Good carbon fibre wheels can transform the ride of a bike. The stiffness to weight ratio is also better than aluminium wheels. The lightest carbon fibre wheels have tubular rims, and can be exceptionally light: Lightweight does a set that are 940g for the pair! If you’re a climber and want your bike to be as light as possible, carbon fibre tubulars are the way to go, provided you’re happy to glue your tyres to the rims. Carbon is simply much lighter and is the reason it's the material of choice for aero wheels. Building a deep section rim in aluminium results in a very heavy wheel back in the early 2000s, for example, Campagnolo offered Shamal wheels with 38mm rims that weighed 1,950g. Reynolds aero expert Paul Lew talks wheel dynamics If you’re racing, whether against the clock in a time trial, or in a road race, carbon deep section wheels will make a noticeable difference at higher speeds. There is plenty of wind tunnel data (if you want to believe it) from the leading manufacturers showing that carbon wheels reduce drag significantly. The biggest appeal of upgrading to a carbon fibre wheel is the aerodynamic advantage over a box section aluminium rim. Pros: Aero, lightweight and cool looksĪerodynamic benefits. With carbon fibre wheels a desirable upgrade, we look at the pros and cons. With the rise of disc brakes you can swerve that whole issue of course. Reliability is much improved and clever coatings on the brake track mean rim-brake carbon wheels actually stop in the wet now. Manufacturers have ironed out most of the problems that afflicted early carbon fibre wheels. That has been helped by growing choice and a lot more affordable options in the past few years. They’re popular outside of the professional circuit, though, with more amateur racers and sportive cyclists making the upgrade.
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