Plainsman

I’ve been lamenting that I can’t find deep section carbon wheels for my 10 year old Scott CR1 because the chainstay clearance is so tight. 25mm seems to be cutting it close (as the tire tends to get wider as well). Anyway, scrolling around the other day I saw some type of deal for a 55mm deep, 23mm wide set of Superteam carbon wheels with alloy brake tracks so I pulled the trigger and ordered. They are supposed to weigh 1760g, +/- 30g. That’s still lighter than a HED Jet RC5. My question: I now see a full CF option with a basalt brake track that is the same 23mm profile I need. The claimed weight is more like 1565g +/- 20g. I’m debating keeping the alloy brake track version for better wet weather braking performance, versus swapping out for the the lighter all carbon wheel. The rim profile is identical, so what we are really talking about is a 200g swing in weight (Would cost me an extra few bucks, but nothing crazy). Opinions on the alloy vs carbon brake track?

tFUnK

For me the whole point of going carbon is to go light, and 1700g isn't a light wheel in my opinion. I don't really notice a big difference between in braking performance between carbon and alloy rims on flats and shallow descents. I guess I feel more confident descending with alloy wheels but honestly I have a tough time slowing down on steep descents using rim brakes regardless of rim type. I also try not to ride in wet weather.

Plainsman

Fair points. I don’t really consider anything over 1500 or so particularly light either. I was thinking of using these for time trials and events that are mostly flat to rolling. I too try to avoid rain when possible. Although in an event which is rain or shine, sometimes you get caught and can’t help it. Real question I guess is, how much does aero trump weight? Back when I did a lot of triathlons, my Cervelo P2 wasn’t light, but neither were the HED 3 clinchers I was rolling. I’m looking to carbon primarily to get a deeper wheel section than pure alloy. Just wondering in the grand scheme of things if that extra 150-200g of rolling weight between my two options really makes a difference.

Sy Reene

Have fun diving into this somewhat recent thread:
https://www.bikeforums.net/general-c...t-vs-aero.html

Plainsman

Cool, thanks!

tFUnK

That discussion focused on the trade-off between light+shallow vs. heavy+deep (all relative of course).

Here we are talking about at the same depth, the trade-off between weight vs. brake surface. On one hand the lighter wheel of the same depth should always be easier than the heavier one to spin up (even if endpoints like total average power or segment time show very little to no differences). On the other hand the alloy brake surface should always provide a superior braking performance over carbon braking surface (does BF agree with this in principle?), even if real-world differences might be insignificant.

On flat TT rides, the weight won't be much of a factor but neither will the brake surface under dry conditions. On hilly rides the weight might matter a bit more but then so does braking.

This is all philosophical and maybe not helpful. All I can say is I can tell the difference between a 1700g wheelset and a 1500g wheelset in my own riding experience (nothing competitive). But I've also had tough times descending steep stuff on carbon rims; alloy doesn't necessarily slow me down better, but I'm not fearful about delaminating my wheels at least.

Plainsman

I truly appreciate the thoughtful responses. I am contemplating racing on these, but never a mountainous event. Quick and reliable braking power in a group, and especially if the roads get wet, is a must. I’m probably overthinking things far too much and should probably just move forward with the experiment. I’ve weighed the wheels and with the factory heavy rim tape they are 1855. That’s about 100g per wheel heavier than the carbon brake track counterpart. Guessing that once these get up to speed, the impact of that small bit of rotational weight, especially when I will never be starting from a dead stop, will not be discernible. Likewise that the confidence of more assured braking may be worth the slight weight penalty now.

bampilot06

I run carbon brake surface superteams on one of my race bikes. Not by choice per se. I needed wheels fast and the alloy braking surface super teams were not available.

My coach is pretty against carbon wheels with carbon braking surface. He had a really bad accident racing several years back where the wheels failed because of this. He wasn’t using cheap china wheels either. The front wheel failed while he was braking and completely blew apart, asploded. He ended up in the hospital.

Point of the story, if alloy braking surface is available, I would get that.

ussprinceton

1480g for these SuperTeams

chaadster

I think that availability of quality resin compounds for carbon fiber wheels has gotten a lot better than when some of these fearswere laid down, and consequently rim braking is even less of a concern.

In the end, my experience as a Clyde rider is that you can have good wet braking with CF “rimmers,” but it depends on the wheel and pad combo as much as it does when looking at aluminum.