Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark McM
I'll believe that when I see it. Many times potential advantages have been promised, and yet they never come to pass. We were told that tubeless tires would be lighter, have better traction, and lower rolling resistance, yet this hasn't happened. We've been told that disc brakes will allow wheels to be more aerodynamic, but this hasn't happened either. Exactly how do you imagine that rims can be reshaped for aerodynamics that rim brakes don't allow? Some have clamed that disc brake wheels don't need to have parallel sidewalls, which is true - but neither do rim brakes. I've got several sets of rim brake wheels with sidewalls (brake tracks) angled for aerodynamics.
This may be yet another case of counting your chickens before they hatch.
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Hilariously there are lots of Walmart super cheap bikes with rim brakes that have angled rim sidewalls... it is not a cost thing.
This stuff tends to be a bit hilarious.. < 10w at 27mph. I can't TT at 27mph. I don't even race anymore. Not going to worry about it.
It seems the Pros aren't worrying a lot about a lot of it either when they keep choosing the rim brakes even when the discs are supposedly so much better, etc...
Even when you've got the guys at the razors edge at the top of the sport it so often seems like the races are determined not by these aero engineering items but whether a given rider has something going on with their back that prevents them from hitting the optimal riding position for aero, or whether another rider seems to have an attention issue and crashes.
Ignoring the dope they were both consuming no amount of aero advantage would ever have allowed Ulrich to beat Lance in the TdF. Lance had that back shape thing that hurt his aero probably more than anything Trek could have done to his bikes, but it didn't matter when Ulrich failed to keep the rubber side down so many times.
As for tubeless I think all those claims have borne out on the MTB side.. I think if we all changed our mind and were clamoring for tubeless road it would spur enough R&D the tubeless tires would start improving more rapidly. Chicken and Egg?