Tour De France Blog

In the last several years carbon wheels have become increasing more popular in all types of cycle racing and are even been used in mountain bike downhill racing.

The prices of top end alloy wheels is increasing, with the Mavic Ksyrium up to 900 now – so many racing cyclists are seeing the price advantage of buying a pair of Carbon Wheels, as prices are coming down, with some wheelsets costing just 500.

The most popular type of rim for use with a carbon wheel is the tub rim – this is where you glue a tubeless tyre to the rim instead of the clincer type. There are huge benefits for using a tubular tyre – one being that they accept pressures of up to 220psi (100 psi is normal for a clincher) meaning less rolling resistance – great for time trial riders and criterium sprinters.

Clincher carbon wheels are generally heavier than tubular due to the extra carbon that is needed around the edge of the rim. This is to stop the clincher tyre pushing the rim apart. Of course this extra weight is going to make the wheels a bit slower in getting up to speed. All carbon clinchers have a maximum tyre pressure generally around 120psi.

Carbon rims need specific pads. Most wheel sets come with a set of pads and the quality seems to vary between screechy and useless in the wet, to others like Swiss stop that work nearly as good as pads braking on alloy rims especially for Road Bikes.

Some alloy pads are Ok to use with carbon wheels, however it is generally recommended to ditch them and invest in a good set – this cancels out any problems with braking in the rain.

You have a choice between 50mm and 80mm rim depths when choosing your wheels. 80mm are ok for use on the back of a bike, but in windy conditions if used on the front would cause the bike to be blown around – not what you want at high speed. 50mm is recommended for general use.

A deep section wheel is going to be at its most efficient with a cross/tailwind, basically it acts like a sail so in theory the deeper the better. However, once you turn and the wind is coming from the side, really deep section is going to make the front of the bike a bit difficult to control particular if you are small, although Mark Cavendish doesn’t seem to have a problem.

Bladed spokes are now commonplace as they offer huge aerodynamic advantages of the traditional round spokes found on older handbuilt wheelsets. Blades cut the wind offering even more advantages to the budding racer wanting to shave a few thousands off their time.

Cyclocross racers have been using top end carbon wheels for ages, as they simply cut through the mud with ease – hardly slowing the rider down. Old style spoked wheels with thin rims get sucked into mud and slow the rider. Tub tyres such as Dugast are popular with cyclo cross racers across the world.

Johnny Ratcliffe is a road racer based in the Leeds who specialises in Criterium road races. He has written for many cycling websites such as Road Bikes Reviewed.