Op maandag 5 april 2021 om 22:44:48 UTC+2 schreef :
All this arguing on the Internet about aero design is pretty weak. Wheels and front fork are effected by aero design but the normal sports rider simply doesn't develop enough power to lift speed up enough to make any difference for things like rear wheel fairing or aero seatposts to make any difference at all.

The front fork design rarely makes much difference. But most of them are designed improperly anyway. You need a pretty close fitting wheel around the top of the fork. The lower sections of around the dropout simply don't matter and the bottom part of the wheel is going zero speed with the ground.

The wheel from the back middle started picking up air and the idea is to jam that air in between the tire and fork at the top of the fork. This stops the air from penetrating and making a non-aero flow around that area.

The front of the wheel leads everything so an aero wheel there is wanted if you want one. I haven't been able to tell much of a difference between those and the Campy Scirroco wheels which are very cheap aluminum wheels. But I descend a lot and have high speeds there when the carbon aero wheels do make a detectable difference. It shows up when I'm catching people on the descents and have to use my brakes to keep from overrunning them.

Question, do you like the better braking of aluminum rims or the slightly higher descending speed. I am not to the point where I can no longer ride with the group. The fast guys are 15 years younger than me and over the last two years I've felt a very large reduction in my speeds. Climbing if not descending. But they do carry a weight penalty unless you're willing to buy a $2200 set of carbon wheels.


On a road bike with disk brakes I definitely go for carbon aero wheels if not I stay with aluminum low profile rims. YMMV.

Lou