Its hard to say precisely where the line lays, but I’m certain I’m well on the wrong side of it. I never notice lines as I pass over them but I can usually tell after I have because it feels suddenly liberating to leave reason, sensibility, and convention behind. I find them very restrictive – claustrophobic, almost. They force me into the same old way of thinking, always within a set of parameters of what is accepted. Parameters are a good thing, to be sure – especially for everyone else – but since I wasn’t involved in defining The Universal Limits of Reason and Sensibility, I can’t be sure they’re calibrated correctly so I prefer to roam freely and am quite satisfied to be considered crazy for the time being.
Just like most of us, I started down La Vie Velominatus rolling along on the wheels my first bike arrived with. I trusted them to be indestructible and always carry me about safely. Then one day while racing my friend, I locked up the back wheel coming into a corner too hard and destroyed it, the illusion of The Indestructible Wheel riding up the road alongside the friend I had only moments earlier been locked in shoulder-to-shoulder battle with. It was also at this precise moment that I faced the reality that a wheel is not only destructible, but a basic element facilitating productive locomotion aboard a bicycle.
I spent the next month shingling the roof of my family’s cabin in Northern Minnesota earning the money to buy a replacement wheel. And, having recently shingled a roof, I was suddenly a Shingling Authority, discussing in depth the merits of choice in color, material, and shingle pattern of every roof I passed by. Similarly, upon having been subjected to the myriad choices of replacement wheel, after purchasing my replacement wheel, I was a new inductee into the The Order of the Wheel and noticed (and commented upon) every bicycle wheel that passed me by. Due more to the volume of by observations than their merit, I was soon thereafter indulged by my Cycling Sensei – my father – to help him curate the wheels for his custom Eddy Merckx.
At the time, choices were more limited than they are today; quality of hub varied greatly, as did the rims, spokes, and tires. Everything was limited to an alloy of some kind, though you could have any spoke pattern you wanted, as long as it was 3-cross. At the time there was also a choice between tubular and clincher, which was a relatively new option. We labored over the choices and wound up having two wheelsets built – one clincher and aero; one box-section and tubular – a choice I stand by today.
That was my awakening, but nevertheless, I have throughout my life as a Velominatus had only one wheelset per bike. The lightest for Bike #1. Whenever Bike #n came into play, it received its own wheelset; as with all the other parts on Bikes #2…n; a hand-me-down from Bike #n-1’s upgrade. (Using the Hand-Me-Down Upgrade Methodology, a single upgrade improves not just one bicycle, but several – with the added benefit of filling a longer period of time moving bits from one noble steed to the next.)
It was only recently, during preparation for the 2012 edition of Keepers Tour over the cobbles of Northern France and Vlaanderen, that I took my own place in the realm of the Specialty Wheelset – which also afforded me another of those moments when I was strangely aware of having crossed one of Those Lines. After all, a big, fat Dutchman can’t be expected to ride over the pavé of Paris-Roubaix – unleashing the awesome wattage of his artillery – on just any old wheelset; certainly not any of those wheels which I already owned. This called for a set of wheels purpose-built for the occasion. Rims, hubs, spokes, and tires were selected with great care and assembled (four times) in a wine-enhanced rite.
Riding these wheels is a pleasure highlighted by the fact that I don’t always ride them. They hang on the workshop wall in a wheel bag, waiting for the Right Occasion to ride them. Those occasions are often anticipated several days – if not weeks – in advance and deliberated over carefully. Then, when the choice is finally made to pop them in for the ride, I wrap myself in the delta between my regular wheels and these. This contrast, like the negative space in a great painting, is the area in which I dwell while riding them. The difference in tire type, width, spoke pattern, weight. The way the wheel feels when the pedal is engaged. The way the wheels and tires flex over a bump in the road or hug the pavement in a corner.
I’ve since embarked on a journey to get each road bike in the house – mine as well as the VMH’s – on the same drive train in order to be able to maximize the wheel-swapping effect. Each wheel is a new language, each tire a new dialect, and inner tube a new turn of phrase. To paraphrase the nursery rhyme: one for sorrow, two for joy, three for hills and four for stones.
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@Oli
@brett
What defines a race wheel? Nothing, other than that it performs better than whatever other wheels you've got. To that end, I've never understood the logic that race wheels are for racing only. If you're racing, there is certainly logic to having a lighter, stiffer, faster wheelset so you feel like you're doping when you switch from your anchors to your race wheels. But for the non-racer, the issue is moot and I see no sensibility in not getting a particular set of wheels just because they are classified as "race wheels". Ride whatever looks great and makes you get out there.
That said, I don't think anyone should ever expect to be waited on for fixing a flat. Sure, the group can choose to, but that's their call, not yours. Know how to fix your shit, and do it quick enough to get back on the group or be prepared to ride the rest of the day alone.
Someone who knows their way around a tub should be able to fix it as quickly as a clincher, assuming they carried a spare and they aren't using a sewing kit to open the sucker up at the road side to patch the flat!
@Skinnyphat
Cool! I just pulled trigger on a pair for a total of just under a grand. Over 50% off through tonight at Nashbar.com. They come with the correct brake pads as well. I am going to run them daily (except for rain--I hear that carbon rims are not as good in the rain?) and race with them as well. So hilly here I will get my money's worth out of them daily! Thanks everyone for making this an easy decision. Convincing the VMH was not quite so easy but I just blamed it all on Frank so it worked out perfectly.
@frank A race wheel is any wheel that you are willing to race. Some wheels are more willing than others -- to race.
@all: anyone have experience with some of the less costly rims like kinlin or velocity? Are they worth building with?
I've got a set of velocity rims, they're nothing special. Pretty much do what they say on the label, only thing is that the braking on them is pretty ordinary.
@minion I see. I figured (using prowheelbuilder.com) I could build a set of 1500 gram wheels for around $300 if I used kinlin rims and velocity hubs...I wasn't sure if wheels that are relatively light and very cheap may blow up on me or if it was a situation where you were getting good cost because you aren't buying a name.
@frank I think the point of the race wheel thing lies in ride up grades, not buy upgrades. My understanding of what's in the water in NZ is race al wheels in club races, when you get to A grade and above buy carbon wheels then. The implication with the bunches I rode with was that if you weren't fast enough it was pointless and expensive. This was before carbon clinchers became so fashionable, and its a preconception that dates me, but when I roll up to races here and see cat 3 riders on 404 firecrests and s works sl bikes, I go race in cat 2.
@Buck Rogers NIce find! I like that you're going to ride them daily. As Frank said above and I completely agree, ride what makes you happy! I feel like if you get some awesome wheels like that, you may as well enjoy the crap out of them.
Not at all, but I'm not sure about their hubs. I really like shimano/campy hubs, largely for the wider flanges, and reliability. Also they tend to not take the short cuts that other brands do to get the weight down.
I did use Hope hubs to get some 28 hole hubs and am pretty happy with them as well, but chasing a weight figure is getting on a road to nowhere. You'll build them and forget about the weight after your first ride, and if you are sensible with your choices you won't really blow out the weight unless you really try (ie. velocity deep Vs and superheavy hubs with triple butted spokes).
I think you can get prowheelbuilder to make up ultegra hubs and open pros for about the same money, they'll be in the same ball park.