Sur La Plaque: Café Roubaix Haleakala Climbing Wheels

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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/[email protected]/CR Haleakala/”/]

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113 Replies to “Sur La Plaque: Café Roubaix Haleakala Climbing Wheels”

  1. Get a bike that fits and you’ll drop 5 minutes off your time up the volcano. 
    It’s too small dude!

  2. @frank thank you for helping me justify my Reynolds Forty Six wheelset purchase.

  3. Either there are no labels on the drive side of those tires or the label is not lined up with the valve stem. Clarification is required in the spirit of Rule #40 and of course to satisfy us pedantics.

  4. @TBONE

    Rule #40 // Tires are to be mounted with the label centered over the valve stem.
    Pro mechanics do it because it makes it easier to find the valve. You do this because that’s the way pro mechanics do it. This will save you precious seconds while your fat ass sits on the roadside fumbling with your CO2 after a flat. It also looks better for photo opportunities. Note: This obviously only applies to clinchers as tubulars don’t give you a choice.

  5. @Zman

    Get a bike that fits and you’ll drop 5 minutes off your time up the volcano.
    It’s too small dude!

    You’re not the first person to suggest that; its not even the first time you’ve said that. But that doesn’t make any of you any less wrong.

  6. @frank

    @TBONE

    Rule #40 // Tires are to be mounted with the label centered over the valve stem.
    Pro mechanics do it because it makes it easier to find the valve. You do this because that’s the way pro mechanics do it. This will save you precious seconds while your fat ass sits on the roadside fumbling with your CO2 after a flat. It also looks better for photo opportunities. Note: This obviously only applies to clinchers as tubulars don’t give you a choice.

    Thanks, I’ve been placated. I couldn’t tell if the were clinchers or not. Carry on!

  7. @frank

    @TBONE

    Rule #40 // Tires are to be mounted with the label centered over the valve stem.
    Pro mechanics do it because it makes it easier to find the valve. You do this because that’s the way pro mechanics do it. This will save you precious seconds while your fat ass sits on the roadside fumbling with your CO2 after a flat. It also looks better for photo opportunities. Note: This obviously only applies to clinchers as tubulars don’t give you a choice.

    Surely a true follower would unstitch their tubulars and resew them with the valves in the correct position.

    Either that or boycott manufacturers so sloppy that they slap their labels on in random positions.

    BTW The new V-cogs and name badges look great, I hadn’t realised the orange came with a white v, or is that a bastardisation of two packs?

  8. @frank

    @Zman

    Get a bike that fits and you’ll drop 5 minutes off your time up the volcano.
    It’s too small dude!

    You’re not the first person to suggest that; its not even the first time you’ve said that. But that doesn’t make any of you any less wrong.

    Snap!

    @Frank, as always you are just too damn kind! Thanks for the kudos. And I love’d makin’ em. Pas un grimpeur? You looked lean to me when we met a few weeks back, but I am a trackie. Maybe if you lost 2kgs?

    Not to get everybody’s temperature too stupid, but a set recently shipped to another member and they came out to 975g and the rear wheel had 28 spokes. AND, in a few weeks, I should have one of my testers on a clincher version.

  9. @Chris

    BTW The new V-cogs and name badges look great, I hadn’t realised the orange came with a white v, or is that a bastardisation of two packs?

    Those are new symbol packs that haven’t been released yet. They do look sweet. We’re also doing a larger symbol pack that will look bitchin on cars or chain stays etc.

    Did you notice the sweet V-Lion symbol? 2013 KT Attendees only, thankyouverymuch.

  10. @Dan_R

    And I love’d makin’ em. Pas un grimpeur? You looked lean to me when we met a few weeks back, but I am a trackie. Maybe if you lost 2kgs?

    I love that you called me skinny and too fat to climb in one paragraph.

    For me to be a real grimpeur, I’d have to shrink-wrap myself. Like those little things you bake in the oven as a kid.

  11. @Chris

    @frank

    @TBONE

    Rule #40 // Tires are to be mounted with the label centered over the valve stem.
    Pro mechanics do it because it makes it easier to find the valve. You do this because that’s the way pro mechanics do it. This will save you precious seconds while your fat ass sits on the roadside fumbling with your CO2 after a flat. It also looks better for photo opportunities. Note: This obviously only applies to clinchers as tubulars don’t give you a choice.

    Surely a true follower would unstitch their tubulars and resew them with the valves in the correct position.

    Either that or boycott manufacturers so sloppy that they slap their labels on in random positions.

    Vittoria reliably put the stem opposite the label.  I think gluing them is enough work as it is.

  12. @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?

  13. @Chris

    @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?

    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.

  14. @Chris

    @frank

    Did you notice the sweet V-Lion symbol? 2013 KT Attendees only, thankyouverymuch.

    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

    Those are new symbol packs that haven’t been released yet. They do look sweet. We’re also doing a larger symbol pack that will look bitchin on cars or chain stays etc.

    When? Black cog, orange V? Please.

    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.

  15. @Nate

    @Chris

    @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?

    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.

    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.

  16. @frank

    @Dan_R

    And I love’d makin’ em. Pas un grimpeur? You looked lean to me when we met a few weeks back, but I am a trackie. Maybe if you lost 2kgs?

    I love that you called me skinny and Too Fat To Climb in one paragraph.

    For me to be a real grimpeur, I’d have to shrink-wrap myself. Like those little things you bake in the oven as a kid.

    Shrinky Dinks.  I don’t know why I felt compelled to share that.

  17. @all : I know lighter is better for climbing wheels, but what is the minimum weight to truly be considered climbing wheels?

  18. @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

  19. @graham d.m.

    @all : I know lighter is better for climbing wheels, but what is the minimum weight to truly be considered climbing wheels?

    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.

  20. @roger

    @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.

    Ture enough, but no tire rides like a FMB Roubaix. I have the Veloflex carbons on my Haleakalas (pictured) and they are supple and great, but they are like wooden slats compared to the Roubaixs. You get what you pay for. And apparently what you’re paying for is Francios flying back and forth to South America to suck the rubber out of the trees one mouthful at a time.

    @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

    Just a bit. I have it on all tires I glue and others seem to as well. If you’re riding a lower pressure (CX) it is irrelevant and I’ve not been bothered by it on my Roubaixs on the Ambrosios I built. BUT, on the Haleakalas, I feel it. They’re so fucking light, you can feel everything.

    That said, a tublar – especially a hand-made one – will always be less regular than a clincher. They have a life of their own and that’s part of the beauty. @mauibike drills out the first hole in the rim a tad to make room for the valve and that’s genius but I’m afraid I’d fuck it up. I’m trying the toe-strap next and then we’ll take it from there.

    I’m sure smarter people with more tubular experience have better things to add.

  21. Them is sexy I must say. Can one have too many wheels? Been eyeing Golden Tickets, but these are mighty tempting.

  22. @scaler911

    Them is sexy I must say. Can one have too many wheels? Been eyeing Golden Tickets, but these are mighty tempting.

    Are you a hardman or a weight weenie?  The answer might help you decide.

  23. My Haleakalas just left Grand Forks, ND about 2 hours ago, according to FedEx.  Ooooooo, I.Can.Not.Wait!!!  Thanks Dan_R!!!

  24. @frank That toestrap idea is a nice tip.  I’ll have to try that.

    @graham d.m. Climbing wheels — all relative but I’d say they begin in the 1300 gr range.

    @roger With all the shit on the roads in your neck of the woods I would’t dream of running Corsas, SC or otherwise.

    Next set of tubulars I glue up will probably be Veloflex Arenbergs.

  25. @Nate

    @Jeff in PetroMetro They have hills in Houston?

    Majestic parking garages.

    I’m using them for the Gran Fondo NY in May.  AND, I’m feeling a tad weight weenie-ish.  So I’m being a bit self-indulgent.

  26. Im not a climber, but I love climbing, if that makes sense.  The photos of the rims look very nice and, well, carbony!!      Whats a set of those clincher style weigh and hit the wallet for landed in Aus @Dan_R ?

  27. I touched my aluminum front clincher rim today after a steep descent, too hot to touch for more than a half second. What does that mean? Carbone wheels won’t work, clincher or tubs? And yet, jets use carbon fiber disc brakes. Maybe heat is not a massive issue, it surely must not conduct away so well.

    @Dan_R or anyone else, thoughts?

  28. @frank

    You get what you pay for. And apparently what you’re paying for is Francios flying back and forth to South America to suck the rubber out of the trees one mouthful at a time.

    Massive chuckle here over that one as I suck down barley wine one mouthful at a time.

  29. @Gianni Aluminum dissipates the heat more quickly.  Carbon lets it build up somehow, melting pads, carbon, resin, your tires.

  30. Newer Contis have labels on both sides, so it’s a bit harder to glue them on backwards.

    @frank  How about some two colour symbol packs in Black & White? I have an orange frame that needs some decals but the orange cog would disappear.

  31. @frank

    Something terrible has happened to me – no longer, it seems, am I the facetious immature joker, who always sees the stupid in anything clever, and sits in the midle of the cafe slagging everyone off about the state of their nipples, but I appear to have started boring people about the technical aspects of cycling – is this incurable, as I am now sitting at the edge of the room talking secretively to old people?

    I feel that despite coming second in the TdF last year with my ridiculous suggestion of a Wiggo Froomie 1-2, and I must complement the De Feet kit – they are the Cyclcist’s Ideal (sorry, Cat’s Cahunas, see what I mean) – I really know fuck all about cycling

    However, I am now building my own wheels, (dura ace 7900 hubs no less) and spent about three hours researching the matter online the other day, as part of my post -ride recovery process

    I notice your wheels have only ? 22 spokes at front and ?22 on back? what effect does this have on stiffness? Did you intentionally select so few spokes (I appear to have gravitated to the 36/32 3x camp, don’t reinvent the wheel Evangelista)? Or is it bin all the weight you possibly can without the rim collapsing?

    On a more interesting note, I am now excremetially depressed by the re-discovery that gravity is of course acceleration, which I had forgotten about. It does explain how when one  drops speed on a climb, the initial fade is increasingly rapidly (double adverb = exponential) succeeded by a reversion to stop speed, and this is a factor of weight, if my senility allows me to understand – therefore, we’re all fucked

  32. @frank

    @Nate

    @Chris

    @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?

    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.

    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.

    What’s a toe clip strap?

  33. @Dr C Jesus, you’ll be elected official club time keeper or record keeper if you carry on like that? Are you growing a beard as well.

    There’s only one solution: up the doses on your self medication, tell your colleagues you’re off to an important conference in Lille at the end of march or there abouts and come and rattle the fuck out of your brain until normal function is resumed.

  34. @monkeyman

    @frank

    @Nate

    @Chris

    @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?

    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.

    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.

    What’s a toe clip strap?

  35. Having just passed my Mechanics finals, I’m cringing in pain reading the words being thrown around here.

    Gravity is a force. It’s not an acceleration. As forces tend to do, if applied, acceleration will be the result.

    Secondly, when one is riding steady-state – be it flat time-trialling or steady-state climbing (which is what is described in the article) – there’s no change in velocity, ergo no tangential acceleration occurring  In that case, assuming equal total system weight, it doesn’t matter if you have 2kg training wheels or 900g lightweights as both have the same total amount of force acting on the system, which is what matters. Feel will be different, but not overall performance for this type of riding.

    A lighter wheel helps in: A) Reducing overall weight, which is always good, and B) Reducing unsprung rotating mass, which is very nice if you’re cornering or accelerating.

    Thirdly, as Velocity = Radial Velocity X Radius, unless your hubs are gargantuan, the rim spins far faster than twice the velocity of a spinning hub. But raw velocity has to do with aerodynamics more than acceleration. Even more important is the moment of inertia, which is linearly proportional to mass yet proportional to the square of the radius – which is, again, why the rim weight is important when turning and accelerating.

    Unless one is playing with Contador-esque changes of rhythm, there’s no real advantage to the rim specifically being lighter. If I could only remove 400g from my bike, yes, I’d do it at the rim, but given the choice between a 7kg bike with ultralight tubulars or a 6.8kg bike with regular, maybe even aero-profile rims (weight-savings done elsewhere), I know which one I’m choosing for a time-trial up the Alps.

    Last, all of the above is to be ignored – that is one sexy wheel.

  36. “To summarize, friction and gravity are assholes.” Wonderful! I’m going to start summarizing each class I teach with such a simple summary.

    Never loved the look of Tall Carbone wheels, but darn, low profile Carbones look beautiful. Really darn nice & I look forward to picking up a pair when the Budgetatus gets closer to fVVl.

  37. When a Velominatus has a bunch of bike work to do, from some small refinements on a few bikes to something like regluing the whole set of tubular wheels, do they spread it out over the course of a few evenings or…take a weekend riding day off?

    The VMH might not be so happy with a string of evenings and no face time, but the alternative is not pleasant either.

  38. Those are some pretty sexy wheels Fronk (Dan).  I’ve really had a carbone for murdered out wheels lately.  Black rims, hubs, spokes, nipples, sidewalls, etc.

  39. @tessar

    1. Whilst reaching your finals (lots of study to be a mechanic?) it appears you may still be in need of more punching up at school.

    2. Show me a 4 hour climb that is all “steady state” climbing and I will show you the Easter bunny. Even with a perfect & mythical constant gradient, there will be changes in pace and accelerations due to rider fatigue. So yes at those moments a lower moment of inertia in a lighter rim will be an advantage, however small.

    3. If that wasn’t the case then with a 6.8kg weight limit why wouldn’t riders always opt for the most aero rims to use that advantage on descents?

  40. @Gianni my diagnosis is that you were grabbing your brakes harder than Andy and Frank grab each other when they are brother- wrestling – which is wrong

  41. @Jeff in PetroMetro

    My Haleakalas just left Grand Forks, ND about 2 hours ago, according to FedEx. Ooooooo, I.Can.Not.Wait!!! Thanks Dan_R!!!

    Too cool!

    But Grand Forks, ND???  What’s in Grand Forks?  I know that when my VMH was in the Air Force and stationed there, there was not much of anything there!  At least East Grand Forks across the river had the Blue Moose restaurant.

  42. @frank All of my tubs have that bulge as well.  Let me know if the toe strap thing works.  Sounds a bit questionable to me but I would try it if it works!

    @Nate

    @Chris

    @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?

    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.

     

    Oh yeah, I’ve done this.  Such a pisser to finish gluing and then realize that the tread direction and arrows on the sidewalls are pointing in the wrong direction!

  43. @Marcus

    1. Biology-Physics double major – averaging 8 lecture-hours a day. I do my reading on the turbo.

    2. Obviously, no climb is steady-state – but most of us are not quite Contador either. I never doubted a light rim is better than a heavier rim, but at the same time, it’s not the defining metric of a wheel, either. All other things being equal, a lighter rim is an improvement, but consider that the extra weight we just accelerated carries with it more momentum which, in turn, slows down the rate of deceleration. A lighter rim will slow down quicker, too, when that rider fatigue breaks the pace. The point is that the defining force we’re fighting against is total weight – rider, bike, rim, everything. Every other effect basically self-cancels to a degree (again, never perfectly).

    3. You’d be surprised how many pro bikes still hover around 7kg. Quite a few sites do profile pieces on the bikes, and only few are bang on the limit. A lot of them ride aluminium components, SRMs, somewhat-padded saddles. It adds up to weight that, in the mountains, you can shave at the wheel. Also, the pros do attack and change rhythm in the mountains explosively. They also tend to do that on the flats. Lately, quite a few pro teams rode higher-profile wheels in the mountains, too. Campag’s Bora is not shallow…

  44. @Nate@Gianni

    Wait, are you guys talking about using your brakes? I thought they were just there to meet regulations.

    @pistard

    @frank How about some two colour symbol packs in Black & White? I have an orange frame that needs some decals but the orange cog would disappear.

    You’ll have to stick with one color packs, then – our logo is designed to either be one color or with an orange cog. The Cog may not be any other color in a mult-color scenario. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

  45. @Dr C

    However, I am now building my own wheels, (dura ace 7900 hubs no less) and spent about three hours researching the matter online the other day, as part of my post -ride recovery process

    I notice your wheels have only ? 22 spokes at front and ?22 on back? what effect does this have on stiffness? Did you intentionally select so few spokes (I appear to have gravitated to the 36/32 3x camp, don’t reinvent the wheel Evangelista)? Or is it bin all the weight you possibly can without the rim collapsing?

    Have you sourced the materials yet for your wheels? If not, the moment you do is the moment you’ll realize that the spokes are by far the heaviest part of your wheels. The most effective way to drop wheel weight is to reduce the number of spokes. I remember hedging our bets on how stiff the wheel would be with fewer spokes; I’d have to double check what we wound up with, but 22 sounds right. The wheels are laced up very tight, but they are plenty stiff.

    My favorite wheels by far at this point.

    @Chris

    @Dr C Jesus, you’ll be elected official club time keeper or record keeper if you carry on like that? Are you growing a beard as well.

    There’s only one solution: up the doses on your self medication, tell your colleagues you’re off to an important conference in Lille at the end of march or there abouts and come and rattle the fuck out of your brain until normal function is resumed.

    A PLUS FUCKING ONE.

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