Originally Posted by
scheibo
Really? Interesting. Any links or studies you can share?
actually, they do exist - not nearly as common though -
I know some years ago there was a link on this forum to a guy who did almost this precise study -
while I don't have a link, maybe this will help your digging - if you want to do some digging, i think it was about 4 years ago:
one of his conclusions was that the 16/20h low profile wheel sets like DA 7900 (current at that point) weren't particularly far off a 50mm deep set of carbon rims w/ 20/24h or 24/24h lacing. Additionally, he ran the math backing up why some wheels like old-school Shamals w/ 12/16 lacing felt so fast - .... and it's because they were.
given better rim profiles to match up w/ tyre profiles (which wasn't really being studied like it is now), I have no doubt that a 25-35mm profile w/ a nicely matched up tyre and lower spoke count is giving up very very little to deeper rims.