWD F4R (very light, decent value, but there are stiffer wheels with better braking out there)
Zipp 404 (fairly heavy and heard bad things about Zipp hubs and also various rim/spoke interface faults)
ENVE 45 Classic (light and top quality rims, but aerodynamics are slightly dated and stability apparently isn't great)
Shimano C50 (not the lightest but otherwise seem decent)
Mavic Cosmic Carbone 40T (again, not the lightest, but seem like a pretty solid wheelset despite the relatively low spoke count)
Reynolds 46 Aero (pretty heavy)

Any advice or experience of these kinds of wheels would be very much appreciated.

imposter2.0

Not much in it, to be honest. The 'spinning-up' issue is somewhat misunderstood, IMO, although light wheels are generally preferable to heavier ones. Choose something light, stiff and reliable that's within budget. What are you using currently?

ugo.santalucia

Unless you are a banker and money is not an issue, I would only consider a brand that offers you some form of crash replacement scheme. If you never crash is because you are not riding hard enough and if that's the case, then expensive wheels are a waste of money. I know Mavic has something along those lines if you pay the extra... worth every penny if you race.
If you race at E/1/2 level you might want to check the UCI list of approved wheels to avoid surprises.

06dhewett

Imposter wrote:

Not much in it, to be honest. The 'spinning-up' issue is somewhat misunderstood, IMO, although light wheels are generally preferable to heavier ones. Choose something light, stiff and reliable that's within budget. What are you using currently?

What do you mean by the spinning-up issue being misunderstood, what's your take on it? Currently using Planet X 52mm clinchers which are superbly heavy so any of the above will be a huge improvement!

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Unless you are a banker and money is not an issue, I would only consider a brand that offers you some form of crash replacement scheme. If you never crash is because you are not riding hard enough and if that's the case, then expensive wheels are a waste of money. I know Mavic has something along those lines if you pay the extra... worth every penny if you race.
If you race at E/1/2 level you might want to check the UCI list of approved wheels to avoid surprises.

UCI approved wheels is a good point, I hadn't thought of that, although it appears that all of the mainstream wheels including the above are all on the list. Does that mean that everyone using unbranded Chinese rims are racing illegally?
Fair comment about crash replacement too, makes FFWD and ENVE appealing as they offer 50% replacement rims. On the other hand, the same could be said for frames, carbon components etc. etc.

ugo.santalucia

06dhewett wrote:

. Does that mean that everyone using unbranded Chinese rims are racing illegally?

Not only Chinese, but also Planet X... or Superstar or any hand built wheel deeper than 25 mm in fact... in practice in 99% of the races nobody cares, but the higher the level, the closer you have to stick to the rules

Matthewfalle

I've used 50mm Planet X pro carbons and 60mm Carbonzone jobs - both work perfectly, no problems with officials and cheap enough so that when you smash them into a billion pieces you don't care.

A friend used carbonzones at Tri London or whatever the big one they do there is called and had no issues (elite rider, going for Commonwealth selection).

Light, spin up well, look good, make cool noises, brake well (with Swisstop yellow). Recommended.

imposter2.0

06dhewett wrote:

What do you mean by the spinning-up issue being misunderstood, what's your take on it?

If you're talking about 'rotating weight' then the effects of lighter rims (as opposed to lighter wheels) are negilgible. Lighter wheels are good, but the specific benefits of lighter rims (in terms of rotating weight) are not always understood. In other words, light wheels are good, but it doesn't really matter where the weight is, as far as I'm aware.

Matthewfalle

Addendum: I also use the same Planet X 50s in the Abruzzo mountains in the summer - absolutely no problem with either going up the mountains (ie flex) or descending and braking at 50mph plus.

I also think that they are in the sales at the mo' - just be cautious of planet x's shockingly shyyyyyte customer service.