I’m not going to lie to you, friction is an asshole. In the bottom bracket, in the bending of every single link in your chain as it rolls over the cogs and threads its way through the rear derailleur, and in the pulleys themselves, the devils. I cleaned out my rain bike last weekend after a few rides where I was forced to neglect my usual daily maintenance routine and they puked up chunks of grit before they started moving lightly again. Every turn of the pedals, each of those points of friction adds up and take away from your Maximum V Potential at any given moment.
While this next point is true for Cycling in general, it is true for climbing in particular: the trick to riding well is to keep turning the pedals at your current rhythm. Failing that, you just wind up being less awesome than you were a moment earlier. Speed is like time; you can never get it back (it might also be money, but the math is hard to sort out.) You worked hard to get going as fast as you were, and slowing down just means you lose all that effort. What’s worse, if you want to get going that fast again, you have to do all that same work all over again, and even then, you’re just back to where you were, except a little lighter on the V Potential.
Friction may well be an asshole, but its not as big an asshole as gravity. The acceleration of gravity is 9.8 meters per second squared, which means that climbing at a sustained speed is basically like accelerating constantly; in order to climb at that rate, you’re accelerating enough to neutralize the pull from gravity which is trying its best to drag you back down the hill. Not to mention that you’re working against all that friction in your drivetrain.
To summarize, friction and gravity are assholes.
With these two points in mind, earlier this year I had Café Roubaix build me some lightweight climbing wheels. I didn’t really know what climbing wheels are good for, but I wanted to try some and I was thinking that any weight advantage I could find would be a good thing with respect to the winter months and the associated packing on of the wrong kind of weight in the engine room. 970 grams, you say? That sounds good – I’ll have them, thanks.
The first surprise was the box they arrived in, which I was certain must have been empty. Mounting them with tires and a cassette, I got used to how they felt in my hands. Funny how weight works; you grow accustomed to it. When I went to place them in the bike I first removed my rear Zipp 404 from the frame, which in comparison felt like an anchor.
They looked the business installed, but photos do a better job describing that. On to the riding. The first pedal stoke felt good; responsive and light. But nothing crazy, once I got going a bit. There was some more snap, for sure, but it wasn’t like I’d just had a blood transfusion on the second rest day of the Tour or anything like that. But on the hills the world turns on its head as the acceleration of gravity rejoins the conversation. The steeper the gradient, the more the wheels shine; simply put, they just keep spinning. Should you encounter a change in pitch for the worse, apply a touch of V and they spin up like a washing machine.
They almost converted me into a grimpeur. Almost. And, they help answer how the Pros move Sur La Plaque up giant mountains, absorbing changes in pitch like they’re nothing and accelerating away on the steepest sections. I am given to understand that talent and training play a part, but their climbing wheels don’t hurt either. The right tools make all the difference.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/CR Haleakala/”/]
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@frank
Gulp. A little bit of wee happed.
Can you put me down for about a hundred of those or however many I'll need to cover the surface of everything I own.
@frank
When? Black cog, orange V? Please.
@Chris
Vittoria reliably put the stem opposite the label. I think gluing them is enough work as it is.
@Nate Agreed, it's bad enough realising you've ended up with the label on the non-drive side.
Is it common practice to pull your tubs off every now and then and re-glue them?
@Chris
I have glued them up the wrong side. This especially sucks on the rear, and is likely to happen in direct proportion to the amount of ale consumed to counteract glue fumes. One can generally flipflop the front wheel, but it does look a bit suspect if on one wheel "AMBROSIO" is rightsideup and on the other upsidedown.
I wouldn't pull off and reglue unless it looked like there were problems with the bond in the first place. Of course, running Corsas, I tend to get a puncture before I have to worry about the glue aging.
@Chris
You'll have to tell me how much stuff you own, and give me a 3-D model so I can map the surfaces and get back to you on a quantity.
The quality of the modeling will decrease linearly with how many brewskies I've consumed, obviously.
As for the new two-colored symbol packs, I'll try to get them up this weekend. They will come in black or white, with orange cogs. In a word, BITCHIN.
@Nate
I'm about to take mine off the Haleakalas and re-glue them. I always get a bulge at the valve stem and the guy who runs Cascade Bicycle Studio suggested that I cinch a toe-clip strap over the valve stem area when they are drying as a way to counter that.
I will report on the success of that when I try it. If it works. I'm re-gluing all my tubs. Which right now is just one other set, come to think of it.
@frank
Shrinky Dinks. I don't know why I felt compelled to share that.
@all : I know lighter is better for climbing wheels, but what is the minimum weight to truly be considered climbing wheels?
@Nate the gumwall corsa sc is insanely soft. I fear looking at it with a smirk would surely cut it open. i have them stretching but its unlikely ill glue them up. I took a look at fmb p-r pros and they are $165 a pop. Needless to say i skipped right over them and ordered a set of veloflex carbons and roubaixs for nearly the same price.
@frank how much of a bulge is there? I cant for the life of me seem to glue a set on and not have some sort of irregularity at the valve. I've come to accept it as it is and try to lessen it as much as possible, but given the extra material there, and that the valve hole area is not recessed, there is always going to be a little lump present. Waiting for oli or tubularetommy to stfu and learn how to properly mount a tub
@graham d.m.
Lighter than what you got.
See also: weight weenies.
Seriously, though, what you're after is a wheel that spins up well which normally equates to light rims. The rims are spinning about twice as fast as the hubs, so keep that in mind. My Zipp 404's are clinchers with alu rims and I now understand why people complain that they don't accelerate well. Even my Café Roubaix CX wheels with a 3x spoke pattern and CX tires feel more sprightly when accelerating than those.
Overall weight is not that critical, I'd say, though it helps (you're still carrying the weight uphill). But a light rim and heavy hub is not nearly as big a deal because the hub is spinning half as fast as the rim. I'd take carbon tubulars laced to lead hubs over lead rims laced to carbon hubs, lets put it that way.
And to actually answer your question, I think a climbing wheel is typically just the lightest wheel you own.