StargazeCyclist

I am thinking of upgrading my factory wheels to a set of aero wheels. After a few months of research, I have kind of settle on a set of Chinese carbon wheel that is 50mm deep, 25mm wide, to be used with 23c tires in front for minimal drag.

However the ride yesterday makes me rethink. It was my first century this year. For half of the ride I battled with 30km/h wind and 60km/h gusts. Many times I was almost blown into the ditch off the roadside -- that was with my low section wheel, with bladed spokes. I even had a zero speed crash when dismounting. When riding head on into the wind, I could only inch forward at about 15km/s and taking breaks every 1-2 km.

In view of this does it mean I need yet another set of 30mm wheels, that is equally wide and made of carbon fiber (so that there is no need to change brake pads and readjust brakes) for windy days?

I am interested whether you guys would go this length in order to have deep section wheels.

mstateglfr 

You dont need a new wheelset, much less two new wheelsets.
And 23mm tires?...its 2023 man, plump up a bit.

Anyways, yeah if you were almost blown off the side of the road with wheels that arent even 25mm deep, then you will really feel the crosswind with 50mm wheels. But get em if you think the performance gains are worth the cost.
As for buying a second wheelset...why not just keep the wheels you have and use them for the times when you think 50mm wheels arent a good idea?

All this is really moot since you are already the fastest person in the world since you are going like 45x the speed of sound. ---> I could only inch forward at about 15km/s

genejockey 

Are your current wheels alloy? That's what I'm guessing because otherwise you'd just add the deep sections to the mix and swap them for the current shallows on windy days. IF you can afford two sets, go for it.

79pmooney

An off the wall idea to make swapping aluminum to CF and back easier. A second set of brake calipers. The time it takes to swap calipers is very little IF you have cables that do not fray. An easy way to do that is solder the cable ends (or pay someone else to do it if you do not know how or have the desire and equipment). Once the second set of calipers is dialed in to that wheel and the cable ends are soldered, the swap is very fast and requires no thought or effort beyond a quick centering and close enough on the cable setting with the clamp nut and a spin of the cable adjust. The fussy part, dialing in the pads is already done.

tomato coupe

How about a set of HED Jets? Deep carbon with an aluminum brake track eliminates the brake pad swap.

genejockey 

Instead of that, why not just switch out the pads in the holders? You're proposing 10-15 minutes of work each time you need to change wheels.

79pmooney

That's not 10-15 minutes to swap. I'm thinking more like 7 minutes wheel and calipers. I do cockpits and calipers on my fix gear in about 5. Biggest plus of my system is that there is so little that is critical to go wrong. Yes, cable nuts need to be tight. Mount bolts tights. But those are both very easy. Pad changes should be secure but I've always felt nervous about them and actually feel safer on the one piece shoe + pad units.

This is a "just before the ride" type decision. I want the swap to be as reliable as possible without the critical second look. (I might well be out at the driveway end and ready to go when I realize there's more wind than I am comfortable with. So that wheel change comes out of ride time.

genejockey 

Hey, I found something for the "Greatest Wastes of Time in Bicycle Maintenance" thread!

mstateglfr 

The OP never said if the bike is rim brake or disc brake. Just worth mentioning.

genejockey 

Yeah, he kinda did.

If they're discs, then it wouldn't matter what the rims are, and there's no need to change pads when changing wheels.

datlas 

You don't "need" another set of wheels. I expect you would do ok with your current ones year-round.

But....it is worth considering. I have a set of 50mm CF wheels. I don't even put them on until May and they come off in October. They do NOT get ridden in windy conditions, which is why I use shallow aluminum hoops for the off season through May because of the wind.

If you live in an area where it's almost never windy in the summertime that makes life easier so you don't have to fuss with switching brake pads more than twice/year.

tFUnK

Those old school alloy wheels with fat bladed spokes catch a lot of wind, probably comparable to a modern 38mm or 50mm carbon wheel with thin bladed spokes. Of course, there will be always be those days when it's just gusty to the point of hilarity.

On my typical rides, a 38mm-55mm wheelset fares ok most of the time, but the wind does blow and it's just something to get used to.

I'll be honest I don't really go fast enough to notice any aero advantages on my 38mm or 55mm wheels - they just look cool and are light enough at around 1500-1700g.

In the past I've tried a 60/88 set and that was a bit much with respect to the typical wind/gusts around here. And this is me being at my all-time heaviest at ~200lbs.

msu2001la

Just buy two bikes - one for windy days and one for non-windy days.

mstateglfr 

touche, good sir

tyrion

People like to complicate things when the simplest solution - a new bike - is so obvious to some.

DaveSSS 

I have gusty winds on mountain descents and found 45mm zipp 303s wheels too deep. I now have those and two sets of 29mm deep BTLOS wheels with a 25mm internal width and 31mm external width, for my three bikes. The minimum tire width is 28mm. No way I'd run anything narrower than 23mm IW wheels today. The ride with a tire pressure of 52/56 is fantastic.

sean.hwy

When it's so windy you need to take a break every 1 to 2 km probably just better to do a different hobby like wind surfing :-) or hiking etc...

I have several wheel sets for my disk brake gravel bike. One 46mm carbon wheel set with road tires. Several cheap alloy wheel sets with different times of off road tires. I swap out wheel sets based on what I type of riding and type of traction that is needed.

I think only TT or maybe crit racers swap out wheel sets based on just wind.

jaxgtr

Some deeper wheels handle wind better than others and some riders handle wind better on deeper wheels than others. I am larger and I do not get blown around a lot, and I run 50mm deep wheels and I deal with a lot of wind in my neck of the woods. If you are small and lite in weight, I would probably go with a shallower profile.

ctak

For all around riding / centuries I wouldn't go deeper than 44mm in the front. Maybe something staggered like Reserve 40/44 or Hunt 44/54s.

https://us.huntbikewheels.com/produc...-disc-wheelset

rsbob 

I have a set of 60s for no to light wind, and a set of 32s for windy days. If I can’t make up my mind, I run the 32 on the front and 60 on the back.

Zaskar

Two wheel sets, four tires, two cassettes... It gets expensive and a bit of hassle. I swap wheels on my gravel bike - but for the tires, e.g. 28s to 40s. Unless you're routinely doing solo TTs, I'd skip the 50+ wheels and stick with a light "all around" profile in the 38-42mm range. One wheel set.

I have a couple sets of 41-42mm wheels (on different bikes) and love them. These Reynolds AR41 wheels show up on sale fairly often - still available for rim brakes.

Maelochs

So ..... how often is it that windy? And if it was so windy that 25-mm deep rims were too deep, what is the solution? Leave the wheels off?

I assume this is the first time you have ever in your life tried to ride in such conditions ..... multiply age by two, divide by rides per year, and those are sort of the odds of ever seeing it again.

I'd say, on the one-in-ten-thousand chance that the wind is that bad again, changing brake shoes (10-minute job) and swapping to your old wheels would be a better option than multi-hundreds or more for a set of wheels you might never use.

That's just me.

Iride01 

I made a stem change on my bike from 100mm to 70mm. One of the notable difference to me was that when encountering gusts from sudden crosswinds that it really caught my front wheel and gave me a brief moment of apprehension. However that went away after a handful of rides. I simply got use to it and compensated for them faster.

You probably will do the same if you ride often enough in those conditions.

andydallas

I just went through this, I bought a set of 48s (Hunt), then bought a single 32 (a Hunt but not carbon fiber, but matches) for windy days,maybe I over thought that, I have riden in decent wind 10-15 mph but no high gust, never had a problem with the 48s getting blown around, but I have the 32 front ready for those really windy days

StargazeCyclist

Windy days are common here. Yesterday was as windy as last Sunday. However I don't go cycling everyday and that route was particularly exposed. So I don't consider wind a problem for the wheels I am now using. However, would the deep section be unusable in more common wind condition (and I weight about 53kg, that is a disadvantage)? That I am not sure.