Originally Posted by
Psychocycles
The difference between the control wheel, Mavic Kysrium (28 mm depth), and the best performing disc/80mm wheels in Hambini's aero testing @ 50 km/h was a whopping 74 watts. However, when you're measuring the difference between a 40-60mm depth wheel, things get a bit fuzzier. Yoeleo C88 wheels @ 50 km/h according to the same tests saved just 2 watts over the same wheel in 50mm depth. TT specialist or Ironman? Yes, those 2 watts may matter. Everyone else? No, the extra weight of the 88 mm depth will outweigh the aero benefits.
My recommendation: Find a wheelset manufacturer that knows what they're doing (plenty of them out there, I'm not tied to any one brand - take your pick Mavic, Reynolds, SwissSide, Zipp, Enve, Bontrager, Yoeleo, Fast Forward - but stay away from Hunt & Flo Cycling) and stick to 40-50 mm depth. My wheelset is 50 mm depth, 1500ish grams, and aero as f....
One mistake I made when I bought my first 50mm depth carbon wheels a couple years ago was to assume that all carbon wheels in 50 mm depth are equal...not so at all. Below is an excerpt from Hambini's aero testing blog with the wheels he and his team have tested so far.
Thanks, that is good advice.
I forgot about that blog with their testing data, good find!
https://www.hambini.com/blog/post/bi...ne-is-fastest/
I am looking more at the 30 km/h graph if I am honest, lol.
- -It seems like between a Mavic Ksyrium (28mm) and your run of the mill 40mm wheelset, there is 7 watts difference at 30 kph.
- -Between a Mavic Ksyrium and the average 50mm wheelset the difference is 11 watts at 30 kph
- -at 60mm the difference is 12 watts at 30 kph
- -at 80mm the difference is 14 watts at 30 kph.
So there seems to be a sweet spot around 45-50 mm honestly for 30 kph speed. Diminishing returns after that for the weight penalty. And the behavior in crosswinds. I guess I would be looking into some good 45mm wheels.
This does help put it into perspective... I know that you can save around 30 watts with clip-on aero bars / position at 40 kph. And about 5-10 watts with an aero helmet. So position on the bike is definitely the most important.
If I am being completely honest, I just want to get aero wheels because they look cool on the bike
