Originally Posted by
Cypress
Most racers I know (including myself) want the lightest stuff we can trust and can afford to replace. I won't run uber light stuff because I don't want dive into a corner and wonder if saving those extra 50 grams is going to put me in the ditch with a broken collarbone. Weightweenie crap won't get you on the podium if you're sitting in the team car with a shattered aftermarket derailleur cage because you suddenly needed to crosschain at 1300W to hold a wheel. Doubly more for training. Any time I spend fixing/replacing lightweight stuff is time spent off of my bike.
I went through a rough patch with a wheel sponsor a while back. I kept cracking their zooty high-end wheels (I corner hard) so I "downgraded" to a higher spoke count with heavier rims and immediately stopped having issues.
I don't have to hold back as much as I used to....
Back in the heavy days of Cross I used to get feedback on our rims from the mechanics on the pro teams, "We've absolutely abused your rims and never had an issue. Rider X brain locked and forgot to dismount before the barrier and just ran right into it at full speed. No problems. I walk into the cannondale team trailer and they have cracked Zipps stacked floor to ceiling. They're always replacing them and gluing new tires."
I never chased the lightest weight. I always wanted more durable things. I have watched a lot of racers miss their start or come out of a race early because they tried to save weight and their choice failed them. This is part of why I usually argue with people on here that have never raced. They have this unrealistic impression of what racing is. Meh.
Then again I have had masters racers who always place at the top regionally or podium nationally who start a conversation with me about wheels by actually saying, "If these are 1g more than a set of Zipps then our conversation is over." "OK... listed weight for zipps or actual weights?"
I still remember building a set of 404 rims for PCad back in the day where the rims weights varied by over 100g between the rims. People can be idiots.
But yes - almost all racers usually figure it out over time.
For this thread though - I seriously used to have to answer the weight question within the first two-3 questions out of everyone's mouths. Now because of a website change you can configure all sorts of options but not get weights listed. I have only been asked about that twice. Such a complete change. It will come back but I am enjoying it being gone.