New race wheels - Tubulars?

richiegwy

Thinking of picking up a new set of wheels for the upcoming race season. I currently use Mavic Ksyrium Elite and Shimano DA9000 C50 clinchers but I'm thinking about giving carbon tubulars a go to try and lower the weight.
I'm 67kg and these will be used for racing only. I might keep the mavics for training etc. and may sell the C50s if necessary

What would you recommend, wheelsmith handbuilt wheels or something like FFWD or fulcrum or something else?
I like the look of the wheel smith aero 50 or 38 and they are fairly lightweight. Are the chris king or DT240 hubs that much better than the generic wheel smith hubs?

Grill

For racing go cheap as they'll get beat up. Realistically you won't see a noticeable gain by going CK or DT240 over cheaper hubs as long as you keep them properly serviced.

You can also buy my barely used Colbert 38mm tubulars on Soul Kozak hubs for a lark...

cycleclinic

I would agree with not splashing out on expesnive SK or DT Swiss hubs. Cheaper Miche or light weight novatec's work just fine. As for which rims it does depend on you attitude to risk. Persoanlly I race on carbon rims but replacing a rim does not cost me the earth and since I have avoided crashing so far I have not needed to either. I do no folk who race who crash far to often for mine or there liking so which camp do you fall into.

FFWD or fulcrum wheels are too much money for racing. Many wheel builders will build you something even with carbon rims that are alot cheaper to buy and fix if you damage them. However a sub £300 wheelset with Kinlin XC-279 alloy rims is fine for racing, I did a set for a cat 1 racer last year he loves them and won a few races too. Cheap did not slow him down. So by that agrument you could just use the mavic's you have for racing and ride them till they break.

richiegwy

Should I expect to see an improvement in speed or comfort or both moving from DA c50s with 23mm tyres to a full carbon rim with 25mm tubulars?

cycleclinic

Ride comfort will be better for sure and so will grip in the bends. Aero performance maybe a bit better but it is likely the you will notice some improvement in side wides that is wehere these u shapped 25mm wide rims are at there best.

Still if you are a cat 4 all of this is real but not huge. the real gains are from training. You should be able to get point on a cheap wheelset if you are properly fit, if you are not buying expensive wheels won't help with that as much as we may want them too. You already have expensive wheels though so you might as well use those.

If you want a ride comfort improvement then tubular win hands down.

ugo.santalucia

richiegwy wrote:

Should I expect to see an improvement in speed or comfort or both moving from DA c50s with 23mm tyres to a full carbon rim with 25mm tubulars?

For racing in comfort I suggest this

http://www.cycling-manager.com

richiegwy

Nice one.
Irish roads arent the greatest so I will take any improvement I can!!

richiegwy

Trying to decide between the lighter weight 38mm rims at 1180g vs more aero 50mm at 1340g. I'm 66kg and wondering will the lighter weight of the 38mm benefit me more than the extra aero of the 50mm. Most races are a mix of hills and flat in typical Irish weather.

pippi_langsamer-2

Trade the C50s clinchers for C50 tubulars?

Renowned for their robustness (compared to other carbon ds rims)
Arguably the best hubs out there
Light
Seems a large percentage of the pro peloton are riding them, so errr.....that's probably completely irrelevant :oops:

richiegwy

I'll be buying online so no real option to trade the c50s but may sell them at a later stage. Wonder how the planetx ct45 compares?
They're pretty good value now with the 20% discount

cycleclinic

You will still have repair issues though. If the spokes are of the straight pull kind then I would not bother. Planet x wheels use pillar spokes and may have internal nipples. If both of these thing are true I would not bother with them as a repair will be hassle. Also what happens when the free hub wears out, the bit ex free hubs are not always available. Good deal on headline price but not always a good deal down the line.

ugo.santalucia

thecycleclinic wrote:

You will still have repair issues though. If the spokes are of the straight pull kind then I would not bother. Planet x wheels use pillar spokes and may have internal nipples. If both of these thing are true I would not bother with them as a repair will be hassle. Also what happens when the free hub wears out, the bit ex free hubs are not always available. Good deal on headline price but not always a good deal down the line.

Planet X use Chosen these days... I don't think they ever used Bitex. Internal nipples are a bit more labour intensive, but if it's only a repair, it's not a major problem. Half of the carbon rims on the market are drilled for internals... Enve, Reynolds... etc
The Pillar spokes are adequate for posing and time trialling wheels, they won't last 12K miles, but most people buy these wheels and sell them 6 months down the line... just look at the classifieds. I have never seen a carbon wheel with the brake track worn by mileage, have you?

richiegwy

OK so it looks like the wheelsmith tubs will be a superior wheel. Now just to figure out 38 vs 50mm??

ugo.santalucia

richiegwy wrote:

OK so it looks like the wheelsmith tubs will be a superior wheel. Now just to figure out 38 vs 50mm??

You are clearly a 38 mm body type

richiegwy

Yea thats the way I'm starting to think. I was just afraid of giving up some aero by not getting 50s. Will pick up a cheap deep dish set for my TT bike as well.

ugo.santalucia

richiegwy wrote:

Yea thats the way I'm starting to think. I was just afraid of giving up some aero by not getting 50s. Will pick up a cheap deep dish set for my TT bike as well.

For the kind of racing you have in mind you don't need deep wheels... maybe light and responsive is better. You should be able to get something around 1.1 Kg if you stick to 38 and they will handle better