Carbon wheel upgrade..worth it?

[w_b]

but is the upgrade price worth it? Do they roll better? Do they ride nicer? Do they last longer? I'm ~250mi in to a carbon frame, and I am f@ckin scared to lay it down. Those that know me know I am not Mr. Smoothie, so I'm fairly confident I would destroy carbon wheels in short order. That said, I think the spare wheels I'm eyeing will be aluminum.

 

[ChrisG]

One thing that needs to be brought up is lateral stiffness, which is most apparent when cornering. Given similar rim weights, carbon will show less lateral deflection.

My first experience with carbon wheels was replacing a set of 2nd gen Stan’s Arches with 1st gen Enves, on a bike with a rigid fork. The improvement in front end feel when cornering was remarkable.

A potential downside of this lack of flex is reduced ride comfort. The new Zipp Moto carbon rims (and others) apparently use latest-gen design to produce lateral stiffness while being more vertically compliant.

 

[rick81721]

Wait. They make rims that aren't carbon?


In the last six years, riding over 400 hours a year on carbon rims with a lot of chunk, I broke exactly one rim. That was a Nextie Jungle Fox that I cased on a curb while in a hurry and under inflated (user error.)

View attachment 125822

That's the new as of last June carbon rim on the back, coated with dry mud. The bike had more than 6,220 miles on it yesterday. The replacement was expensive, but I get to choose how to spend the money that I earn.

Great testimony here - I've had similar experience - no issues on mine over several years, and lots of riding in the sourlands. And the gock weighs twice as much as me! ?

 

[mtn]

Try before you buy! Some people don't like the extreme stiffness of carbon.

 

[Captain Brainstorm]

but is the upgrade price worth it? Do they roll better? Do they ride nicer? Do they last longer? I'm ~250mi in to a carbon frame, and I am f@ckin scared to lay it down. Those that know me know I am not Mr. Smoothie, so I'm fairly confident I would destroy carbon wheels in short order. That said, I think the spare wheels I'm eyeing will be aluminum.

Seeing what I've done to my carbon frame over the last 4 years, I'll be riding aluminum wheels for the foreseeable future, unless the next bike I buy comes with carbon wheels. And once I break those carbon wheels (which I will), I'll be going back to Flows. The cost/benefit of carbon wheels just isn't there yet for me, especially considering the delta in weight between carbon/aluminum isn't that big.

 

[thegock]

Great testimony here - I've had similar experience - no issues on mine over several years, and lots of riding in the sourlands. And the gock weighs twice as much as me! ?

What are you at today-148lbs?

 

[rick81721]

What are you at today-148lbs?

After a hot day ride where I sweat off a few lbs, yes

 

[thegock]

After a hot day ride where I sweat off a few lbs, yes

OK, we will call it 150lbs. Now I weighed 184 (again) today. So I am pushing 34+ lbs up all those hills, aight? That's like the weight of my LT FS 6phattie.

^ Picture never gets old.

What I am getting at here, (looking at you, guy who showed up 25 minutes late and immediately had to take a dump at Ringwood) is that I must be generating gigawatts, because I have beaten you up every hill, every time, eternity to date.

 

[carvegybe]

There is little doubt that carbon wheels make a difference for me because I had new PRs on the first ride after switching from aluminum to carbon wheels. But this relates to fast, flowy trails with lots of flat cornering between trees. I think the benefit has less to do with lower weight and more to do with stiffness.

That said, I heard a podcast (I think on Singletracks) where they tested stiffer and softer (24 spoke) rims on the same trail and it seemed that less rigid wheels produced faster runs.

Summary: I don't have any absolute recommendations. You have to figure out what works for you considering the type of riding you do. The problems is that to really test equipment you need to buy it and ride it many times, so sometimes a good purpose for purchasing equipment is to allow you to test it. This is where monetary considerations come in because carbon wheels are expensive.