Where to begin? I could just start with what happened, I guess. After the kids ride on Sunday, I left my bike at the shop and Mark (parts manager and club prez) promised to put a set of carbon-fibre wheels on for tonight’s club ride. So tonight, I drove down to the shop and there it was.
So I got to ride tonight’s ride with them on. After the ride, I took the bike into the shop and Mark put my stock wheels back on. 😢
The back story is pretty simple: when I bought my Norco in 2013, I felt I was taking a leap of faith. I hadn’t had a road bike since I was a teenager, and there was no guarantee that I would stick with riding with the Bow Cyclist Club, which I had just joined. So I bought a bike that was good enough, but not super-costly. It wasn’t a big name, it was an aluminum frame (not carbon), it has a mid-range set of shifters and brakes. I’ve been happy with it, but to be honest, I’ve always wondered what a higher-end bike would ride like.
I’ve been successful in losing weight and getting in shape over these last couple years (still a long way to go!) and I’d kinda made a deal with myself and Tammy that I’d get a better bike when I dropped enough weight. No point riding an ultra-light race bike that’s bending under my bulk, right? I hadn’t really come to any conclusions over what I would like, but there are lots to choose from.
One thing I had noticed, though, was that even a $4000 bike generally still comes with a set of alloy wheels. You don’t see carbon wheels on anything less than $7000 to $8000 bikes. Last season, one day a sales rep from ENVE wheels came out to our club ride with demo wheel sets for the guys to try. I didn’t jump on that at the time, but I kicked myself afterwards for not doing it.
So I was shooting the breeze with Mark and Kurt on Sunday and talking about that demo. Mark had mentioned that Bow Cycle was running a sales promotion of 25% off all wheel sets over $1000, and I was challenging him whether or not they were worth it. His stance was that the wheels were rotating mass, the worst kind for performance. So he offered to let me borrow a set of the rental wheels from the shop, gratis.
So, what was my impression?
- Aesthetics: I mean, come on. They are drop-dead gorgeous. I’m lusting after a picture of my own bike. 😍 They also make great sounds when they are rolling.
- They totally change the feel of the bike. If anything, they make the steering more stable, but the reduction of rotating mass means that accelerating and stopping are faster.
- Aerodynamics. These are not full-on aero wheels, but at 60 mm deep, they definitely cut the air better. The combination of less rotating mass and better aero meant I found myself faster in sprinting and downhill bits, without really trying. I could push over 50 km/h on the flat at one point.
Are they going to put me on the podium in the Tour de France? Heck no. I “gave ‘er” up Tuscany Hill tonight, and I was 8 seconds slower than my personal best. Admittedly, I had just jumped off my commuter bike (riding home 20 km uphill) so I wasn’t really fresh, but still. These aren’t ultra-lightweight climbing wheels. Dropping another 10 kg from my body will do more than anything carbon fibre can. Isn’t that always the way?
It was an interesting experience. I no longer am thinking about getting a bike upgrade. A set of wheels like this would make a bigger difference than any “better” bike I could afford. They aren’t cheap, but they are cheaper than the bikes I’d been ogling.
Oh, Santa… 🎅🏻
Updated October 12, 2015
Sigh. In the months since this wheel demo, I haven’t forgotten the lessons learned, but I also have a few other things to consider.
- Brakes. While I was happy with the performance of the brakes on the carbon rims, everything I read talks about how there are two major flaws with carbon wheels. The first is the inconsistent braking in the wet and the heat buildup that happens in the carbon (carbon fibre doesn’t conduct heat away like metal does) which can lead to wheel failure or a blowout. While some companies like Shimano are solving this in the short term with hybrid carbon/alloy wheels (alloy braking surfaces bonded to carbon), the future of wheel technology is disc brakes.
- Wear. All wheels suffer from wear on their braking surfaces, which happens to be the place where your tire is mounted. This wear happens sooner on carbon fibre than alloy. So I buy $1500 wheels, and then they wear out faster? Again, the future of this is to separate the braking job from the “hold the tire” job by going to… disc brakes.
Do you sense the pattern? Disc brakes are being adopted by all bike companies, but haven’t fully rolled out to their top-level racing bikes, because the UCI hasn’t changed the rules to allow them. It will happen, though. Why? For the reasons above. This year, I replaced the cheap disc brake callipers on my commuter for some decent midrange hydraulic ones and the end result has been nothing short of a miracle. My braking on my big, heavy Giant is much much better than on my racing bike. Every time I have ridden it, it has been a reminder of how much better disc brakes are.
And that then makes me pull away from the idea of spending a lot of money on expensive wheels for my road bike. I can’t retro fit disc brakes to it: there are no mount points for brakes on the frame and fork, and they are not built to handle forces at those points, anyways. Tammy suggested that they might come up with an aftermarket kit that would allow it, but I imagine that the first time I hit the brakes, the fork would snap.
So, I guess I will just dream about something like this:
