Obviously people here compete. It isn't clear to me how competing in a local TT or Tri is any different than the proverbial "weekend masters worlds". Those are real competitions that have just as much on the line, pride, ego, sense of accomplishment, etc.
For me, if you aren't supporting yourself riding your bike than it is all just some version of a coffee shop race. Nothing is riding on your efforts other than your ego. Spending money to win with more aero wheels isn't actually helping you accomplish anything "important" IMHO.
As a side note, the testing that is done to estimate the watts savings on wheels is not very realistic or convincing. Certainly some wheels are more aero than others. Right now we just know which ones are more aero in a simplified wind tunnel or simulation.
All this being said, if people who don't really understand aerodynamics want to trust manufacturer data when spending huge amounts of money on wheels so that they can win coffee rides or local organized events, I got no problem with that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oldguy00
Well, agree to disagree.
I participate in triathlons and I like to try to place as high as I can, often on the podium for local events. In a event as short as a 'sprint' distance, in which the bike is 20km, if I miss the podium by 5 seconds and I was using a wheelset like the one mentioned in this thread, its fair to say I would have been at least 5 seconds faster with a real aero wheelset.
And of course same for a roadie time trialist. Not everyone on this forum ONLY does donut rides.
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