your favorite training wheels/high profiles in crosswinds

[thendenjeck]

what are you favorite race training wheels and why? kinlins? dt swiss? mavic? aluminum? carbon? high profile? low profile? wide? narrow?


and a side question: for those that live in windy areas (I do), do your high profile rims drive you nuts in crosswinds?

[gianni]

I love my Reynold's Assaults! Even in strong cross winds they are predictable. You may have to get into the drops but no biggie. I have 3 years + on my current set and they're still fine.

I've only heard good things about campy prebuilts as well. Zonda's or Neutron's would be sweet and look cool.

[thendenjeck]

that reminds me, do you folks prefer clinchers or tubulars for training?

[Ken Robb]

I don't race so whatever extra speed I got from aero wheels was NOT worth their sensitivity to side winds along the beach.

[thendenjeck]

i live in chicago, so most training will likely be on the lakefront (mega winds) and this is what i'm worried about.

[thendenjeck]

ken robb, how deep were your wheels?

[benitosan1972]

i run deep & deeper wheels on all of my bikes, never had a problem even from the SF Bay winds, you just have to remember to keep both hands on the bars at all times, lol. clinchers, 50mm-60mm here.

edit: ^666 posts, that's ominous

[thegunner]

i've been riding the crap out of the enve 65's i got from akelman. i don't care how windy it is, those wheels are getting ridden.

[MRB]

but here are some constants:
For training use a stout set of clinchers. With rims like Open Pro's, or DT Swiss.
On Race day (or the night before) put your race wheels on (sew-ups of course)
Train to Race. Race to Train. :beer:

[Joachim]

Campy record hubs (silver or black) with dt swiss 465 or velocity aerohead clinchers for training. Race day is alloy tubulars, velocity escape with dt240s hubs. Now looking for my first set of training tubulars..32h Nemesis rims for me anyone?

[happycampyer]

I think the newer rim profiles like the Zipp Firecrest and the Enve Smart wheels are real game-changers. For comparable rim depths, much more stable in crosswinds than anything else I've owned or ridden.

[Ken Robb]

Mine were not very deep-Ksyrium top-of-the-line a few years ago with the scalloped edges and some of Easton's medium deep.

I like 32 hole Open Pros on Dura Ace, Ultegra, Chorus and Record hubs much better for my ocean front cruising and all around riding. I have some tougher touring wheels too but I'm not sure I really need them. BTW I weigh 200 lbs and ride 700x25-28 @ 90-100psi tires on these wheels and 700x35-37 @ 65psi on my touring wheels.

Smarter folks than I have calculated a reduction in the efficiency advantage of aero wheels when ridden in crosswinds as opposed to their advantage in calm air. There were discussions of force vectors, etc. that I could sort of grasp. I really don't know if their test and results were valid or meaningful.

[DRZRM]

Campy Record hubs with HED C2 is my curent favorite, though I have a pair of DT Swiss RR 1450 Mon Chasserals on my lightest road bike, when I blow out the rims I'll relace them to HED C-2s, I really like the tire profile on wider rims. Great for the big boys.

[thendenjeck]

well, i'm a big-ish boy (6', 195), so there you go.

[gavingould]

I don't have any high profile wheels. Ksyrium ES on the road bike, two sets of Kinlin TB-25 rimmed tubulars for cross. Recently got a Velocity A23 rimmed Powertap wheel, will probably build up a matching front.

I think I'd be perfectly happy with some Firecrest 303s though...

Oh yeah, no point in training on tubulars for the road... my opinion, not a whole lot of need to race on tubies for road either.

[Ti Designs]

My road bike has a pair of Ksyrium SLs which pretty much stay on the bike most of the time. For off road use I switch to a set of hand built wheels with Dura-Ace hubs (7700) and Mavic OpenPro rims - nothing I can do to them that I can't fix in a day. Not racing anymore means not having to worry about race wheels, but there are times I need the extra speed. For Mt Washington I used a set of Zipp 202's 'cause I know what the winds can be like. How was I to know it would be dead still on that day??? For fast training days with my riders I'll sometimes use my Zipp 303's, but I'm twice as old as most of my riders, wheels along aren't going to make up the difference going into the wind. I value acceleration more than aerodynamics, it's something I can still win at. My old race wheels were Campy Record Crono rims, 36 spoke - clearly eggbeaters in the wind. The combination of light rims, good tires (vittoria CX front, CG rear) and alloy nipples (half red, half blue) gives me that little edge on the initial jump. At this point getting them off my wheel if the first concern, beating them to the line happens less often every year...

I think it's kinda funny that I work in a bike shop, I've done extended test rides on literally hundreds of wheels, but I keep coming back to my old race wheels as what I like for my type of riding...

[thendenjeck]

think i'll prob go with the HED C2 to campy record, as I'd like to go campy for this build, and the wider rims sound good. i'll prob stick with clinchers even if i get some race wheels, as I used to work at a shop and really hate gluing up tubulars. thanks for all the advice!

[gavingould]

the HEDs are pretty nice - i rode a loaner set for a couple weeks.

[El Cap]

I rode my buddys 50mm rims in some string winds. Def noticeable in the crosswind , but wasn't a unmanageable