Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
Well no, energy is not lost, it's just turned into heat.
But we were talking about rims (I thought). There's a little bit of energy lost due to atmospheric resistance on the surface of a rotating rim, and the deeper the rim, the more is lost, but that's a very small amount of loss that's only due to rotation. Vastly more is lost to the spokes just from rotation. What you're saying is true, but it has nothing to do with rim weight.
In all the cases you point out, less energy is lost to an aero rim, no matter its weight. Though one must also point out that next to the losses due to the bike and its rider, the contribution of the rims is quite small.
....if you go back to the beginning, and read this thread (something I would not expect you to do, because a lot of it is extraneous trolling, that contributes little to the discussion), you will discover that I have never said otherwise, and in fact got into this topic from simply recommending to the OP that in her particular event, a modern, aero wheelset might be the best way to improve her performance times. I even went out of my way to provide a link to a guy's blog that said exactly that.
Originally Posted by
3alarmer
As was suggested earlier, the most bang for your buck in making any bicycle go faster is in your wheels and tires.
Then the hoard appeared.
Originally Posted by
Lombard
This is very misleading. The rolling weight argument is way overblown. Sure, less rolling weight will make you accelerate faster and therefore make you feel faster. However, once up to speed, weight is weight.
Later on:
Originally Posted by
3alarmer
. Everyone, beginner or self styled expert, rides on wheels. And with the advent of newer materials tech and the R+D guys assigned to find a way to make an essentially un-aerodynamic package more aero. wheels have been all aero'd up for about the past 20 years, dating back to the exploding Spinergy wheels that damaged a few people. All the aero wheel designs add some weight at the rim, so suddenly the discussion boards were full of this.
It's been a very long time since I bothered to calculate something like this, because aero wheels are all the rage, and they do seem to work, even if I don't use them. Offsetting advantages and disadvantages with them make them the obvious choice, when permitted in the rules for your event, and there is no drafting or quick maneuvering involved.
But all other things being equal (and they are not in this case), putting a pound of additional weight onto your bike by using tires that weigh that much more on your rims, will slow you down quite a bit more than sticking it in your pockets. Try it yourself, if you don't believe me.
It's odd how things get twisted in a discussion like this on teh Beikforooms. I think there's something in the water here. It's a pack mentality that contributes little to actual exchange of ideas. nttaawwt, it reminds me of the glory days in the road forum.