88 mm rims too deep for racing?

neiglass
neiglass Posts: 10
edited January 2017 in Road buying advice
Got 88 mm rims for christmas, 1500 gram tubulars. Are these too deep for racing? Would it be better to return them and get some 55 mm, 1350 gram tubulars? i'm 66 kg and have good bike handling skills from lots of xc mountain bike racing.

Comments

  • Bobbinogs
    Bobbinogs Posts: 4,841
    What type of racing? The term covers TT which is very different to crits, etc.
  • nicklong
    nicklong Posts: 231
    For TTs, they're fine.

    For road racing they're too deep - and I think that UCI rules introduced last year forbade rims deeper than 65mm, but need to check with your local race authority. (Quite a few companies like Reynolds subtly reduced the depth of their larger rimsa couple of seasons ago to comply).

    They were brought in as a safety measure, there will be rude who can control a bike in crosswinds on 88s but all it takes is one person to lose control in a gust and the whole bunch comes down.
  • neiglass
    neiglass Posts: 10
    edited January 2017
    nicklong wrote:
    For TTs, they're fine.

    For road racing they're too deep - and I think that UCI rules introduced last year forbade rims deeper than 65mm, but need to check with your local race authority. (Quite a few companies like Reynolds subtly reduced the depth of their larger rimsa couple of seasons ago to comply).

    They were brought in as a safety measure, there will be rude who can control a bike in crosswinds on 88s but all it takes is one person to lose control in a gust and the whole bunch comes down.
    OK, thanks :) (update: did some research, and all rims deeper than 25 mm are banned, unless they are approved by UCI as non-standard wheels. There is a list on their website with all aproved non-standard wheels, going as deep as 100 mm.)
  • neiglass
    neiglass Posts: 10
    Bobbinogs wrote:
    What type of racing? The term covers TT which is very different to crits, etc.
    No TT's, only regular road racing.
  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    For bunch racing light weight is preferable to deep, although it's obviously possible to achieve both. Deep sections are not particularly useful in a big group.
  • 964cup
    964cup Posts: 1,362
    I'd change them. I did the ToC last year on some Mavic CXR80s (reasoning that it's flat and windy, so aero would trumnp everything); in the end I think I'd have been better sticking with the Enve 45s I used the year before, because actually it's acceleration out of corners and manoeuvrability in the bunch that trumps everything.
  • smoggysteve
    smoggysteve Posts: 2,909
    neiglass wrote:
    Got 88 mm rims for christmas, 1500 gram tubulars. Are these too deep for racing? Would it be better to return them and get some 55 mm, 1350 gram tubulars? i'm 66 kg and have good bike handling skills from lots of xc mountain bike racing.

    Have you done any racing to date? If you're starting out in the lower cats I'd stay on alu rims. You may have the best bike handling skills in the world but the clown next to you may not and when he clatters into you you can kiss your nice rims goodbye. If you are good enough you could progress on any bike setup. Save the deep carbon for when you get up to a better level of competition and or TTs
  • cycleclinic
    cycleclinic Posts: 6,865
    well those UCI rules are not really applied in the u.k so I would not worry. 50mmish deep non uci approved wheel in local races all the time. The coms dont care as there would be no race if they did.

    88mm deep rims are way too deep for road racing. You are in a group. at that depth even mild winds could cause an incident. I used my 88mm deep wheels yesterday. winds were about 7mph and that is about as strong as I would want to ride them in. any stronger and the bike would wobble alot (it wobbled abit even at that wind speed).

    when I had a TT bike I used them in that however in winds I found the bike unstable mainly die to the wheels. Some people learnt to cope with this however I dont like twitchness in a bike so it depends on what you are comfortable with.

    Beside aero wheels confer an advantage nothing huge but real. You can argue all you like about if it make a difference or not but the physics does not lie. given good aero wheels dont have to cost thousands i dont see any reason not to use them.
    http://www.thecycleclinic.co.uk -wheel building and other stuff.
  • jrich
    jrich Posts: 278
    At 66kg and with 88mm will you will be a massive liability in the bunch with even a normal amount of wind!

    Trust me I am 66 kg too (and also started with MTB) and I would not ride 60mm wheels in the bunch never mind 88mm!! Besides it's not worth the risk if you get caught up in a crash, and there will be time when you simply cannot avoid hitting the deck through no fault of your own. Just stick some alloy clinchers on and get stuck in.

    Save the 88mm for entering some time trails - much better than road racing anyway ;-)

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